End Tackle According To... Lewis Read

The game-changing rig moment which altered everything for me was when I first saw the Hair Rig. It was the late ’80s and angling friend Dean Tommasi had just come back from Yateley’s infamous Match Lake. He showed me boilies and the Hair Rig, and Christ above! They both seemed utterly alien and it took me probably at least a couple of years to integrate anything like it into my own angling.

The next real leap would have occurred years later when we started modifying eyes on the hooks we were using on Diana Pond. We were tweaking them by bending them in a few degrees, and we found this beneficial in terms of the fish hooked-to-landed ratio.

Then there was the line-aligner, which helped to solidify in my mind just how microscopic changes to the exit angle of hooklinks made such a big difference with how a rig reacts. That in itself inevitably led to a far wider appreciation of the importance of all the little details—those small percentages really do add up. 

Since then, the biggest leaps for me would be in respect of the D-Rig, various Ronnie and Spinner Rigs, Hinged Stiff and Chod set-ups—and a plurality of derivatives—all of which offer some significant advantages in terms of presentation, secure hook-holds and outright reliability, but that was a long, long time ago now.   

The last rig-related items I bought and loved were some of Jason Hayward’s oil sticks, which he sourced and tested for reducing corrosion on sharpened hook points. Then again, I bought them about 18 months ago and gave one away—I may use the other from the pair one day. Admittedly, I have a very different retail experience to most angling consumers. Being involved in product development, I mainly use stuff from Thinking Anglers, or when it’s dark and I’m all alone, items I developed elsewhere. Between them, they cover all the terminal and rig-related needs I am ever likely to hanker after. Anymore would be greedy and ‘stoopid’—shame ‘stoopidity’ isn’t a mortal sin, like greed!

On my wish list for a future end-tackle item is a fully branded spool of Tint Link: a sublime hooklink and boom fluorocarbon I have been testing for at least the last year. I can’t wait for the finished product to be there, resplendent in its nice new label and looking fresh!

Who influences me when it comes to rigs? Almost everyone I meet. No really! 

I try to listen to different takes, ideas and concepts, especially if the angler concerned is catching loads more than I am, or in circumstances where I can’t see that the difference is purely down to skill level, outrageous good fortune or the fishes’ bait preference on that particular venue.

Being surrounded by first class anglers certainly moulds a particular way of thinking when it comes to presentation. Meticulous is probably a good word for describing the aptitude, but these great anglers do not rely on their rigs to catch the carp. Largely, they have rigs they know will work and rely on their innate angling skill, determination and guile, whilst making sure that they put the rig and bait in the right place at the right time. 

The scope of this is also influenced by the type of lake I am on. ‘Welly’ was fantastic for experimenting as it was relatively prolific, and had a hugely friendly and social syndicate that often pooled their ideas, whereas sitting on my own tucked away in some quiet corner on Burghfield, you simply don’t have that same dissemination and cross-fertilization of ideas. Circumstances play a major role in developing ideas.

I have an excessive collection of… naff all. (I have more sense than money.) Having said that, I did have quite an excess of several of my favourite hook patterns as a consequence of changing employer in 2020. Most of these were given away, mainly because I would rather use my current employer’s hooks (which are really very nice) for 99.9 per cent of my angling. 

Where are we regarding rig innovation at the moment? We’re always on the cusp of another fundamental leap forward. In fact, it would be profoundly foolish to think that someone hasn’t already found an edge that makes a significant difference to their catches. For example, my mate Adam’s rig is mega! He wrote about it in one of the last issues of Carpworld. It’s an absolute cracker, but most people think it’s just the same as a Hermit Rig—or any other elasticised rig—and discount it. [deep sigh]

Then there’s that one I will refer to merely as ‘the Swerve’, which seems to react a tiny bit faster than other similar rigs, and which certainly offers a benefit to the small band of brothers who continue to keep the fine detail a closely guarded secret—all very cloak and dagger. It’s great! 

(The last couple of sentences seem to indicate that we’re in a stage of refinement and improvement, rather than outright invention…)

One small tweak I made to a rig which had a massive outcome was using a D-mounted rig ring to tie the pop-up onto the hook section on a Hinged Stiff Rig. When we came up with that combination, it was pretty pivotal in terms of getting the mechanics to work right on that presentation, D-Rigs, Chod Rigs and other similarly formed loops. The principle of holding the hookbait in position a couple of millimetres perpendicular to, and off the back of the hook shank was perfect then, and it remains so now. Nothing else I can think of comes close, really.

Hand-sharpened hooks are bloody convenient when you do a lot of work nights! I think the majority perceive them as an enormous edge on the right water, and positioned in or on the ‘correct’ sediment—and that is indisputably true—but when I arrive at the lake and spend time forlornly wandering around, checking inviting corners, under bushes, in and around  weedbeds and snags… and when finally, 10 minutes before dusk, I find a couple of carp loitering with intent, the very last thing I want to do is fanny around tying a whole new rig, unless I absolutely and positively have to. 

If I can, I will normally whack a fresh hookbait on a tried-and-tested rig and repeatedly sharpened hook and get it in position as soon as possible—normally with no time to spare as the light is going—oh, the deep deep joy of ‘fairly limited time’! 

My preferred hooklink length is wholly dependent upon the hookbait and lead arrangement, the nature of the lakebed, the bait type and its concentration or spread. With a mono or fluorocarbon hooklink, I personally prefer to use 6- to 8-inches as a starting point, used in conjunction with a heli-lead arrangement. With a lead clip and softer hooklink material (Tungskin or Camsoft), they will inevitably be a fair bit longer, realistically starting at 8- to 10-inches and going up to 16- to 18-inches if I’m presenting low pop-ups over light weed—that should be more than enough, as the actress said to the bishop! [yawn]

When it comes to hooklinks, I favour specialist materials for specific rig roles:

—25lb Tint Link Fluorocarbon for D-Rigs and booms. 

—30lb Recoil for Chod Rigs and Hinge hook sections. 

--—Camstiff for skinned hooklinks.

—Duo-Fleck for bag rigs and Mag-Aligners. 

—ZFX or Double Strength for Zigs.

…at the moment.

When it comes to mounting my hookbait, I like to sing ‘God Save the Queen’ proudly at the top of my voice, especially whilst looping high-wax dental floss around a perfectly spherical, corkball pop-up. What? I take it the answer you’re looking for is more along the lines of ‘use a bait screw’, or something similarly dry and unenthralling. Please allow me to elucidate on my initial mildly sarky response. Being aged (and also a one-trick pony), I tend to use a bit of dental floss pulled through the bait. This is then tied as many times as I can be bothered and blobbed with a lighter. If I’m using plastic because of pesky, bait-stealing freshwater lobsters, expect bird plucks or anticipate the hookbait being ragged by silvers, then I’ll even include a boilie stop—oh, how very ostentatious! 

When it comes to hookbait choice, I opt for match-the-hatch pop-ups or wafters if I am boilie-fishing. Don’t get me wrong, on many occasions I’ll stick a balanced-nut hookbait on, and nowadays I really don’t even mind if it’s real or plastic! In fact, with everywhere apparently having significant populations of signal crays, I seem to be using them more and more. Whilst I used to struggle to get my head round it—and still would if I were using singles—I am more than happy to use plastic almost all the time whilst fishing over bait; at least that way there’s a hookbait there at bite time.

I see end-tackle products becoming polarised, possibly, between loads of copying samey resellers, and those companies or brands that invest and develop new and existing ideas. Smaller, stronger, sharper, lighter, duller, more natural… who knows?

(Realistically, blind speculation on the future of a small tackle item is akin to some benign mystical voodoo witchcraft crap! I genuinely hope that we see some staggering development which kick-starts another renaissance in tackle. Wouldn’t it be incredibly dull if it’s all the same in 10 years’ time…)