How to tie the Clone Rig

Classic ‘D’ bottom bait rigs have been around a LONG time – for the simple reason that they work! It’s a presentation that offers amazing consistency by way of how the rig lays out after the lead when it reaches the lakebed, and then settles down nicely.

It’s a fantastic alternative to the Hinged Stiff, Chods and other pop-up presentations and where you require the hookbait to be on the lakebed, making it less conspicuous, and ensuring that the hookbait is at the optimal level for fish browsing with their lips, barely lifting from the lakebed. This, typically, can be when the fish are feeding over particles, ‘chops’ or concentrated beds of bait, rather than a scattering of boilies.

Think about the way carp feed in this scenario, using their extendable top lip to carefully manipulate the bait under their over-slung mouth, when they carefully suck up the freebies, sifting out bottom debris and anything that feels unnatural; it’s not hard to work out why this rig functions so effectively, especially with a balanced hookbait that sits directly over the top of the hook.
The hook and hookbait are close to one another and as the fish sucks in the bait, it invariably goes in with the hook and hook point in prime position and with the perfect orientation to drop round and take hold thanks to the semi stiff mono/fluorocarbon hooklinks used, and gravity.

A desired buoyancy and balanced hookbait make it ‘waft’. This can be achieved in a number of ways, from making your own with small cork balls, drilling and plugging the bait with Zig foam or cork sticks or using a snowman set-up that incorporates either a small pop-up or a grain of plastic Enterprise sweetcorn.

D-rigs can be tied with either fluorocarbon or copolymer monofilaments, using a straight pointed hook - preferably a pattern with a straight, or slightly out-turned eye so that the hook sits at an aggressive angle (without closing down the gape). Covert Dark Incizors, Chod hooks and the new Rigga BCR patterns are absolutely perfect. If you think of emulating the way you set up a Hinged Stiff or Chod Rig end section you’re effectively creating a similar mechanism and you can be certain that the rig mechanics and hook-holds will be spot-on.

1. Our preferred hooklink materials when tying the Clone Rig are Mirage and Invisi-Link.

2. Take around 12- to 14-inches of Invisi-Link.

3. Tie a Knotless Knot; about nine turns is about right.

4. Thread on a Covert Flexi Hook Swivel.

5. Create a ‘D’ by looping the Hair with the Covert Flexi Hook Swivel back through the eye of the hook.

6. Trim the tag end back.

7. Use a lighter to carefully burn back the tag to create a blob of melted hooklink.

8. We recommend a well-tied Figure-Of-Eight-Loop knot for quick attachment to swivels and clips.

9. And here’s the finished rig.