How to tie the NS Rig - Nice and simple
If you’re looking for a super effective but simple rig to use, then this is it…
The NS Rig is a presentation that we first became aware of in an issue of CARPology a year or two ago, in a feature penned by Gardner Tackle team member Nigel Sharp. Nigel very briefly mentioned the rig and went on to land a fin-perfect 30lb common out the edge using it.
Keep it simple
The initials ‘NS’ stand for ‘Nice and Simple’ and the rig is just that: very simple to tie but ultra-effective. It’s constructed using a size 6 Covert Dark Incizor and a length of Stiff Ultra Skin. The rig has all the mechanics of a sliding D presentation and it has a small section of coating left by the eye of the hook which acts as a kicker, aiding the hook to flip and turn.
The only other small, yet important detail is the addition of a couple of small shot half way down the hooklink. These enhance the turning action of the hook as the hooklink tightens as the fish picks up the hookbait. Nigel strips the coating off the hooklink leaving just a small section of stiff material near the hook, so it’s not the sort of rig that’s suited to casting out in the lake and he suggests that it is much better suited to being lowered into the edge when setting a trap in stalking situations. It’s also a good rig for using in a solid PVA bag or being dropped from a bait boat out in open water. Here’s how you tie it…
How to tie the NS Rig
If you’re looking for a super effective but simple rig to use, then this is it…
1. Take a length of Ultra Skin Stiff.
2. Line it up against the back of a size 6 Covert Dark Incizor. From the eye of the hook to the bottom of the hookbait, strip the coating off this section (allow for tying a loop in the Hair section).
3. Tie a small loop for the Hair.
4. Around 5mm back from the top of the hookbait – effectively where you would add a sliding ring – prick the point of the hook through the exposed braid and pull it round until it sits on the shank of the hook.
5. Unlike the normal ‘Knotless Knot rig’, thread the end of the hooklink through the front of the eye of the hook, this will help the bait hang in the correct alignment.
6. Wrap the hooklink around the shank of the hook six or seven times and then pass the end of the hooklink through the eye of the hook from back to front.
7. Work out where the alignment of the hook point would bisect the hooklink coming out the inside of the eye at a 45-degree angle. Strip back all of the skin from the hooklink from that point, only leaving a small section of coated hooklink (kicker) by the hook.
8. Thread on your chosen hookbait – in this case a couple of small tigers.
9. Tie the hooklink to a size 8 Covert Flexi Ring Swivel leaving the hooklink around six-inches in length. You can tie this shorter if using it with a solid PVA bag.
10. Add a couple of non toxic split shot (No.1 or bigger) halfway along the hooklink to enhance the speed that the rig reacts, flipping or turning more aggressively.
11. The finished rig.
