Is it really selective?

The big question

Do you think that your Hinged Stiff Rig works so selectively with big fish in that you target lesser-stocked waters so getting less bites from carp full stop or is it that the rig is not ‘small carp friendly’?

“I think a lot of it is down to the type of waters I’ve used it on, which are often larger and lesser-stocked. I could take a couple of different angles with this. If I were fishing a water with lots of doubles and the occasional twenty then it probably wouldn’t be my first choice of rig. On the other hand, if I’m fishing a lake for a particular big fish, which also has a dozen other fish, and amongst those dozen fish, three of them were mid-doubles, then I would still expect to catch those three doubles! It’s not exclusively a big carp rig, but it’s my first choice for a big fish.

“If you look upon that stiff, bristle filament section as an extension of the hook shank then it should make perfect sense. That’s what it is: a springy, transparent hook shank, with a revolving eye at the bottom of it. It’s basically a huge bent hook, but tied with materials that make it safe. If you look at it like that then you begin to realise that really you’re fishing with a very large hook, and when you compare that to a mouth big enough to fit a tangerine in, it’s pretty obvious why it’s such a good big fish rig.”