Is my rig tangled?
You’ve cast out, fallen short of the clip, but think it’ll be alright and the rig will be fine. But will it? Rob Hughes investigates...
No it won’t! I’ve carried out this test time and time again and you must “hit the clip”. It doesn’t matter what sort of hookbait you use (the heavier the better). Where location, location and location are the first rules of angling, the second must be hitting the clip every single time.
Unless you are using a Choddy or a solid bag (or ‘drilling in’ as I call it) as the only option you have to get the bait to where you want it, you should re-cast if you miss the clip.
As the lead hits the water the line goes slack and it is at this stage that the rig will tangle if it hasn’t hit the clip. It may have already tangled in flight, but even if it didn’t there is a very high chance that it did when it hit the water and you can’t see it happen. Hitting the clip means that the lead hits the water on a tight line and cannot go slack.
An absolute give away that you were tangled is when you reel in and the hook link is wrapped once around the swivel or clip.
You may think nothing or it, or that it tangled on the retrieve (another ridiculous myth…they untangle on the retrieve not tangle) but trust me it didn’t. It tangled as it hit the water and you were fishing either with a rig that was completely out of contention, or alternatively one that was not performing, as it should.
What usually happens is that the hooklink wraps round the main line or leadcore and you eventually end up with a rig that looks like a Choddy. The fish then has to pick the hookbait up and un-ravel itself before the lead will come into play. Now this does happen, but it’s not ideal, so my advice would be to always hit the clip, even when fishing a stiff link or a helicopter rig.
The final thing that I’d like add on this point is about re-casting. Don’t be scared of it! There is a general consensus that re-casting spooks ‘em, and whilst that may well be the case occasionally, it certainly isn’t true all of the time.
How many times have you heard someone say, “It’s only been out there ten minutes!” Plenty I’ll wager. They were probably there all the time, it’s just your rig was badly presented before and that’s why you didn’t get a bite. If you only take a couple of things from all the stuff I’ve written over the years, let it be hit the clip and regularly re-cast. It’ll up your catch rate immediately.
