SIMON SCOTT TALKS RIGS

My game-changing moment, rig-wise, was when I started using Korda’s Kamakura Wide Gapes. That may sound like a plug, but I’ve always spent a lot of time checking my hook points. I’m really paranoid about them, and after multiple sessions through the summer I’ll have loads of little pinpricks in the side of my hand from testing them on my skin. I check them all the time. Hook sharpness is something I put a lot of emphasis on. When stalking fish, I’ve seen them pick up hookbaits and eject them.

Korda sent me a trial pack of the Kamakurus, but they’d spent months and months in my tackle bag as I hadn’t actually fished with them. I experienced a series of hook-pulls at Burghfield, whilst using what I believed to be a good, straight-point pattern. It was during the winter, and I had one particular fish on the surface. As it came towards me, the hook came out. It was right in front of me and I could see it was a big ’un. That was it. Two or three fish had come off for no reason, from what I could see. I concluded that it was down to the hook point, not the pattern.

I had the trial Kamakurus with me in an unlabelled, little white box. I retied the rig I’d lost the last fish on, reeled in my other two rods and did the same with those. Using my usual shank-extension set-up, I had Kamakurus on all three. I put them back out, and the next 24 hours were absolute carnage. I couldn’t believe how many fish I was catching. I battled with some close to a snag on my right-hand side, yet none of them came off. Why have I not used these before?! I thought to myself.

The next week, I rang Korda and asked them to send me an industrial-sized box, and since then, I haven’t looked back! I have the utmost confidence in them. They offer the shape of a wide-gape hook, which I’ve always loved, and they are horribly sharp.

The criticism I hear from other anglers is that they’re expensive, and yes, they are. I’m in a fortunate position in that Korda supply me with them. Anglers also talk about the points rusting, and turning over quickly, because the points are so fine. I accept these criticisms completely, but I’m grateful for being in the position I’m in.

Twenty years ago, whilst talking to students at Sparsholt, I’d explain that there were two things that mattered most when fishing for carp, and the first was having an incredibly sharp hook. The second was having a good, strong line. You can hand-line a forty-pounder in if you have to, as long as your hook is sharp, has gone in and done its job, and your line is strong enough. You don’t need a posh rod or an expensive reel, nor do you need all the gizmos available to carp anglers these days. Your hook and your line are the two things that form the link between you and your quarry.

Yes, the hook points turn over. When I was on Burghfield, I’d change my hooks after 12 hours’ fishing with them. I’m fastidious about my hook points and I check them repeatedly. The moment I see any sign of a point going over, the hook is binned.

One tactic I used a great deal was to make tiny little Sticks from a soft, flaky Stick mix. I’d drill through these and pass them over the hook point. When casting out, the hook point was protected, and once my rig was on the bottom the Stick mix would dissolve. Bear in mind there aren’t thousands of bream or tench in Burghfield. There are crayfish, but they weren’t a problem where I was fishing.

Whether you want to sharpen your hooks yourself or buy them ready-sharpened, for me, that sharpness is a game changer. I’ve watched fish, over and over, pick up a hookbait, clearly get pricked, and then, after reversing and shaking their head, seen the hook fall out. With a super-sharp hook, the point will penetrate a millimetre or two into the skin on the first contact. They’re so sharp, they will go in. The point will penetrate beyond the point where a fish can shake themselves free again. When I try hook points on the skin of my hand, with substandard patterns, a quick flick of the wrist will see them fall out. If you try the same with a Kamakura, that doesn’t happen.

The morning after that session at Burghfield I phoned Mark Bryant. I told him I had a couple of nice ones. By the time he’d arrived, the brace had become four, and I had another while he was with me. It may have just been the situation, who knows? The stars certainly aligned, as they say. Whatever, from that moment on, I wasn’t going to use anything else.

Have my rigs evolved over time? Without a doubt. Looking back, I can remember using nylon lines and the Knotless Knot. I still have confidence in that type of set-up, but my set-ups have evolved since. The arrangement I favour now—and I know Elliott Gray uses a rig similar to mine—incorporates a relatively stiff material (I strip back a little bit towards the hook), a long shank extension, line-aligner style, and a hookbait fished 5–10mm off the back of it. I use that pretty much everywhere I go now.

I know others favour set-ups like the Ronnie Rig, but for me, they have a bit too much metalwork. Mine feature an old-school line-aligner but with a long shank extension, perhaps half a piece of shrink tube, or more. The nice sweeping bend seems to be very effective. It’s interesting to see Elliott using something very similar, and others, too. It’s a very effective set-up, and I use it for both bottom baits and pop-ups. I might vary the length of hair, and when fishing a bottom bait I often use a tiny piece of tubing to bring the hair round to the back of the hook point, rather than have it coming from the back of the hook.

Different sets of circumstances led to me using the rig I now favour. I caught a lot of carp when fishing Wraysbury, for instance, using nylon line-aligners. That period was one of experimentation. I’d cut off a length of my 12lb main line before I started fishing, and that would be my hooklink material. The set-up worked well. I caught Mary on it, tying a Knotless Knot with the 12lb line from the reel spool, and adding a swivel to the end. Sometimes, though, I’d find that the line would kink off the swivel and the hooklink might not lay very well. It then started to look at the different hooklink materials available. The semi-stiff coated materials seem to offer the best of both worlds. I’m a big fan of the coated materials these days, and there was a process of evolution that saw me arrive at what I use today.

I want the rig to flip over as quickly as possible in the carp’s mouth, and the arrangement I now use, with the line-aligner and long extension, does just that. I’ve watched carp feeding amongst detritus on the bottom, and I’m not one to get hung up about fishing over a nice, clean gravel patch. I’m more than happy to fish over the dirtier areas. In those situations, I believe the long shank extension is less obvious to the fish.

I use the analogy that, if your partner were to blindfold you and feed you strawberries, one after another, and then feed you one with the stalk still attached, you’d know instantly. It’s a similar case with carp feeding on boilies over clean gravel. When they suck up your feed bait, little or no debris will come up with bait. I believe they discern quite quickly, when they pick up your hookbait, the additional clutter of your rig, and they’ll then eject it. If you’re fishing over silt, perhaps amongst leaf litter and other detritus, they’ll not realise that they’ve picked up something that isn’t quite right, as quickly.

I don't believe there's such a thing as a wonder rig. I’ve observed all manner of rigs presented in the margins, in crystal-clear water. There are also all manner of videos that show fish feeding underwater. There are fads and trends, but all the evidence points to the fact that any so-called wonder rig does not exist.

There will be competitive feeding on a spot, however, and when carp feed competitively, fish of twenty, thirty, forty or fifty pounds will shove each other around in an effort to get to bait. In that situation it’s harder for them to carefully pick up a hookbait and spit it back out again, and it’s much less likely to happen. During such competitive feeding, they’ll get caught much more easily.

It’s nice to think that a wonder rig might exist. We all tweak and fine-tune our favoured set-ups, but after goodness knows how many years of carp fishing, I’ve seen so many supposed wonder rigs come and go. They’ll have their time in the limelight, and then they’ll go out of fashion.

I’d suggest using a rig that’s as effective as you can make it, with a sharp hook and strong line. Then, put what you have in the right place. I think we should concern ourselves more with locating the fish and getting the baiting right, rather than get hung up about rigs.

Having said that, a Chod Rig, for instance, with the stops placed up the line when fishing over sediment or weed, is a brilliant set-up. That said, I’ve watched a fish from above whilst perched in a tree, swim along, drop down over a Chod Rig, suck in the hookbait and clearly get pricked by the hook, back up, shake its head and eject the bait again before swimming off as if nothing had happened. I heard just a single bleep on the alarm, and that, supposedly, was a wonder rig! Several rigs work really well. It’s just about getting them in the right spot.

When it comes to creating a competition feeding situation, the one thing I found was, going back to when I was in my twenties and would watch the fish in my garden pond, if I fed tightly on the bottom with a mix of pellets, they could suck in and spit out the feed with an absolute minimal degree of movement. Fish have the amazing ability to process food within their mouths. We don’t have that. The palatine organ in the roof of a carp’s mouth allows it to suck in and mix food particles, and then expel those it doesn’t want. That process takes place in the blink of an eye. If you bait tightly and fish then come into your swim, given that they can suck in and eject bait in a split second, a carp will have every opportunity to realise that something’s not right. Having picked up your hookbait, they’ll immediately spit it out again. I believe you should try to get the fish moving from one bait to the next, and so on.

A long time ago, I found that fish would often take single baits fished off my main baited spot, as they approached the baited area. I found that, nine times out of ten, they’d take the hookbait on the way in, not as they left. Carp, being greedy fish, often leave baited spots with large mouthfuls of bait. You might see a grain of sweetcorn or a boilie fall from their mouths if you can observe them leaving a baited area. When they’re feeding competitively, they’ll be of a mind, perhaps to come in and eat as many boilies as they can, as quickly as possible, in an attempt to get them all before their mates do. These fish, as they leave the spot, will still be chewing bait. Fish feeding in that way, though, will succumb to a single hookbait fished off the spot, as they move in. That’s the situation I try to create, and it’s a matter of working out the direction they’re moving in from. Knowing where they’re heading from as they make for your spot, is obviously key to that approach. If you can see them, then great, but you can also watch for lines of bubbles, for instance.

Rig-wise, I've been influenced by several anglers. As a youngster, mad keen on carp fishing, I’d read all the magazines and would try all the tweaks detailed in articles. I read the pieces by Dave Lane, written when he was fishing Wraysbury with Phil Thompson. He was an advocate of keeping things simple. He advised not worrying about the rig so much, and suggested we be more concerned about getting it in the right spot. It was a case of not getting too hung up about your set-up, and concentrating more on finding the fish and presenting your hookbaits in the right areas.

More recently, I’ve picked up on what Mark Bryant has had to say, and the tweaks he’s made to his rigs. I now use the line-aligner with a long shank extension, as I’ve mentioned. I’ve picked up similar things from Adam Penning. These anglers, and what they’ve said, have seen me come to favour a stiffish hooklink, a short supple section and a sweeping length of shrink-tube.

Regarding Tom Bankes and the rumour that he has a large glass fish tank and lays beneath it to watch carp feeding, yes, I believe you can learn an awful lot from observing fish as they move over bait. As I mentioned, until six or seven years ago, I had a large garden pond. I’d spend time watching my own fish feed, and would try to replicate feeding patterns on a smaller scale. It was interesting to watch how they’d feed when presented with different sizes of boilie, and different shapes of bait too. Everything you learn form watching fish feed adds to your store of information. You can then call upon that information when you consider baiting situations as you’re fishing. If you can observe fish feeding in the margins, it’ll prove useful.

Take the Nutsey Mirror, for instance. When I decided (for about the fifth time!) that I wanted to catch it, I wanted to do so from the bottom. It had been caught on the surface a lot, and was obviously quite cute when confronted with bottom baits. I had a couple of opportunities to catch it from the margins, over clean gravel, but it didn’t make the mistake. I then placed my hookbait over the thick silt at the bottom of the shelf and caught it straight away. That goes back to what I said earlier about making things difficult for them, and presenting in the dirtier areas.

When it comes to spot sizes, I take my hat off to the likes of Tom Maker, who might fish three rods on an umbrella-sized spot on Brasenose Two. I couldn’t hit an umbrella-sized spot at 20 yards, let alone 60 or 100! Tom will know what he’s fishing over, he’ll bait tightly and position three rigs over his bait tightly also. When you have 20 or 30 fish feeding competitively over you, a few will slip up, for sure. It’s somewhat different at a venue like Burghfield, though. There, you might have just two or three fish competing, albeit they’ll probably be larger. They’ll be much more cautious. There’ll be a dinner table laid out in front of them, so to speak, but they’ll have the luxury of taking their time when they feed.

It’s the same for us, perhaps. If we’re presented with a spread of food and we’re alone, with possibly all day to enjoy it, we’d take our time and would savour what’s in front of us. By contrast, if we were told that we had just a moment or two to grab a bite before 20 youngsters were due to arrive, we’d crack on and stuff our face, surely.

Big-fish rigs, small-fish rigs: are they a thing? The Hinged Stiff Rig, for instance, given its components and size, lends itself to fishing for larger carp. If you’re fishing for forty-pounders, you must have a suitably strong set-up. Whilst a twenty-pound carp is a large fish, today, there are so many thirties about too, and forties, along with a good number of fifties.

Looking back on my time on Burghfield, I believe the first time I fished it I was on a size 10 hook, or possibly an 8, and was using 10lb nylon. That seems crazy nowadays, but I landed the fish I hooked. I like to have the kit that will do the job, and if you’re after fifty-pound carp, your quarry will have a mouth large enough to engulf a satsuma whole. You’ll need a decent-sized hook, one that will take hold when a carp charges off at 100mph. A lighter set-up would be much less likely to do the job, so yes, I believe some rigs go hand in hand with the size of fish you’re after. I think too, that smaller fish, those in the twenty-pound bracket, say, will be suspicious of the more robust, more cumbersome set-ups.

I realised, back when I spent time watching carp feeding in my pond and in fish tanks, that carp have very good eyesight, and also good colour vision. I believe I wrote in CARPology a good while ago about how carp in a tank could pick out just a trimmed-off hook shank tied to very fine nylon, laid on sand. The eyesight of an old, fifty-pound fish, will be nowhere near as good as when it was, say, fifteen pounds. Old fish suffer from eye flukes, for instance. It’s the same for us. Compare the eyesight of someone in their fifties or sixties with that of an eighteen-year-old. Similarly, my old dog’s sight is not what it once was.

Older fish too, are, I believe, clumsier than younger ones, and you’ll see that clumsiness evident when fishing for them in the winter. I watch fish at the farm, and their brain function slows at that time of year. The fish will move more slowly as well. Their movement is clumsy. An old, clumsy fish will get hooked much more easily than a younger one, on top of its game, so to speak, during August.

One small tweak I made to my rigs that had a massive outcome was the addition of quite a large blob of putty, 5–10mm beyond the end of the shrink tube. It’s to do with having that long, sweeping bend and ensuring the rig flips over quickly. With bottom baits, the set-up acts like a claw as it flips over aggressively. Again, with bottom baits, I have the hair coming off that straight section, as the hook bend goes round, behind the barb. Some might say that it doesn’t work when you pull it across your hand, but surely, if it flips over aggressively in the fish’s mouth, you stand a good chance of getting a quick hook-hold. It’s not the same as pulling the rig over your hand, and that quick hook-hold is what we’re looking to achieve. Having the hair positioned behind the hook point, along with a large lump of putty, helps the rig to flip over into its hooking position as quickly as I want it to. Again, though, if you place such a rig on a completely clear bottom, it’ll stand out like a sore thumb. Personally, I’d conceal it with bait or whatever.

When it comes to hookbaits, I’m all over the place! Early in the season, I love white pop-ups. I’m a big fan of Baitworks’ Scent From Hell, which has been written and talked about seemingly for ever. As I said, a cold carp is a clumsy one. They can’t physically pick up a bait with their fins and examine it, they have to suck it in. If you have a half-sensible rig, you’ll stand a chance of hooking it. Later in the season, I’ll be much more inclined to replicate my feed bait, be that with a couple bits of sweetcorn, or perhaps back-to-back trimmed-down boilies.

I like to mix my feed bait, so rather than using just whole boilies, say, I’ll feed baits in varying sizes, bits of boilies and ‘chops’. I might add some seed, or a few tiger nuts. I’ll vary my hookbaits too, and will try to determine whether they’re favouring one over another.

Regarding rig innovation, I think we’ve come an awful long way, given the components available nowadays. I remember being amazed when we were able to buy pasta that takes two minutes to cook. Before it took just ten minutes to take pasta from a bag and cook it, yet now you have pasta that’s done in two.

We live in a world where everyone wants everything made faster, reduced, speeded up and more simple. I’m of a certain age, and I enjoy the process of tying my rigs. I’m rather pleased if I can tie three or four and get ahead of myself, but I can see how some might like to have everything done for them. We have loops, and various hook and crook arrangements. We can attach our hooklink and slide a little piece of silicone on to secure it. The innovation in that direction has been amazing. It’s fantastic to be able to change hooks, or even rigs, as quickly as we now can.

When you go into a tackle shop now, what’s available is beyond belief. I’d hate to be starting carp fishing today… I think my brain would combust!

Do rigs blow? I can say, 100 per cent, that carp learn from their experience. I see it every day on the farm. Carp will go to certain areas in the morning because they’ve learned that they’re going to be fed there. They know, from repeated experience, that the pellet is going to be introduced in certain areas.

The first time a carp comes across a bait presented in a certain way, on a spot, it may well take it without hesitation. Remember too, what I said earlier about carp in the winter, or in cold water during the spring, being clumsy. Their senses have been dulled and their eyesight’s not as good, because of the low water temperature. In that situation, a little white pop-up might be perfect. The same offering, though, probably won’t work come August, when they’re really on it. You have to keep that in mind.

The Chod Rig, when it was first publicised, proved a game changer, but later, fish became aware of it. You have to think outside the box, perhaps, and do something different to the other anglers around you. Those fish may well have become wary of a Chod Rig presented in the weediest part of a lake, but the fish may become easier to catch on the clear areas as a result. Things will change too, from year to year. If anglers all fish to baited spots on a particular water, fish will move off those spots and drop baits as they go. They then may well start searching for individual baits again. Things can go full circle.

You have to work out what’s going on on the lake you’re fishing, and discern what methods are working. Then it’s a case of experimenting, and considering what you might tweak. Try fishing your third rod off your spot, for instance. I remember fishing 30 yards off my baited spot for the first time. I found it so odd. Three hours later, though, I had a thirty-pounder in the landing net. I knew that fish were in the area, but they weren’t feeding on my spot. I stuck a bait out, well away from where I’d been baiting. A fish came along, perhaps thinking, I know that smell. That’ll taste all right, and bang! Until you try something like that, something that might seem a little odd, you’ll not know whether it works, or doesn’t.

When artificial baits came out, no one really believed you could catch carp on little bits of plastic, did they? I remember catching on little yellow Lego heads. They didn’t suck in those Lego heads because they tasted nice, it was because they looked like bits of sweetcorn. I’d not have known if I hadn’t tried it. There lay a carp, in my landing net, with the head of a Lego character wearing dark glasses, hanging just outside its mouth. It was hooked fairly and squarely, too.

When it comes to rigs blowing, on Brasenose One and Two, for instance, the vast majority of anglers may well fish the Ronnie Rig. They’ll spod bait out, having read articles by Tom Maker or whoever. Tom, though, and other extremely good anglers I see these days that have a similar skill set and achieve similar results, are masters of their craft. The degree of accuracy they achieve is incredible.

I remember watching Danny Fairbrass Spombing. I’m not trying to blow smoke up his backside here, but I was sitting opposite him, and every single Spomb went out spot on. He was metronomic, and he kept it up for something like two hours. I’d spent 20 minutes doing the same, and my baits covered an area of about two tennis courts. Dan was precise, and he followed up with three rigs, all placed neatly in a line: one, two, three. Tom Maker’s the same. The top anglers have learned their trade, and they do what they do incredibly well. They’re like any elite sportsperson, whether they throw darts or run 100 metres. They’ve practised incessantly, and they’ve become exceptionally good.

It’s easy too, to look at a bucketload of bait and think to yourself, Well, I should Spomb all that out, but actually, I think I’ll sit and have a beer and chill out instead, or you might choose to sit and spend time on your phone. Then, you’re lost a cause.