The Mini Hinged Stiff Rig

All too often I see anglers casting out a Choddy or a Hinged Stiff Rig without too much consideration to the substrate they are fishing on. Granted, in weedy or choddy waters I will often reach for the Hinged Stiffy and there’s no denying that it provides a great presentation in these situations. But, for open water situations, with little debris then I feel this set up can appear far too blatant. Instead, I would use a more refined version, which I call the ‘Mini Hinged Stiff Rig’.

Rig components and mechanics

I start by constructing the main boom section and for this rig I use the Fox Matt Coretex. Not only is this easier to work with than some of the other materials traditionally associated with this rig, but it’s also finer and a little more discreet.

I prefer the boom section to be semi-stiff

A size 11 Flexi Ring Swivel is attached via a simple Overhand Loop and this creates the hinge from which the name of the rig is derived. A second Overhand Loop is then tied at the other end at around seven-inches in length to complete this section of the rig.

Next I create the stiff section and my favourite material for this is the Fox Rigidity.

The hook section of the rig needs to be super stiff

A size 7 Arma Point SR Hook is tied to the Rigidity with a six-turn Knotless Knot and a small rig ring is then attached to the tag end. This is then passed back through the eye of the hook and burnt with a lighter to create a blob, which prevents it from pulling back through the eye.

The outturned eye of an SR hook is ideal for thick and stiff materials

The stiff section is then attached to the Flexi Ring Swivel on the main boom and I do this with a simple Three-Turn-Blood-Knot.

The hookbait will once again comprise a 10mm white pop-up and this is attached to the rig by passing a length of bait floss through the rig ring and then sliding the pop-up onto the floss. The ends of the floss are then trimmed to around a centimetre in size and once again burned with a lighter and blobbed to create a small stop. A small amount of tungsten putty is then added to the swivel to create a ‘critically-balanced’ hookbait that sinks very slowly indeed.

A white pop-up stands out well over a feed of food source boilies

I prefer to fish this rig beneath a lead clip set-up and the hooklink would be attached to a Kwik Change Swivel. The addition of an anti-tangle sleeve then not only secures the hooklink in place, but also eliminates any flexibility. By doing so this ensures the balanced hookbait is always pushed away from the lead and cannot fall in any other direction, perhaps over the main line or leader approaching the rig, which can happen with the other variation.

A lead clip set-up is my preferred arrangement with this rig

The end result is a very neat rig, which has all the benefits of its standard counterpart yet is somewhat understated to avoid ringing any alarm bells.

The carp find it very difficult to deal with this hinge effect

Best uses

The beauty of this rig is it is virtually tangle-free so no matter where I cast it I know it will be angling effectively and efficiently. This is a great rig for fishing over clean bottom lakes or where there are only small amounts of weed or debris. I have found it to be particularly successful when fishing over beds of boilies and I’m sure the high attract hookbait sitting proud amongst the bed of freebies is often one of the first baits to be investigated by the carp.