What's best a long or short Hair?

Short Hair: Keith Williams

“If you are looking to nail big carp I don’t think you can go wrong with the KD Rig or other rigs made up with Ultima’s Power Link with a short Hair. This pure fluorocarbon material is fished in a very similar way to the KD Rig and can give you the same impressive results. The Hair on both these types of rigs comes off the eye at 45-degrees. This means the bait is just touching the bottom of the hook and consequently the carp find it very hard to eject.

“With the KD, a critically-balanced bait ensures the Hair is just lifting off the hook. Perfecting this presentation means you can position the hook so it remains completely flat on the lakebed.

“If you place a small piece of putty about one-inch from your hook this acts as a weight which once hooked, the carp will find difficult to eject. This method normally results in the carp being hooked in the bottom lip.

In clear areas near weed, pads and against snags, you will want the carp to feel really confident taking the bait. I normally fish small amounts of freebies in this situation, tight to the hookbait usually in PVA bags, stringers or a PVA Stick. Immediately the carp know they have made a mistake and will give you a really positive take. This has worked for me on many occasions.

“If I was using a long Hair in a similar situation, there would be a distinct disadvantage. The carp can easily eject the bait without even feeling the hook. I have tried it and found this to be the case lots of times. I find the longer Hair works better on double baits when baiting heavily in open water.”

Short Hair: Simon Crow

“I really dislike long Hairs, mainly because whenever I’ve used them I’ve had aborted takes. The fish picking up the bait but not the hook, resulting in a lost fish. A lot of today’s carp are heavily pressured therefore they are much more finicky about how they feed.

“Whenever they pick my hookbait up I want to know the hook has gone into the mouth, and for this reason I use a tighter Hair presentation. I tie all of my rigs like this and the length of the Hair only changes based on the size of the hook and bait being used (i.e. requiring a longer one for bigger baits and vice versa).

“I like a bait tight enough so the bend of the hook touches the bait, giving it some pivot. I’ve used this presentation for more than twenty years and I’m mega confident with it because it’s caught carp for me from hundreds of different waters.”

Long Hair: Ian Russell

"When I started fishing my current syndicate lake, I opted for relatively short Hairs with my bottom bait rigs. Unfortunately, the first few sessions didn’t go to plan and I lost four fish on the bounce. After a bit of thought, I decided to lengthen the Hairs on my rigs considerably to one-and-three-quarter-inches. The results were staggering and I went on to land 12 of the lake’s residents in quick succession. Every single fish was absolutely nailed and I had to use forceps to get most of the hooks out!

“If you want the hook to take a decent hold in the carp’s mouth, I think it’s essential to have a degree of separation between the hook and hookbait on your rigs. Therefore, a longer Hair is a good idea for bottom-bait rigs regardless of where or how you’re fishing. When I’ve used long Hairs, I’ve found that the carp take the rig a lot further back when they pick it up. This means there’s a lot more chance of the hook finding an entry point and obtaining a decent hook hold. If you’re experiencing hook pulls on a regular basis, changing to a longer Hair can often result in more carp on the bank.

“I’ve always liked to do the opposite to most anglers on the bank because I feel that it will catch me bonus fish. There seem to be lots of anglers using super-short Hairs these days, so I genuinely think it’s an edge to make your Hairs a little bit longer.”

Long Hair: Elliott Gray

“The long Hair is something I have used with my bottom baits for quite sometime now, the consistency of my hook holds has lead to an enviable hooked to landed ratio. For this reason alone I am not going to change unless faced with carp that I think I should be catching but simply am not.

“I think that the main advantage of the long Hair is the separation between the bait and hook; this allows the hook to move more freely and perform how I want it to. The use of rig rings and shrink tubing is also a very important addition to the use of a long Hair in my opinion and my results are a combination of these things.

“For reasons that I am admittedly unsure of, my hook holds are considerably deeper when using a lengthy Hair. This is hard to get my head around, as theoretically the bigger the distance from hook to bait the longer it should take for the hook to enter the mouth and at the same time, the closer to the front of the mouth it should be positioned. This, however, is not true and I am in absolutely no doubt that the longer the Hair, the deeper the hook holds.

“I have used Hairs of up to three-inches long and have achieved very quick bites (denting the theory that they get spat out more times than a short Hair) with very deep hook placement.

“After extensive use I now tend to stick to a Hair that offers one-inch between the top of the bait and the hook, be that a grain of corn or 20mm boilie, and this, to me, is a happy medium, being both effective and user-friendly.

“A summary of the above would be that I see the long Hair as an undeniable edge, something that I personally will need a hell of a lot of convincing to change.”