Winter carping – what’s the best carp rig?

This article first appeared on the Quest Baits Blog & is reproduced with kind permission

Can you please tell me what you think are the best rigs for winter and the cold weather.  Thanks.

Cold water rigs for me, differ very little from my normal rigs, however I do like to scale things down somewhat. You have to only go back to your tiddler bashing days to know that fining your rigs down results in more bites and winter feeding, which is often short, highlights this.

There are many rigs in use today however most carp anglers have a failsafe rig which always seems to work for them. The rig that I’ve had my most success with by far, in all conditions, is a simple blow back rig, fined down with a size ten or twelve Mugga hook.  This rig has caught me winter carp from day ticket waters, to club lakes to hard UK syndicates with fish up to 36lb in the depths of winter.

The materials I use are a 15lb coated braid hooklink, I like PB products Jelly Wire, Gardner size 8 or 10 Mugga hooks and Fox Teflon rig rings in 3mm.

I’ve pictured the rig here as it is actually on my rods now, a simple split shot at the break in the braided hooklink coating (about 1 1/2 cm from the hook) is all that you need if you want to use it for pop-ups, a rig that I’ve caught UK carp up to nearly 56lb.

I fish this rig at approx 9 inches to start with, lengthening or shortening as required.  Remember if the fish can’t get it in their mouths they can’t get hooked! Two 10mm Quest boilies make the ideal hookbait.

Couple this rig with a running lead, or as I do with a shake free semi fixed lead, and you have everything you could need, come rain or shine, sun or snow!

Good luck, Spencer Humble

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