IS THIS THE BEST MARGIN RIG EvER? - Preston Innovations
IS THIS THE BEST MARGIN RIG EvER? - Preston Innovations
IS THIS THE BEST MARGIN RIG EvER? - Preston Innovations
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is This<br />
The BesT<br />
Margin<br />
rig<br />
ever?<br />
When those margin<br />
munters keep bolting<br />
off whenever they see<br />
your tackle, what’s the<br />
answer? Ed Warren has<br />
an ingenious solution<br />
– the leadcore rig!<br />
H<br />
ands up all those who have pulled<br />
their hair out after a frustrating<br />
margin fishing session. We’ve all seen<br />
it happen; the margins are alive with feeding<br />
fish yet they won’t go near your hook bait and<br />
bolt off as soon as they see your pole tip or<br />
brush your line. It’s even more annoying when<br />
you can actually see their backs breaking the<br />
surface and their tails waving at you! These<br />
fish are hungry and eating, otherwise they<br />
wouldn’t be there, but they are also immensely<br />
suspicious and wary. On your typical pressured<br />
commercial fishery the fish have seen it all<br />
before and are masters at evading capture. At<br />
times they really will eat everything except your<br />
hook bait!<br />
Ed Warren has seen this situation time and<br />
again on his local stillwaters. Venues such<br />
as Maver Larford Lakes in Worcestershire<br />
and the New Pools at Cudmore Fisheries in<br />
Staffordshire are prime examples. On these<br />
venues the margins are very shallow and at<br />
times the fish will come into literally inches<br />
of water. Even though you can often see them<br />
feeding, they are unbelievably cute and difficult<br />
to catch. It’s exciting fishing, yet infuriating<br />
at the same time, and for every carp that you<br />
»<br />
venue File<br />
Maver larFord lakes<br />
Location: Larford Lane, Stourport,<br />
Worcestershire DY13 0SQ<br />
Contact: 01299 829373 or 07774<br />
703067<br />
Website: www.larfordlakes.co.uk<br />
15H Hollo elastic<br />
through a Pulla Kit<br />
4x12 <strong>Preston</strong><br />
0.17mm PowerLine<br />
4x12 <strong>Preston</strong><br />
PB Black dibber<br />
Three No9s<br />
Two feet of 20lb Maver<br />
Carp leadcore<br />
Four inches of<br />
0.17mm PowerLine<br />
4in hooklength<br />
of 0.17mm or<br />
0.15mm PowerLine<br />
angler File<br />
ed Warren<br />
Age: 31<br />
Occupation: Chef economist<br />
Lives: Penkridge, Staffordshire<br />
Sponsors: <strong>Preston</strong> <strong>Innovations</strong>, Sonubaits<br />
Pole: <strong>Preston</strong> <strong>Innovations</strong> The One<br />
Size 18 PR36 with<br />
a Quickstop hair<br />
Ed’s clever rig keeps the line<br />
pinned to the deck to conceal<br />
it from wary fish.<br />
98 AUGUST 2010 AUGUST 2010 99<br />
Punched<br />
polony
Ed uses a needle knot to join<br />
the main line to the leadcore.<br />
An inline <strong>Preston</strong> Black<br />
dibber makes a tangle-free<br />
sight indicator.<br />
manage to fool there are probably 10 more<br />
that are spooked or foul hooked.<br />
Not one to accept this frustrating situation,<br />
Ed put his thinking cap on and began<br />
experimenting with rigs. A conventional<br />
margin rig with a longer line above the float<br />
to keep the pole tip well away from the fish<br />
still spooked them whenever they brushed the<br />
line. Fishing overdepth seemed to hold the key<br />
because this would hopefully keep the main<br />
line on the bottom and the float away from<br />
the mass of bodies churning up the water.<br />
Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough because<br />
the line would be wafted about and caused<br />
even more foul-hookers. The next solution<br />
was spreading a long chain of shot on the line<br />
to pin it to the bottom, so the fish could swim<br />
over it and feed confidently. This system was<br />
still too light and was easily wafted about.<br />
This is when Ed started to look at other<br />
branches of angling, particularly specimen<br />
fishing. Big-carp anglers have devised all<br />
sorts of rigs and systems to conceal their<br />
leads, main lines and hooklengths. Of these,<br />
Once in the water, the rig<br />
almost fishes itself.<br />
two materials immediately stood out: hollow<br />
tungsten tubing and leadcore. Both are<br />
extensively used by the specimen fraternity to<br />
pin their rigs to the lake bed, but could they<br />
be successfully combined with the sensitivity<br />
and accuracy of pole fishing? The seeds of<br />
an ingenious new pole rig had well and truly<br />
been sown…<br />
Pinning iT doWn<br />
When Ed began incorporating leadcore<br />
or tungsten tubing into his pole rigs he<br />
immediately saw the benefit. These heavy<br />
materials weighted the rig down, so the fish<br />
could happily swim over the top without<br />
getting spooked. It also<br />
The float is just<br />
there as a marker<br />
so don’t strike if it<br />
buries or moves.<br />
meant that the pole<br />
tip and float were kept<br />
well away from the<br />
hook bait.<br />
For a typical 12in to<br />
18in shallow margin,<br />
the main component<br />
of Ed’s new rig is two feet of leadcore. This<br />
clever product has a soft outer material<br />
and a thin strip of lead running through<br />
the middle. Although it can appear quite<br />
rigid straight off the spool, it becomes much<br />
suppler and malleable once wet and moulds<br />
to the contours of the lake bed. Almost every<br />
specimen company has its own brand but<br />
Ed uses 20lb leadcore under the Maver Carp<br />
banner.<br />
The alternative is hollow tungsten rig<br />
tubing. As the name suggests, this heavy<br />
material has a hollow core through which<br />
you can thread your line. It is actually heavier<br />
than leadcore and typically comes in 2m<br />
lengths that can be trimmed easily. Again this<br />
is sold by most of the top carp brands.<br />
While tungsten tubing can be simply slid<br />
onto the line, leadcore is a bit fiddlier. There<br />
are two ways to join it to the main line;<br />
either splice it to create a loop and attach<br />
it loop to loop, or a neater method is the<br />
needle knot. This involves peeling back an<br />
inch of the outer sheath and snapping off<br />
a short length of leadcore. You then push a<br />
needle or splicing needle through the side<br />
and out through the hole, grab the line and<br />
pull it through. Then, form a loop with the<br />
line and pass the tag end through five or six<br />
times to securely whip it around the leadcore<br />
before tightening. This creates a continuous,<br />
seamless and very secure connection<br />
between the leadcore and the main line. For<br />
extra security, carefully melt each end of<br />
the leadcore material under a flame before<br />
threading the line to prevent it fraying.<br />
The resT oF The rig<br />
To the top end of the leadcore, Ed attaches<br />
two or three feet of 0.17mm <strong>Preston</strong><br />
PowerLine and slides on a 4x12 <strong>Preston</strong> PB<br />
Black dibber. This is shotted with three No9s<br />
directly under the float to help cock it. The<br />
inline dibber is virtually tangleproof and<br />
merely acts as a sight indicator so that he<br />
knows exactly where the rig is.<br />
At the other end of the leadcore he<br />
attaches four inches of 0.17mm PowerLine<br />
and leaves a small loop at the end to attach a<br />
hooklength to.<br />
For today’s session, Ed opts for four inches<br />
of 0.15mm or 0.17mm PowerLine to a size<br />
18 eyed PR36 hook. This is tied using a<br />
knotless knot with a Korum Quickstop fitted<br />
to the end of a 2cm hair. Finishing the rig off<br />
is 15 Hollo elastic<br />
through a Pulla Kit.<br />
Although many<br />
anglers like to use<br />
heavy elastics,<br />
thick lines and big<br />
hooks for margin<br />
work, Ed rarely sees<br />
the need to fish any heavier than this. In<br />
fact, he is keen to stress that this is quite a<br />
delicate method and not a crude or heavyhanded<br />
approach, which some people may<br />
initially assume. It is also a safe rig that a<br />
fish should be able to eject with ease should<br />
an unexpected breakage occur. There is<br />
also no striking involved because the fish<br />
hook themselves, pull out the elastic and<br />
usually kite out of the swim without too<br />
much disturbance. It is therefore much<br />
more discreet than a traditional setup where<br />
you need to lift or strike at bites to set the<br />
hook, which can cause the fish to bolt off.<br />
Remember, the float is just there as a marker<br />
so don’t strike if it buries or moves; just lay<br />
the rig in and hold it fairly taut to the leadcore<br />
and wait patiently until the elastic is pulled<br />
out. What could be easier?<br />
hair rigging is The keY<br />
One key component is a hair-rigged hook bait.<br />
After much trial and error, Ed believes that<br />
hair rigging is essential to leave the maximum<br />
amount of hook showing for a fish to prick<br />
itself. It is the fish’s sucking in and inability<br />
to blow the bait back out without getting<br />
hooked that makes hair rigging such a deadly<br />
way to catch fish.<br />
BaiT and Feeding<br />
What you feed will naturally depend on the<br />
venue and its rules but wherever allowed Ed<br />
opts for meat and hemp. Margin-feeding fish<br />
seem to go berserk for cubes of meat, while<br />
the hemp is a relatively heavy particle bait<br />
that keeps them foraging. He isn’t too fussed<br />
which brand of meat he uses, as long as it<br />
cuts into 6mm cubes easily and isn’t too fatty.<br />
For the hook, he likes to use a similar cube or<br />
a 6mm or 8mm piece of punched polony.<br />
Ed has brought three or four tins of<br />
meat, polony for the hook and a large tin of<br />
Sonubaits Hemp ‘N’ Corn. He also has corn<br />
and fishery pellets to use elsewhere while he<br />
waits for the margins to respond.<br />
With any type of margin approach it is<br />
very rare to catch down the edge immediately,<br />
unless it is late in the day. This means that<br />
you normally need to prime the margins for<br />
an hour or more to attract the fish. Fishing<br />
elsewhere for an hour or so while you wait<br />
for the fish to build up confidence therefore<br />
makes sense.<br />
Ed doesn’t like to feed massive potfuls<br />
because this could risk overfeeding the fish<br />
and sending them into a frenzy whereby they<br />
won’t find the hook bait so easily. Instead,<br />
he uses a small 150ml pot on his cupping<br />
kit, which he rarely fills more than half full<br />
with a mixture of meat and hemp. If you<br />
can reach, throwing little and often can also<br />
ensure that something is always there to eat.<br />
He would much rather feed small amounts<br />
regularly than massive potfuls less often – but<br />
active fish will quickly mop it all up, so top up<br />
every five or 10 minutes if possible.<br />
When the time finally comes to start fishing<br />
down the edge you can then experiment with<br />
feeding methods to see if potting, throwing by<br />
hand or feeding with a pole-mounted pot is<br />
best. Sometimes all three ways can be utilised.<br />
If you have the luxury of a margin swim<br />
either side then it also pays to experiment and<br />
try different methods for each swim.<br />
PresenTaTion<br />
Laying the rig in is extremely important. Ed<br />
prefers to line things up so that he accurately<br />
feeds the same spot each time and then<br />
carefully lowers the hook bait right on top of<br />
the feed. Immediately the hook bait is in place<br />
he pulls the pole tip towards the bank to lay<br />
the leadcore out in a straight line. He then<br />
holds the pole float on a tightish line to the<br />
end of the leadcore simply to help a fish prick<br />
itself. On many occasions you will experience<br />
an odd tap and pull on the tip before the<br />
elastic streams out – almost like legering on<br />
the pole!<br />
Once the fish are in the swim and feeding<br />
avidly you can begin to experiment by<br />
laying the hook bait further up or down the<br />
marginal slope. When the fish are in really<br />
shallow water you might have to lay the pole<br />
float on the grass!<br />
»<br />
It didn’t take long for the<br />
rig to work its magic!<br />
Small potfuls are all that’s<br />
required to avoid the fish<br />
getting into too much of a<br />
feeding frenzy.<br />
100 AUGUST 2010 AUGUST 2010 101
The session<br />
With it being such a hot, sunny day it<br />
took far less time than expected to get the<br />
fish crawling up the bank for Ed’s meat<br />
and hemp. In fact, some of the fish were<br />
spawning elsewhere on the lake, which<br />
was probably why they had such a big<br />
appetite!<br />
The water was surprisingly clear,<br />
though, and even in just 12 inches of<br />
water the fish were not stirring up the<br />
sandy bottom too much. They were<br />
definitely cagey to begin with and only<br />
his left-hand swim yielded a run of<br />
bites early on. Another hour of careful<br />
nurturing later, however, and his right-hand<br />
swim also burst into life. If anything, this<br />
swim was eventually the better of the two<br />
because he could also feed here by hand. He<br />
soon got into a steady rhythm of catching two<br />
or three fish off each swim before rotating<br />
them. Timing was absolutely crucial and if<br />
he waited more than 10 minutes between<br />
feeds the fish had eaten everything and<br />
disappeared.<br />
As an experiment, Ed also had a standard<br />
margin rig set up and, although it did produce<br />
fish, the leadcore rig outfished it easily. It<br />
was only when the cameraman knelt just a<br />
couple of metres away from the baited area<br />
that the fish started to get twitchy! Even then,<br />
however, he continued to catch fish and the<br />
bigger ones could be seen creeping up to<br />
the bait in inches of water. It was a brilliant<br />
session where the merits of the pinned-down<br />
rig were clear to see.<br />
What was really interesting were the fish<br />
that Ed was catching. Larford is fished so<br />
heavily that the biggest F1s have become<br />
extremely elusive and difficult to fool. His<br />
rig was obviously something that they<br />
hadn’t wised up to yet because he bagged a<br />
succession of wary old F1s over the 2lb mark.<br />
Later on, the bigger commons and mirrors<br />
also put in an appearance and a catch of<br />
more than 120lb filled his three keepnets.<br />
The leadcore rig accounted for at least 90 per<br />
cent of those fish and it was difficult to see<br />
how a conventional pole rig could have been<br />
any more effective. So, the next time you are<br />
tearing your hair out fishing down the edge,<br />
try pinning the line to the deck. It could be the<br />
key to bumper catches this summer!<br />
102 AUGUST 2010<br />
Meat, hemp and corn are<br />
the main offerings for<br />
down the edges.<br />
Punched polony on a Quickstop<br />
hair rig complements<br />
the rig perfectly.<br />
Almost every single one<br />
of these fish was taken<br />
on Ed’s leadcore rig!