SPECIMEN CARP ANGLING: Hooklink history and design

WORDS & IMAGES: Shanin Weir, Fishery Manager, Laurentia Lake I was recently requested to post a general article on hooklinks, after one of our regular anglers at Laurentia found what is believed to be a hooklink literally made by a “Caveman” that I posted on our social media for all to see. Not in it being prehistoric, but rather so rough and rudimentary in its design and material used, that at first glance I thought it was rather maybe some shrapnel from a war zone! Let’s quickly cast (pun intended) ourselves back to the hooklink’s origins, because with so many different types of materials to choose from it is literally a massive minefield out there for Specimen Anglers in the shops and online. How long, how short, how light, how heavy, how big, how small, thick or thin, see-through or camouflaged?, are just some of the many questions we anglers ask ourselves every time we spool up a new rig for our next fishing session. It is however true that they will all work – under the right conditions, using the right baits, in the right location. But the main criteria of any finished hooklink is firstly that it must be strong enough to hold your intended quarry and size of fish, and not break. Secondly it must also hold onto the bottom lip of the fish in such a way that it sits deep and as motionless as possible to prevent any further damage to the fish’s mouth, other than the intended hook hold area itself during the ensuing fight. Other criteria, more important from an angler’s perspective, is that it must look as natural as possible in order to fool the fish’s suspicious nature. Lastly it must by design create properties that prevent the fish from immediately ejecting it once inside the mouth at the initial point where the fish sucks it up to eat or taste it. So where did it all start? Hair rigs were first invented and tested in the early 1980’s by Kevin Maddocks and Len Middleton, who amongst the early dions of angling such as Tim Paisley, Jim Shelley, Lee Jackson, Matt Hayes, Max Cottis and so on, were two of the leading names in the angling fraternity at the time. On one of their early fishing trips, Len plucked a hair from his head and used it to attach the bait to the hook. This is why it is called the "hair rig". Since then a myriad of different materials have come out, which enable threads to be as discreet as the original natural hair, but with much more resistance to breaking. The whole idea works, because the hook is NOT buried in the bait or boilie, but rather sits beside or alongside the hook, and due to the carp’s method of sucking and blowing its food whilst rummaging around on the bottom, the sharp hook point then catches in the mouth or lips. A lead sinker of two ounces or more, then does the rest of the work by pulling the hook deeper into the flesh as the fish bolts off. It does this so effectively that it is actually a self-hooking rig, with no need for the angler to strike as done by conventional anglers. This method or concept has totally revolutionised carp angling, and hair rigs are now considered standard amongst Specimen Anglers worldwide. As I said earlier, there are a myriad of hooklink materials, and each one has its place in each angler’s arsenal, and I am not going to advocate which one to use, when and where, as every angler has his or her own preference. But what really matters to me is the following: Make sure your hooks are very, very, very sharp! There is only one way to test a hook’s sharpness, and that is to run it upside down on your thumbnail. After if touches your thumbnail and then moves just half a millionth of a millimetre, it is blunt. Accept it as biblical truth. Finished and klaar!Always make sure that the breaking strength of your hooklink material is LESS than that of your mainline. If you snag up, and you go out to address the snag, in a worst-case scenario the only thing that is left behind is your hooklink where you break off. This minimises the amount of loose mainline left lying in the water.Also don’t use the thinnest hooklink material that you can possibly find, as this can also cause serious damage to a fish’s mouth during the fight.Please try to also become a better angler by using barbless hooks. Believe me, as long as you keep MODERATE tension on that fish, YOU WILL NOT lose it. Barbless hooks cause less damage in a fish’s mouth, and they are much easier to remove, thereby saving time on the bank while the fish is out of the water. As an avid fish care enthusiast, that alone, should make you think seriously about rather using barbless hooks. Materials for making up hooklinks come in all shapes, sizes and colours. To name but a few we have: *Monofilament that is used extensively by anglers all over the world, mostly because the slight rigidity of the mono that makes it a very good hooklink material to use for anti-blowback situations (in short lengths) and the thin nature of the material also makes it very difficult for carp to visibly detect. But here in South Africa we have major problems with crabs that unfortunately easily make mincemeat of any angler’s monofilament offering. *Coated braid is by far the most used hooklink material in modern-day carp fishing. It is versatile and can be used to create lots of different rig presentations. Solid or peeled back, it has a multitude of uses in different rig formations. It’s generally fast sinking, very abrasion resistant and comes in a range of different colours. *Elasticated Triggalink. Many years ago I was fishing Donaldson Top Lake when Gary Hoyden, Steve and André were still running the lake together. Those days it was Gilbert Foxcroft, Martin Davidson, the late Cliffy Sinclair (my mentor) who were the original regulars amongst a few other local anglers. An angler from the UK who was on his way back home, gave me a length of Triggalink to try as it was not yet available in South Africa. When it is dry, it behaves just like normal braid, but once it is in the water it contracts in on itself, and becomes fully elasticated. Like a snake waiting to strike, it recoils back on itself as soon as you stretch it out and let go. Its hooking properties and use are highly underrated. I cannot underestimate its validity in any angler’s tackle box. *Fluorocarbon has a slightly higher stiffness than mono, and is mostly used in very clear water conditions, as it literally disappears underwater, which makes it ideal in conditions when fishing for very suspicious carp that are feeding. It also has a tendency to jump back into a fish’s mouth as it tries to eject it, due to its slight stiffness and memory. I would like to point out a few of the regular rigs below. Although every one of them is slightly different, and each one has its own dynamics and advantages in different conditions and fishing either with bottom, wafter or pop-up baits, they all have a few common facts about their design: The boilie is held firmly in place. No chance of it coming off inadvertently.From the rubber sleeve, to the hook point, all the various products (hook, swivel, rings, hooklink material itself, putty, etc) used, is of sound design for carp fishing only.Every rig is designed to cause minimal trauma to the fish, in the hook-up and fighting stage. The Simple or Knotless Knot rig: The D rig: The Chod rig: The Ronnie rig: The Blow-back rig: The Pop-up rig: There are many others, such as The German rig, The Line Aligner, Helicopter, The Combi rig, Hinged Stiff rig, 360 rig, Multi rig, etc, to name but a few, but they all have the same common threads and facets as mentioned above. Some of our regular anglers at Laurentia also posted pics of their favourite rigs, as shown below: As can be seen, all of them are clean, neat, tidy, capable, durable, and predictable. Unlike the “Caveman” rig as shown below: A piece of coated steel wire, which is then tied onto a piece of braid, with a lead split shot on. A line aligner forms part of the bottom of the hook, which has a sliding swivel on, which is loosely attached to two pieces of champagne cork. Heaven alone knows what would have happened if a fish sucked that in and the cork dislodged and went down its throat into its stomach. This must be one of those anglers that didn’t think things through, but instead spent millions on all his gear on the bank and used the few pennies that he had left over to build himself an unconventional rig. Remember guys, it's what is on your end tackle that catches the fish, so spend lots of time reading up on different materials and different rigs, and make them properly, using proper materials, not only to ensure that you catch a fish of a lifetime, but also to ensure good fish care and a safe return to the water.

SPECIMEN CARP ANGLING: Hooklink history and design

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