I had a call from my brother (Tim) today. It seemed he was well on with the job he was working on this week and, if the weather held he would be free to go fishing. Great! The weather looked as if it was going to behave itself so my hopes were high. As Sue and I were out for the day visiting my my Mum, who had been poorly (much better today!) I suggested that maybe once he was sure he would be free he could pick up a pint of Maggots, just in case we managed to get to the venue before the shop opened. A few hours later and I got a call from Tim to say he had to pull out as he had been offered some more work - Nearly!
The plan was to waggler fish to start with and to then have a go at a spot of ledgering using the carp rod we got with our starter set. I thought I could set this up on the bank and see what happened. As it was not to be I decided to do some more homework and investigate rigs. Hummm... There seems to be dozens of ways of skinning this particular cat. As I am now completely confused about what rig to use, after being 'YouTubed'. Being presented with an unlimited amount of advice, some conflicting and other just, shall we say, opinionated. The internet is a wonderful thing and with some knowledge and experience of the subject it is fairly easy to sort the wheat from the chaff. As I have neither of the former, I have decided to go back to the very basics and give that a try first.
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| This is what I intend to have a go with... |
The plan with this rig is to start with a long hook link and to reduce it as necessary. I will start with it about 15 inches (380mm) long. I will feed a few maggots into the swim and bait the hook with a couple, one red, one natural and see what happens. If that doesn't work I will revert to plan 'B' and try sweetcorn. I will add a small limp of tungsten putty about half way down the hook link and bait with one real and one artificial to give it a bit or buoyancy. I also intend to take and try out some home made groundbate which I will mix up with the juice from the sweetcorn and lake water.
All this is, of course, all theory at the moment but that is what I enjoy. I get a lot of fun out of working it out in advance and thinking it all through. I can then look forward to giving it a go and seeing what happens. I will let you know how I get on.
Ralph.
