Hair Rigs - An Introduction - Not Just For Carp.
Although the hair rig was developed for large carp, it is an excellent rig for carp of all sizes, barbel, tench, bream, chub and roach. All you have to do is to scale the hook, hair, line and bait size down to the size of the fish you are fishing for.
The hair rig was developed in the late 1970s. It gets it's name from the fact that when it was first thought of, human hair was used to tie the bait to the hook. The initial idea was to present the bait on fine line a short distance away from the heavier carp hook and line.
Since then anglers have found that the hair rig works just a well if it's made out of stiffer and thicker materials. This lead to the development of the "knotless knot". The hook link material is used to make the hair as well. In fact it starts of at the loop at the end that the bait sits on right the way through to the end of the rig itself where it attaches to the main line.
When it comes to hook sizes, for large carp use size 4's down to 10's. If your going for other smaller fish or smaller carp 10's down to a size 16, work well. You will also need to balance your tackle to the size of your bait. You wouldn't use a large boilie, on a hair rig tied with a size 14's hook, if you were after carp of just a couple of pound, for example. It's mainly common sense.
Also there is no need to use specialist hook length materials to tie the rig, I will very often use line straight off my reel. For small carp fishing (fish of a pound or so upwards) i like to use line of about 6lb breaking strain. I wouldn't use braid as it can tangle very easily, so it's best left to specialist carp fishing. Again it's a case of balancing your line strength to your fishing circumstances.
A very good material for making hair rigs from is fluorocarbon. It looks like fishing line, but it has a refractivity index similar to water. Sounds good, what it means is that it's a little more difficult for fish to see than ordinary line.
A lot of tackle shops sell it in the specialist carp fishing department. If you want to pay about half as much for the same thing, go to the fly fishing section. Fly anglers use it because of it's visibility - or lack of it. Not only can it be half the price, but it's available in more breaking strains. The 6lb is brilliant for fishing commercial type fisheries, when your after smaller carp. For bigger fish, I use 10 or 12lb breaking strain.
Tying the Rig - The Knotless Knot - this method only works with eyed hooks.
The first thing you need to do is to cut off some line or braid to tie the hair rig with. About an 18 inch length should give you enough to play with.
Tie a loop for the boilie onto the end of you hook length material (the instructions how to do this are further down the page). Then pass the other end of the line from the back of the hook, through the eye to the front. This is important as you want the hair to sit at the back of the hook, like it does in the above drawing.
Decide how long you want the hair to be and firmly grasp the hook and the hair to stop the line moving. Starting at the eye of the hook and working down towards the hook bend, you now start to whip the hair to the back of the hook.
Make sure as you continue to whip the line around the shank and the hair that you keep it very tight.
After six or so turns, making sure you keep the whipping tight all the time, put the loose end of the line through the eye of the hook again. As when you first started this again should be from the back of the hook to the front. Don't get confused with the different shading of the line on the drawing above, it's just to highlight what you need to do.
Pull the line tight and then you have the finished rig. Once you have had a go you will be able to do them in your sleep. It's that easy.
Finishing Touches.
to complete the rig you need to tie a loop or a swivel to the other end of the hair rig to attach the main line. The rig needs to be between about 6 to 12 inches long, if your new to all this, then I think about 10 inches is a good starting point.
To attach the swivel use the "Palomar" or "Grinner Knots". Information on these knots is given further down this page or on the "Knots" page.
If you going to use a loop to tie onto the main line, use the "Loop Knot" in place of the swivel. It's the same knot used to make the loop at the end of the hair. Again information is further down or on the "Knots Page".
The solution is to put push a small piece of silicone tubing over the eye. As
can be seen, this makes the line leave the hook in line with the shank and hook point.
Be aware that when using stiff hook length materials to make the rig like ordinary fishing line etc, the line will leave the hook at an awkward angle. This does not matter when using soft braids.
Other Knots Used To Make The Hair Rig.
The Loop on the Hair for the Boilie Stop.
The knot to make the small loop that's on the hair itself is a very simple knot. Firstly take your hook length material and simply double it over, as in "A" above.
The next step is to fold it back on itself, as shown in "B".
The loop end is then passed through the circle of line "C" a couple of times and that's it. What you need to do then is pull it tight but yet still keep the loop small. It can take some practice to get the loop small. I've found it best to slowly tighten the knot, pushing some of the loop back into the knot if the loop looks to big. If it's just to much, help is at hand.
I'm not quite sure I like the above drawings of the loop knot, if you have a look at the "knots" page, I think I have made a better job of explaining the same knot.
The Loop Tier.
The loop tier is available from most tackle shops for about £1.00.
The first picture on the right shows a loop tier. The top set of pegs make smaller loops than the bottom set.
It is very easy to use. Once you get to stage "C" in the drawing above, put the loop end in the long peg and the circle of line in the shorter peg.
Pull the end of the line to tighten up the knot on the shortest peg.
Lift the knot off the shortest peg, leaving the loop on the long peg. Give it a final pull to tighten and there is your loop. Well worth £1 or so of any ones money.
Grinner Knot - Use to Tie Bait Bands, Bait Screws to Hair - Or Swivels to Line.
If you don't want a loop on your hair, but a pellet band or bait screw etc then use the "Grinner Knot" to tie it on. Again a simple knot, which if you look at it is similar to the loop knot. The differences are you don't double the line over and you twist the loop around the two lines that come away from the bait screw (or what ever) 4 or 5 times, instead of once or twice.
To tighten moisten with a bit of spit, pull the loose end fairly tight, pull the main line to pull the knot down to whatever your tying on and then give the loose end a final pull to tighten fully. Take care when tying on meat screws as you can pull the line through the plastic, as they are delicate.
The same knot can also be used to tie swivels and eyed hooks onto the line.
In Conclusion.
As I have said above, tying a hair rig might look a bit complicated at first, but as soon as you have got used to it, you can tie them blindfolded. It's a great rig not only for carp, but tench, barble, bream etc. You just need to balance the size of your rigs to the fish you are after.
I've included some more general information on hair rigs here.
A Few Points About Hair Rigs.
Although how to tie hair rigs is dealt with on a separate page, this page deals with a few points that will help people who are new to this method of presentation. What some people take for granted, such as how long the hair should be, or how you but a bait on a hair rig, can need explaining to others. One of the great things about angling is that you have never finished learning, no matter how much experience you have.
The Length of the Hair.
The picture on the right shows boilie mounted on a hair rig. It gives a guide to how you want the bait to sit on the hair and how far you want the top of the bait from the bottom of the hook. The bait doesn't have to be a boilie, it can be luncheon meat, sweetcorn, peperami etc. The same rule applies.
As can be seen the top of the bait is quite close to the bottom of the hook bend, only a couple of mm or so. I have found this to be the best position of the bait for all round use. There may be occasions when a slightly longer hair will be better, but the setup shown is a good place to start.
Although how to tie hair rigs is dealt with on a separate page, this page deals with a few points that will help people who are new to this method of presentation. What some people take for granted, such as how long the hair should be, or how you but a bait on a hair rig, can need explaining to others. One of the great things about angling is that you have never finished learning, no matter how much experience you have.
Mounting the Bait on the Hair.
Mounting a hard bait on a boilie is very easy, you need a baiting needle and a boilie or hair stop. The animation below shows how it works.
Mounting a hard bait on a boilie is very easy, you need a baiting needle and a boilie or hair stop. The animation below shows how it works.
- The bait is pushed onto a baiting needle.
- The loop of the hair rig is then placed onto the hook or barb of the baiting needle and the rig pulled tight against the barb or loop.
- The bait is then pushed off the baiting needle onto the hair rig and the baiting needle released.
- A boilie or hair stop is then pushed onto the loop and the bait pushed down the hair to sit on this stop - thats it, job done.
The picture on the right shows the types of baiting needles available.
The top one has a small hook at the end. This is suitable for normal boilies, peperami, sweetcorn etc.
The baiting needle in the middle has a sharp point and a barb to hook the hair loop over, as shown in the animation above. This is suitable for all the baits named above, plus extra hard baits like pop-up boilies and tigernuts etc.
The baiting needle shown at the bottom of the picture has a larger hook than the one shown at the top. It is called a stringer needle and is used to mount boilies on pva string. It is also excellent for putting luncheon meat on pellet bands. For more info on this see the "Luncheon Meat - Hooking" page.
A Simple Setup.
The above diagram shows a very simple setup. having tied the hair rig, this is then tied to a swivel. The length of the rig is normally between 6 to 12 inches, if your not sure I find about 9 or 10 inches a good starting point.
The plastic bead between the swivel and the ledger is there to protect the reel line knot on the swivel, from the ledger eye bumping against it all the time. It also holds the swivel away from the ledger when casting, thus helping prevent tangles.
Note that the ledger is not locked in place with anything between itself and the reel side of the line. It is allowed to run freely. For the reason why see the animation at the bottom of the ledger page.
Full information on how to tie a hair rig, is given here on the "How to Tie a Hair Rig" page.
