This one uses half a cork ball to create the buoyancy rather than rig foam placed above a bait, like this Balanced Carp Fishing Rig. With the above setup I have the flavour and smell coming straight from the boilie, and in direct contact with any carp that decides to check it out.
I prefer to use this type of rig with longer hairs so the hook has complete freedom. This means it will drop easily to grab a hold inside a carp's mouth. I placed shrink tubing at the end to allow the hook to turn much more quickly once a carp takes the bait.
Making The Long Hair carp Fishing Rig
You can make this fishing rig with foam or a half cork ball. I used a cork ball and carved out the centre part so that the round part of the boilie fits nicely inside part of the cork. I make the hair long, nearly twice as long as the hook size. This gives me plenty of room to add the bait and cork, plus room to add some putty or a shot, if it is required.
In the example above, I used a rig ring to form a blow-back section on the shank of the hook, I often use a piece of silicon tubing for this part, but I wanted a quicker blow-back action for this buoyant fishing rig. The hook I used was a Korda long shank X of size 6. I tied it to the braid using a knotless knot, then used shrink tubing on the end which matches the lake bottom to disguise the hook further.
Presenting the Long Hair Buoyant Fishing Rig in Water
I like the way that this rig presents itself, the bait tends to float over the hook helping to hide it from any fish swimming over the top. If you manage to camouflage the rest of the end tackle by matching it with the surrounding lake bottom, then I think this buoyancy rig will fool many big carp in the lake.
In the pictures of this rig, I noticed that the bait blends in a little with the bottom. This was not done on purpose, I just grabbed some bait before taking the pictures. In fact this brings up a good fishing tactic, don't feel you need to use boilies that show up against the bottom of the lake bed. Using brightly coloured bait can actually spook some carp. I sometimes use bait which blends in nicely with the bottom, the carp can smell the food but cannot see it. This helps lower their guard as they mooch around trying to locate the food items. If the carp in your local lake are hard to catch then try this fishing tactic!
This fishing rig shown here does NOT have a very long hair set up. It's possible to use hairs much longer than the one shown in the pictures above. I have used fishing rigs with hairs as long as 3 inches and STILL caught carp!
How To Make A Carp Fishing Pop-Up Rig
This is another rig created by Adam Penning, and featured in the Fox guide to rigs DVD. This fishing rig is exclusively a pop-up rig. It is another version of the 360 degree rig but, it gives total movement of the hook because the boom is not attached to the shank of the hook. This means you can control the length of the pop up hooklink, thus allowing to present a pop up bait much higher than the 360 rig can go.
The pop-up carp rig shown above is not exactly the same as the TB rig shown by Adam in the fox DVD. Adam has the double vertical stiff link much shorter, only about an inch high. I have adapted it so I can pop up my bait to 3 inches for when fishing in between weed beds. The best thing about doing it this way is I can shorten the vertical link very easily, I can also change it for another material or colour.
The use of a horizontal stiff link boom from the lead means that the hook is in direct contact with the lead when a carp takes the bait, this gives it more effective hooking potential. The horizontal hooklink stiff boom can also be changed to make it shorter, or change the material to suit the bottom of the lake.
Making the Rotary Pop-Up Rig
In the original rig, Adam Penning used a flexi ring swivel to attach the hooklink and boom line. I have changed it slightly and made use of a helicopter bead with a rig ring underneath. This is so I can add extra putty weight to the bottom and control pop up buoyancy without it affecting the swivel movements (see other photos below).
There was no knot tied to secure the hook, instead I doubled the stiff line then threaded it through the eye. It was then pulled further until the loop could slide over the point of the hook and pulled back down to the eye. The rig ring and float stop was threaded on after securing the line.
A strong loop knot was used to hold the rig ring inside the looped stiff line. Two reason for using a rig ring:
It stops the rotary helicopter bead from passing over the knot
It helps hold heavy putty in place if there's a need to counterbalance a bigger pop up bait.
Adam used a tungsten bead to balance, but I feel that putty gives the ability to fine-tune the balancing of a pop up bait.
As you can see the helicopter bead gives the popup rig plenty of vertical movement. This allows the hook to move freely inside the mouth of a carp, and this gives greater ability for the hook to catch a hold.
I test the strength of the pop up fishing rig before using it. I also test how the fishing rig looks in water before casting it out.
How the rig is presented in water. The vertical stiff, double hook link can rotate inside the helicopter bead, so if a carp approaches from any side the rig will work well.
You can see how the bead sits on the bottom. More weight can easily be added to the rig ring without affecting the swivel's rotary movements.
How the pop up looks underwater. The hook will still turn around if a carp comes to take the bait from the right side in the picture. If you want to see how Adam Penning creates his version of this best pop up rig then you can purchase the Fox essential guide to carp rigs at all good tackle shops.
Here is another version of this pop-up fishing rig using weight to increase hooking
