Carp safety

Thoughts on carp safety and rigs - by Rod Leeson-Magry, former AKAC Committee member

Dear Members

During the course of my talks with some of you and having observed or been shown the end tackles and methods you use, I felt I had to put pen to paper for anglers, both old and new to carp fishing on AKAC waters, emphasising how important it is to use suitable methods and rigs.

What would you say are the real plus points of the carp in our waters? Is it the size they reach, their colours and patterns or maybee their ability to outwit you, when you thought you had them fooled? For the people I fish with and myself it is all of the above, plus one important point, "they are all virtually in immaculate condition". You only have to look in the carp fishing monthly magazines to see pictures of carp that appear to have something missing. For example part of the mouth, the eyes, a barbule or two, some scales and maybe they have those horrible black and brown patches in their mouths. I do not wish to catch carp in this condition. Do you?

It does not take much effort to put a bit of thought into carp fishing welfare. It is a good idea to place all of the following items close to hand before you even cast a rod:-
an unhooking mat
weigh sling
scales
landing net
fish anti-septic i.e. medi-carp for treating hook holds and other wounds or damage you find.

It is also worth checking the water of margins in your swim. There is nothing worse than reaching out to net a fish, only to see it has wrapped itself around a snag that you had not seen. In the margins of some of our waters I have found items such as, steel wire rope protruding from the lake bed, scaffold tubes, tree roots, concrete blocks and last but not least a car! Now all this preparation is fine if you actually land the fish, unhook it on a mat and carefully return it. However, what if the fish finds the sanctuary of a dense weed bed, snag or indeed heads for the far side of a shallow gravel bar? If your lead becomes caught in a snag and you are using a properly constructed safety-clip set up, it is not a problem. The lead will release and you can continue playing the fish. What if your mainline breaks above the rig or leader material? Can you honestly guarantee the safety of the fish? Not if you are using the type of rig and lead system that I found on one of our waters this week, or one of a couple that have been found with large fish still attached! The people that cast those rigs into our waters must have known the consequences, should their mainline have broken.

I know experienced and newcomers alike will read an article in a carp magazine with pictures of large carp and diagrams of so-called safe rigs used to catch them and think I will try that, BIG MISTAKE. In the right circumstances and in the right hands these rigs may be safe, but often an impatient angler eager to catch fish at any cost copies them! A lot of carp anglers prefer to use lead core or lead core leaders as part of their end tackles. Not unreasonably thinking that it will sink out of sight, this is not the case. They prefer lead core to E.S.P. Anchor rig tube, even though the rig tube is four times heavier than the heaviest lead core available. Therefore why would they prefer to use something less than useful and dangerous in most anglers' hands? Because Tel-boy uses it and he catches Monster Carp!

Where do we start when it comes to setting up our rods? I have included with this article, a couple of drawings of rigs that have caught several large carp from both Keynes Country Park and Thamesmead lakes. These two rigs form the basis of all my carp set ups, and from Savay to Cerney and the Trent to the Thames, they work. As a rule I would normally use the semi-fixed set up, where there is a chance the lead could be caught in weed and would prefer to use the running lead set up, in clear open water at close to medium range.

I am not laying down the 'law according to Rod' but from some of the carp set ups I have seen in use by AKAC members, these two set ups (NB - the image of the two rigs will take 27 seconds to load) would be a good starting point if you are a newcomer or struggling with your existing approach.

Tight lines

Rod Leeson-Magry

You may wish to download a copy of the two carp rigs, to do this you will require Acrobat Reader, a free download is available from Adobe website.

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