Competitive carp angling - Specimen

[christodeb]

I decided to start competitive specimen carping. Our first competition is the Freestate Trials on 27Feb.

We had a long talk with GP Nel and Kobus van Loggerenberg last night, where they explainded the whole process and what equipment we need at the moment. What i would like to know is, what do you guys use with regard to hooklinks, hooks, tubing, etc?

I am a total newbie when it comes to this facet so please bare with me!

 

[momo330]

christod,you got all confused now. is there a difference in equipment when it comes to specimen carp angling and competitive specimen angling?

 

[christodeb]

At the moment i am doing competitive bank angling, and there is a major difference between that and specimen carping. I'm sure there is also a difference between targeting the big carp at a non competitive level, and targeting a large amount of weight over 72hours.

 

[Spod]

Hehehe! exactly Momo330, Christo, you need to forget everything you learnt conventional angling.

You may be able to use your rods and some of your tackle for now, but it is advisable to upgrade as soon as you can...
On main line, I wouldnt go less than 10kg breaking strain, and you can look at mono or braid.

About hooklinks, hooks and tubing? Id say start with the ready made hooklinks you get at angling stores, they usually made using the wide gape hook. try them and make up some 600mm leadcore leaders and use inline leads, this is the simplest and easiest way to get into the swing of things. Leadcore can be a bit tricky, and a bit difficult to explain on a forum, but, you dont tie knots in it, you splice the loops/eyes.

So, I'm going to try and explain how you splice leadcore....

Cut a length of leadcore about 750mm long, then while holding the leadcore in your left hand, push the outer shield sothat the lead comes out, cut the lead about 70-80mm and pull the shield forward sothat it has no lead in it, now using a small splicing needle, open the lach on the needle and using the needle's hook,enter the side of the shield where the lead stops, and turn the needle towards the leadless end, push it up the shield about 15mm and exit the side of the shield. Heres the tricky part, hook the end of the leadless shield back on the needle's hook and lach over the lach.
Now wet the end and needle and shield with spit and pull the needle back as if you were going to extract it from the shield where you entered first.. this threads the leadless shield through itself creating a loop/eye. Do this slowly and try feeding the shield over the needle with the end attached, it takes a bit of fiddling, but it can be done. if the end comes off the needle, do the whole procedure over again, remember to trim the fraid end before hooking it to the needle.
Once you have the needle and end coming out of the shield, you pull it till you have a small eye, about 5-10mm, then cut the excess off and put a tension bar in the eye youve just made and pull the lead core and the cut end should just enter the shield, giving you a clean eye without any fraid strands.
Then turn the lead core around and do the same again, but make a slightly bigger eye, 10mm-12mm. this end you put the swivel on, simply by threading the eye through the swivel ring and pasing the other end of the leadcore through the leadcore eye and pulling tight.

Attach yor hooklink to the swivel.

Now you can pass the inline lead on the leadcore till it comes to the swivel, pull it till it clips into the lead.

The other end of the leadcore with the small eye gets tied to your main line using a grinner knot.

Geez! I hope that made sense...

Spod

 

[momo330]

what i mean is that when it boils down to the equipment side of it im sure its the same. now with bank angling you use a muti box etc. your specimen equipment will be as follows

unhooking mat
pod
alarms
swingers or hangers
knotless landing net
a variety of braids for hooklinks (coated and uncoated)
leadcore or tubing
massive variety of terminal tackle

im almost certain you will need the same items be it specimen carp or competitive specimen carp. are you currently using mushroom sinkers and bomb holders etc?

 

[christodeb]

Thanks a lot Spod. Luckily i bought a pair of 12ft shimano tribals recently so with regard to rods and reels i'm fine. All the small stuff i need to buy(Luckily GP gave us everyting else that we need) The only thing we need to get is the hooklink material, hooks and leads.

If i understand correctly the leadcore works the same as a surf wind on leader with regard to the dacron that you splice to make a loop at the top?

 

[christodeb]

[color=#006600]momo330[/color] wrote:

what i mean is that when it boils down to the equipment side of it im sure its the same. now with bank angling you use a muti box etc. your specimen equipment will be as follows

unhooking mat
pod
alarms
swingers or hangers
knotless landing net
a variety of braids for hooklinks (coated and uncoated)
leadcore or tubing
massive variety of terminal tackle

im almost certain you will need the same items be it specimen carp or competitive specimen carp. are you currently using mushroom sinkers and bomb holders etc?

The equipment is totally different and will cost us a lot of money in future!

I am still using mushroom weights, but we have got access to a sinker mould that they use for specimen carping.

My biggest concern is all the little things that i need to buy now and all the feed! 

 

[momo330]

ok im going to run through a few different things with you and i will try and add pics where ever i can. lets start with the hair rig. you get a variety of hook length materials,coated and uncoated braids,fluro etc etc. the reason for all of this is to present your hook baits in ways suitable to the situation your in. brands to look for:

sufix
fox
kryston

i would say these are the most commonly used hook length materials. they usually come in 20m spools in 25lb. use the web for further instructions on how to tie the hair rig. heres a pic of a basic hair rig
 

 

[momo330]

spod has already given you a very detailed reply on how to splice leadcore. leadcore is lead inside a braid. what it does is help pin your rig to the bottom and camo it as well. you will also not get false beeps when there are carp feeding around your rig. it also doesnt pull of scales from the carp while its turning on you during a fight. tubing is also in aid of carp care and now you also get tungsten tubing which does what leadcore can. i still think leadcore does a better job pinning the rig to the bottom.

pics below: ready spliced leadcore and tubing

 

[momo330]

tubing

 

[momo330]

now a few different rig options. heres a semi fixed bolt rig. you will need safety lead clips for this. a safety lead clip basically releases the lead incase your lead gets snagged. the lead slides into the lead clip and a rubber sleeve in pushed over that to hold it in place. now when the lead gets snagged it pulls down on the safety lead clip causing it to push the rubber sleeve up on your leadcore or mainline if you using tubing thus releasing the lead so the fish can surface and make for easier landing.
 

safety lead clip kit

 

[momo330]

semi fixed bolt rig set up using safety lead clips

 

[Spod]

Hey Momo330 tackle tart...lol! I see you got the fox stuff there... thats my man!lol!

Just a rule of thumb I learned... if you fishing non snag area's, use leadcore. If you fishing snags, reeds, tree stumps etc, the leadcore cuts into it and snags ... there use flor carb leaders about 0,5mm diameter and 10m long, with a piece of 350-400mm tungsten sinking tube, the tube is to protect the fish and to sink the leader. The mono leader doesnt cut into reeds as bad and you can unsnag it.

So, tubing on mono leader or coated braids and leadcore leaders dont have tubing.

 

[momo330]

here is an inline bolt rig,the simplest rig yet soo effective. for this you will need an inline lead. spod has already mentioned the setup of this.

 

[momo330]

a very important tool in your box...a baiting needle and the pic i have shows just how its used

 

[momo330]

once you have threaded your bait into your hair you will need a boilie stop to prevent the bait from comming off the hair. when you learn how to tie the hair rig you will notice there is a loop at the end of the hair. the boilie stop is pushed inbetween that loop.

 

[christodeb]

Thanks a lot momo! You need to get some manna for that!

The rig that we are going to use in Bloemhof is the inline bolt rig. At first we will use some 130lb kingfisher braid in stead of the leadcore, but later on we will definately use leadcore.

What do they call the tubing used where the weight sits on?

I get confused between the tubing on the hook that helps keep the hair straight and the tubing where the weight sits on.

 

[momo330]

i think these are a few of the essential basics. as you go on you will learn about soo many other rigs and presentations its unreal. spod may side with me on this but i feel nothing beats simplicity. DONT COMPLICATE YOUR BAITS AND RIGS. when you are ready to start buying your equipment post your questions and we will all try and advise you to the best of our ability. please dont get carried away by the salesman is the stores as there is alot of money that can be saved.

 

[momo330]

with an inline setup the lead does not sit on the tubing. i will do this step by step with pics ok? firstly thread a piece of rig tubing about 60cm onto your MAINLINE. then thread on a tail rubber and then your lead and the a swivel. the 60cm of tubing you you threaded on first fits snug into the back of the tail rubber. an inline lead will have a little plastic pipe comming out the top. the front of your tail rubber fits over that little piece of pipe. now the tail rubber holding your tubing onto your lead so it doesnt slide up and down.

tubing(60cm threaded onto mainline)

 

[momo330]

the tail rubber is now threaded on after the tubing. the tubing is then pushed in about 0.5cm into the top of the tail rubber