Hi, after some opinions here. As someone who is fairly new to carp fishing I am a bit confused on the length of the hook link especially for spinner and german rigs. I have read some articles where people talk about using 5" hook link and other articles where people talk about using 14" hook links.

I guess the length of the hook link affects how quickly the fish with feel the weight of the lead? What do you think is better shorter or longer and why? Would you suggest a shorter or longer hook link for pressured day ticket waters?

Thanks

In reply to Post #1
Shorter over cleaner substrates. Longer over dirtier substrates.

How bothered would you be fishing short hooklinks in silt with a lead clip arrangement?

In reply to Post #3
It's not clear who you're asking mate but if its me, I'd have no problem doing that if it was clear they were feeding balls deep in the stuff (and it's normally very clear when they're doing that with all the fizzing etc).

In reply to Post #1
No right answer, try different lengths and see what works for you , if everybodys on 6 inch rigs then maybe try 12 inch rigs

I remember about 25 years ago when I first started carping. Everyone was fishing long braid rigs on a silty park lake, and one day for some reason I put out a 4” braid rig and had 11 fish in a day. Since then, and having watched how little a carp moves when picking up baits in the margins, I have always leant towards short rigs and have done well. I always believed that that is why chod rigs were so successful.
If I am fishing a particularly silty spot I will still use a short rig, I will just drop to a lighter flat pear lead and attach a tiny mesh bag.
I will never understand why people will use a hinge stiffy on a really long boom. I know it works, but I feel it just makes it so much easier for a fish to get away with it.

In reply to Post #6
i remember watching a group of carp for the best part of a week.

the smaller carp, 30 to near on 50lb would touch their mouths on the lake bed to feed, there were 3 others with them, all well over 70 and one over 80lb...their mouths never touched the lake bed, instead, they wafted their pecs so the food items fluttered up and then they would suck in the food from upto a foot above the bottom of the lake!

Now, id fished this water for many weeks previously, and had a few, but in the main, smaller fish to mid 40, the next session, i used hook lengths of 18 inches, first week, 4 to 70.4 and the second week, 6 including 3 x 50's to 58 a 72 and an 84.

obvious really why i struggled before lengthening the hook link.

In reply to Post #7
That's a crazy observation! Kind of explains why so many carp go uncaught when you hear about feeding habits like that. I wonder if they had learnt to feed like that through caution, or it's just how they were. 🤔

In reply to Post #7
Hell of a stock of fish?

In reply to Post #8
i can only say what i witnessed mate, but the very large fish were more rounded in shape, they would have literally have had to stand on their heads to feed directly off the lake bed, so i can only assume that it was difficult or un comfortable for them to do so, therefore wafting fins to disturb the food items and picking them off as they flutter up and down was an easier way for them to feed.

In reply to Post #9
yes mate, it was mental to watch them.

ive been lucky to have quite a few fish from there now.

In reply to Post #7
What type of rig and rig material did you use?

In that scenario, I would opt to fish soft braid.

In reply to Post #1
I think with running leads (slack lines) that rig length may not be as critical as leads fished on a tight line and semi-fixed. With running leads, in theory, the weight of lead can't be used to eject the rig as the line should pull through the run ring.

I think I might be blinkered at times as most of my rigs on slack or tight lines (using run rings) are around 9inches long, although I do go shorter with helicopter set-ups.

As Yonny says, think about what you are fishing over, or into, even where you are hooking fish and adjust your rig length to suit.

I have a simple mantra that works for me, that also covers hair length:
If the fish are hooked dead centre, the hair and rig length are spot on.
If you are hooking deep in the mouth, even in inside of the cheek, the rig or hair length are too long.
If you are hooking fish at the front of the mouth, edge of the lip, even losing fish to hookpulls, then the rig and hair length are too short.

If you experience problems, change one thing at a time, either the hair or rig length, try again, still problems, alter the other.
Added to that, stiffness or softness of hooklink material can also make a difference. A heavier fluorocarbon (or mono) hooklink may not 'waft' around like a braid hooklink, even the knot at the swivel or quicklink can stop a hooklinks movement!

As Frenzy pointed out, that can be important if the fish are feeding above the bottom. Different fish feed differently, some work along the bottom, head down munch. Others waft, suck and blow.
I can remember a big fully scaled carp that was so fat it almost fed vertically, its gut was too big to feed flat.

Try to find out what most people are using on busy day ticket waters, and be different.

In reply to Post #7
Thought provoking

In reply to Post #14
I've always used longer rigs than most ,
I've watched the underwater videos and understand they promote short hook links
But unless it's clean gravel I have far more confidence in going longer
My rig safe resembles a hold-all
Also the type of hook link also plays a big part in deciding its length

In reply to Post #12
at that time i was using G-Forces Black out, stripped about 2 inches near swivel end and about 6 inches back from the hook eye.

i found that full supple links caused issues with the possion chats tangling the full hook length up, so being coated in the mid section stopped the problems

Hope that helps

In reply to Post #16
yes it does!
thanks for the insight

In reply to Post #17
not a problem mate