On some heli rigs I have seen an upper and lower stop bead to trap the hook link but on others the lower stop bead is done away with meaning the hook link can slide between the lead and the upper stop bead.

When would you use each rig?

In reply to Post #1
I don't bother with the bottom bead on the rare occasion i do use a heli rig.

Having the bottom bead set higher could prevent a chod rig for example snagging on the lead wire loop. I personally haven't set it higher for any other reason, although i have seen anglers glueing the bottom bead in place six inches from the lead to keep the lead away from fish/hook during the fight in an attempt to prevent the lead bouncing the hook out when using shorter rigs - not sure wether that is an issue tbh, but there you go.

I suppose if you wanted to be absolutely certain about the depth of chod/silt you wanted to mitigate against you could put the bead higher up the leader.

In reply to Post #2
If the hook link isn't trapped between two beads and is sliding on the main line how does it hook the fish?

In reply to Post #3
Well, there's the rub. For me anyway.

I did use it as you say, with a decent gap between the beads but i was convinced that it was a poor hooker of fish. I know its popular these days and it doesn't seem to bother the likes of Hearn et al. I generally try and find a clearer spot to negate their use.

In reply to Post #3
Basically once the hook has snagged the fish it can't use the weight of the lead swinging away under it's gob to shake it out, then the drag factor of the line underwater kicks in and bingo