Ready Made Pole Rigs for Carp Fishing

The ability to use time saving devices when angling helps you catch more fish period, and pole fishing is no exception. Ready made pole rigs makes it easy to switch to different debts for deeper water or margin fishing, let you quickly change hook size and swap between bait types like worm, maggot, meat and pellets.

They remove the hassle of tying your own pole rigs and let you have various hook lengths to hand at the drop of hat. Let’s take a look why carp anglers swear by using pre-made pole rigs…

Best ready made pole rigs?

When looking to buy good ready setup pole rigs I’d recommend purchasing from an established fishing tackle brand. Companies such as Drennan, Preston, Middy, Daiwa and Browning all manufacture great pole rigs.

They offer a range of float and shotting patterns, are suitable for spring, summer and the colder month, and provide terminal tackle to high quality standards. It’s a good idea to get a pole rig with pole winders, winder anchors, elastic, floats and weights already attached.

What’s the best line for pole rigs?

Effective pole rigs are nothing without the correct diameter and strength line. When fishing for bream, carp and tench in open water a 0.10mm mono is ideal, but if your fishing the more snaggy margins, go heavier with a 0.14mm diameter hook length to prevent breakages.

I usually start with a 4lb hooklength with a size 16 hook to get a feel for the swim, and then either increase or decrease setup strength to accommodate conditions. A good balance between line and elastic with pole rigs is important.

How do you make a fishing pole rig?

Already setup pole rigs don’t always offer the exact balance you require, so making your own DIY pole rigs at home is the only option. To make your own pole rigs you’ll need the right gubbins to get started.

The basic equipment you’ll need is a float, split shot, line, hook and winder for storage. You’ll find detail instructions on Youtube and I also found this write up by Angling Direct very useful. To be honest I find making my own rigs a bit of a hassle, and prefer having a selection of ready made ones.

How do you attach a rig to a pole?

Attaching the rig to your pole elastic is very straight forward, and much easier than most coarse fishing setups. Ready made pole rigs comes with excess line, so firstly you need to decide what depth you want to fish at, and cut the line to the appropriate length.

After you plumb the depth make a figure of eight, or loop knot and attach to the elastic tip bushes and connector, then pull the bead over the knot to fix in place. Making sure your knot is strong is the tricky part, this video shows a good technique…

How do you plumb a pole float?

When pole fishing on a lake, canal or river plumbing the depth of your rig is a vital aspect of the process. First you start by finding exact depth of your swim with a plummet at dead depth (resting on the bed), and then alter your hook length to present your bait at the optimal depth for your target species.

I use some bait elastic to tie my hook to the plummet, and once the float is only showing an inch or two at dead depth, mark the position with a line of tipp-ex. Overtime you’ll find your own technique.

Where to buy already prepared pole rigs?

You can buy ready built pole rigs on sale from a variety of places both online and locally. Fishing tackle brands like Drennan, Silverfish, Preston and Daiwa sell some brilliant ready made pole rigs for carp, and you can buy them at most good nearby tackle shops or online fishing gear retailers.

The best pole rig I’ve fished with is the NGT Barbless but placed the Teme Valley in the number 1 spot as they offer better value for money. As always, shop around and test several brands to find what suits you.

Conclusion

Using off the shelf pole rigs saves a huge amount of time and hassle, avoids having to get pole rig shotting boards, learning shotting patterns for f1 fishing and making pole rigs actually works out more expensive. I’ll do a dedicated write up of “how to attach a rig to a pole” in the near future, as It warrants a more detailed tutorial.

However, finding the right pole rig for you, is all about experimentation and matching the rig to your favorite fishing location or swims. Nothing beats real world testing! So, get out on the bank with some cheap pole rigs first, and find which aspects you need to improve for your next session. Happy Fishing!