How to Tie a Hair Rig for Carp Fishing

Here is a "how to" video from Carl and Alex to help you learn how to catch carp using a basic "hair rig".

Prepping Hair Rigs Today

I spent the day prepping some rigs and equipment. Here are a couple of rigs I tied:

Size 6 hooks

These are the typical hooks I have been using for carp fishing - size 6 from Resistance Tackle. The hook length on these is exactly 5 inches with the hair a little less than an inch.

Prepping for the Upcoming Year of Carp Fishing

A nice 17 pounder from the fall

I like this time of year. It's still much too cold to fish here locally with temperatures at 2 degrees this morning. But this is the perfect time of the year to begin preparing for what's to come. I love the anticipation and expectations for bigger and better fish when spring finally arrives.

I use this time to scout new spots via Google Maps/Earth and talk to friends about potential new fishing spots. I found a spot on the River Raisin today using that technique.

I also use this time to tie up a bunch of hair rigs. With 14 weeks until warm weather here, if I tie 5 or 6 hair rigs each weekend, I'll have more than 70 pre-tied rigs ready to go. That will keep me fishing for quite a while once the weather breaks. Preparing hair rigs bankside is a highly inefficient use of valuable and what's becoming scare fishing time for me. I prefer to keep 15 to 20 in my Korda rig box safe ready-to-go.

I plan to hit it hard in the spring because starting in mid-summer my time will need to be focused more on my day job responsibilities for several weeks (and possibly months). My time will be limited to weekends and holidays exclusively for a while, but hopefully things will free up toward fall when the bigger fish return.

For anyone trying to build up their supplies for the season, it's a great time to take advantage of a fantastic sale going on at ResistanceTackle.com. I ordered leads, hooks and baiting needles there myself last weekend. When the season gets a little closer I'll pick up some flavored maize, dips and a few dumbbell pop up boilies to round out my carp fishing supplies.

Hair Rigs and Hook Lengths

I had the day off today, but it was too cold, windy, rainy and cloudy to go carp fishing. Guess what I did? Yep...I tied rigs to prepare for two sessions this weekend when the weather is forecast to be much nicer. For those reading this who might wonder about hook length, hair length, etc. I posted a picture of my rigs.

Hair rigs for this weekend

When I started fishing for carp last year I went on YouTube and learned how to tie the basic rig. Then I started experimenting. I started with 7 - 8" hook lengths last year. I had limited success.

This spring I took the opposite approach and shortened up the hook length to 3 1/2 - 4". It worked great this spring, but when the bite slowed down this summer I think the shorter hook length hurt my average catch rate.

Yesterday I purposely changed to a little longer hook length and I believe it helped me catch more fish. So when I go out this weekend in search of my new personal best common carp or first ever buffalo, I'll be using these 5 - 5 1/2" hook lengths.

The hooks in the picture are all size 6 from Resistance Tackle, except one size 6 OSC hook. The line I'm using is 50 pound test Power Pro.

Longer Hooklinks and Shorter Hair Rigs

Last weekend's carp fishing exploits didn't yield many fish. I hooked 7 fish at one point and lost them all to hook pulls. It's time to change it up a little because, although my current techniques using a 3 1/2" hook link and 1" inch hair rig length, yielded me 40 - 50 carp year-to-date 2014. The hook pulls are concerning. I received a tip from a fellow angler with more experience that in warmer weather sometimes a longer hook length and shorter hair rig length work a little better.

I am heading out for a early session tomorrow and tied up some rigs tonight to prepare. I tied up some rigs with size 6 hooks, 5 1/2" hook lengths and 1/2" - 5/8" hair rigs.

Those tips sound reasonable to me. Check back tomorrow evening to see how they worked. Hopefully I'll have plenty of pictures as evidence.

If you want to read more about hook lengths and hair rigs; and how they apply to carp fishing, the article from Big Carp News is a good source of information.