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Like a lot of keen carp anglers I fish throughout the fishing season as much in winter as I do in the summer months, it was during one frustrating fishing session that I came up with this rig by pure chance last winter.
After an hour or so walking around the lake, I managed to find the carp, got set up found some likely areas to place baits, once baits were cast out and freebies scatted in the same area, all that was left was to have a fresh brew and soak up the early morning winter sun.
During the course of the morning I had carp activity in the spots that I was fishing, but to no avail the carp were not having it, the bait I was using was a proven home made boilie mix that always worked well for me in the winter months.
What was up with those wily carp?
Later on during the morning a pleasure angler friend turned up for a days fishing and set up in the next swim to mine, at least I could have some good company even though I was pulling my hair out!
While my friend set his gear up, I made us some much welcome hot tea.
Walking over to him with mugs of tea in hand, he was just finishing catapulting some maggots around his float. This is when I had a 'light bulb' idea - what about maggots for the carp? They were used years ago but nobody seemed to use them for carp these days. So after 'borrowing' a hand full of maggots from my friend, I thought I'd give them a go on one rod as I had nothing to lose.
After scratching my head for a rig to use the maggots with I came up with a rig along these lines...it has since proved a great success summer or winter.
How to make the rig - I tied a normal hook link about 18 inches long, the hook link was made from 12lb fluorocarbon line, the hook being a korda hybrid teflon coated wide gape size 8, at the other end I tied a size 10 berkley swivel.
Obtain a length of 2lb mono line about a foot long and a 12mm cork ball.
I simply threaded the length of 2lb line through the middle of the cork ball using a sewing needle, tied a slip knot around the cork ball, cut the short line tail off, now I tied the remaining 2lb line with cork ball attached, to the eye of the hook and whipped the 2lb line around the hook shank, the distance between bend of hook and cork ball was about 25mm. (this can be a little difficult with the cork ball in the way - you should be able to whip it around once and knot it so the 2lb line and cork ball follow directly from the back of the hook shank)
Now I picked up four maggots with one hand, holding the taper end of them, with my other hand I have a tube of super glue which I just dab on the maggots at the other end and stick them to the cork ball! Repeat this until the entire cork ball is covered in maggots - this hook link can be tied to any terminal tackle / lead weight combination of your choice. Now not forgetting your putty weight as this is a pop-up rig, place a small piece of lead-free putty or lead free shot on the hook link just below the hook eye and test it in the margin water, just so it sinks slowly, once it does you're ready to go! You may laugh at this rig - but it sure works.
During that winter session I caught a 23lb mirror carp within 30minutes of casting the rig out! Also in the early morning I landed a 25lb common carp on the same rig.
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