I use quite a few ready-tied rigs in fishing, partly because I’m lazy and partly because I like to know that my rigs are good and have been tied by somebody whose reputation relies on them being good! Most of the ready-tied rigs that I use are for sea fishing, although I do use Kamasan hooks to nylon for a lot of my coarse fishing.
With carp fishing, I’m not a ‘rigs’ man. I don’t get to fish often enough to get hung up on any aspect of the sport, be it bait or rigs, and my needs have always been very basic; as far as I’m concerned, the basic braid and mono hair rigs that I tie for myself do the job well enough. Besides, I’ve seen some nasty looking ready-tied carp rigs commercially available, probably designed to catch anglers, rather than fish!
The combi-link rig is not a rig that I’d used before, mainly because I’d be too afraid to tie it myself. To lose a big fish due to an ‘experiment’ in rig-tying would really annoy me. However, I’d been sent some to review and was fishing in a situation where they seemed just perfect for the job – the water was weedy and the fish were no mugs. The combination of the finesse for bait presentation and the mono for extra stretch seemed ideal.
The Kevin Nash Comb-Link Rigs are extremely well presented, each coming sealed in a packet and showing you just what you’re about to buy, when looking in a shop. There’s no need for Nash to hide the rig – it’s tied very neatly and uses only the best materials, including the incredibly sharp Nash Fang Hooks.
With braid joined to mono by a knot, the knot not only has to be spot on, but it also needs to be very neat. If it isn’t, there’s a chance of tangling the braid around the knot itself, which would mean a poorly presented bait, with little chance of catching a wary carp. Suffice to say, these knots were spot on and my attempts to break one by hand failed!
As I mentioned, I was fishing a weeded water at the time. I managed three really hard fighting carp on these rigs, one of 21lb 8oz, one of 19lbs and one of 18lb 4oz. All three fish headed straight into weed and each one had my heart pumping; as anyone who fishes for carp will tell you, when you have to lean heavily into a fish to budge it, all sorts of things buzz through your mind. Will the rig take it? Is the knot from the mainline to the rig good? Will the line snap? Is this rod going to snap?!!! Honestly, it was like that!
I had to give myself a pat on the back after each fish. It would have been easy to overcook it and snap something, or simply tear the hook from the fish, but I managed to keep a cool head and apply just enough pressure to keep the fish moving, millimetre by millimetre, through the weed and back towards my waiting net.
The Combi-Rigs did me proud and I will now use them in total confidence. They come in size 4, 6, 8 and 10 hooks and are priced around £1.50-£2.00. The rigs come in both barbed and barbless options.
For a list of Nash stockists, or to view the entire Kevin Nash range, visit www.NashTackle.co.uk
