Dumbell Rig

there is no such thing as a completely free running rig. there's a lot of talk about it on the carp forum and a lot of the experienced carpers have done a lot of experiments resulting in the conclusion that the resistance is probably coming from the friction of the line in the water and the line's physical weight. also the weight of the bobbin and friction of the line on the line quides of the rod and even the alarm when you fish tight lines.

i'm thinking that this resistance caused by the lead ect means that the cat feels the weight of the dumbell itself. i would have thought that using the heaviest lead and smallest, lightest dumbell possible would have a positive effect on resistance?

I agrre that there is no such thing as a resistance free rig, its a case of reducing the resistance to a very minimum. I have done away with bobbins and leads wherever possible but I really think that the cat feels the heavy lead and bolts whereas the resistance of the bumbell at first is not an issue due to the force of the strike but yes you need to keep your pollyballs to a minimum, just enough to keep the fish on the surface.

runs what are them

heres 6 reasons why your having problems with your dumbell rig ( by looking at your pic on the rigs page of your website)

1. you should always hook your livey directly under or just behide the dorsal fin

2 Try making your dumbell longer. i have mine about 2 foot long

3 have your hook link just over 3/4s the length of your dumbell

4 try going down to a size 1 catfish pro eagle wave hook

5 try using a larger run ring i personally use the catfish pro heavy duty ceramic run ring

6 most importly semi fix your rig to the dumbell with silcoin tubing

I have always hooked my livebait through the nostril - they seem to last loads longer, I agree with all the other pointers.

I have always hooked my livebait through the nostril - they seem to last loads longer, I agree with all the other pointers.

-monkeyhanger

Same here with all livies, less damage & they do last for ages.

Now then nath the dumbell has changed slightly since that picture was taken, I am back to the size 1/0 eagle waves but I am now hair rigging my livies.I have also made the hooklength longer so I am with you on that one. I have not had chance to get out and take some more pics yet and nobody contributed when I asked for any on here for the rigs page while I am re-building it. I would like to know why you feel the need to semi-fix the rig though? Cant see any reason for that but would love to know why you do it. Its not an issue of not getting runs with it, I get plenty, its the hooking ratio thats doing my head in, and what I am tryin to do is to still have the lead but to negate the resistance from it. Think I have come up with a way to do this though so come march I will give it a try, might even run an experiment and try two surface rods and alter the hook positions to see if I can find the optimum place for the hook.

now i know im a complete novice to this sort of fishing but i do have experience fishing with livebaits for pike, i actually caught my pb on a 3lb jack pike, something that some anglers find hard to swallow (excuse the pun) we were spinning and every jack we put back was getting snapped up by the big girls under our feet, so i rigged one up and she took it as it hit the surface!!!!

anyway back to the point, have you tried fishing a hair rig with a poly ball soaked in predator plus on the hair with a korda maggot clip as the hair stop?? pierce the maggot clip through the baitfishes lips and close the clip, liveys live for ever and the polyball holds them off the deck at whatever depth you set it at, similar to a running zig for carp

the trouble with that is that the korda maggot clips open under the pressure of casting. substitute it for a safety pin, or even a proper hair stop, then thread the fish onto a piece of lightish mono and tie it to the loop. otherwise the rig is sound.