Making Your Own RIgs
 

Hi, I make my own Rigs to the designs shown in Sea Angler magazine and
in the Sea Angler book on Rigs and Bait Presentation.

Does anyone else on here make their own rigs? Anyone got any new
simple designs I might try this year? I use up a lot of Pulley Rigs
while Beach Casting.

I was thinking of making simpler rigs and thus using less materials
and doing my bit to save the planet, anyone got any views on what we
could do as our contribution to recycling etc?

I have been making my own lead weights, using moulds and lead melted
down from old tyre weights. I got enough lead tyre weights to make me
weights for the rest of my fishing days but i think lead weights might
be banned in the next year or so. If I put in a few old nuts and
washers in my moulds to use much less lead is it going to have much of
an impact on my weights? Anyone got an acceptable green weight making
solution for me?

Making Your Own RIgs
 

In article ,
Paul wrote:
Hi, I make my own Rigs to the designs shown in Sea Angler magazine and
in the Sea Angler book on Rigs and Bait Presentation.

As long as you have a good reason for doing so...

Does anyone else on here make their own rigs? Anyone got any new

I don't think the stuff I tie on the end would meet the accepted definition
of a 'rig' ;-)

simple designs I might try this year? I use up a lot of Pulley Rigs
while Beach Casting.

....and here you seem to have hit the nail on the head: -simple- is good.

In general think about what the fish will be doing, how the food it seeks is
likely to behave and how you will detect a bite.
Think about the competition: Fish aren't the only creatures feeding down
there - the majority of the competition is less mobile than fish and is more
or less restricted to the bottom - that's why you get all those crabs when
ledgering.

Most natural food is either anchored firmly to the substrate, burrowing in
it, or free swimming/drifting. Very little is tethered to a short arc
around a fixed point.

To represent food anchored to the substrate it might be worth trying a hook
attached directly to the lead with no free play.

To represent burrowing food (which fish most meet when it comes to the
surface) add a second small weight - mini drilled-bullet or split shot,
close to the hook so it lies hard on the bottom.

For free swimming and drifting food use as little lead as possible:
Freeline.
Use minimal lead and allow the bait to swing around in the tide.
Use more lead but wind it in a yard every second or so.
Floatfish.
Spin.

The reduced competition and increased 'visibility' (even at night) of a
moving bait explains why rod-in-hand methods beat beachcasting nine times
out of ten. The main exceptions being scent feeders - eg rays, dogfish,
soles.

I was thinking of making simpler rigs and thus using less materials
and doing my bit to save the planet,

A bit optimistic - but simple usually catches a few more fish.

anyone got any views on what we
could do as our contribution to recycling etc?

I have been making my own lead weights,

but i think lead weights might be banned in the next year or so.
If I put in a few old nuts and
washers in my moulds to use much less lead is it going to have much of
an impact on my weights?

They will weigh less for the same volume and so be less effective -as
tackle anchoring devices- they might be less aerodynamic too if long casting
is of any significance.

Anyone got an acceptable green weight making
solution for me?

Use less of it.

I doubt there will be any ban on sea-angling leads as there's little ground
for it - unlike in freshwater fishing there are no birds with long enough
necks to pick up lost leads from the places where they are used.

Not that it worries me much - I rarely use a lead over 2oz -from the shore-.

Cheerio,

--
Fishing: http://www.fishing.casterbridge.net/
Writing: http://www.author.casterbridge.net/derek-moody/
uk.rec.fishing.game Badge Page:
http://www.fishing.casterbridge.net/urfg/

Making Your Own RIgs
 

"Paul" wrote in message
...
Hi, I make my own Rigs to the designs shown in Sea Angler magazine and
in the Sea Angler book on Rigs and Bait Presentation.

Does anyone else on here make their own rigs? Anyone got any new
simple designs I might try this year? I use up a lot of Pulley Rigs
while Beach Casting.

I was thinking of making simpler rigs and thus using less materials
and doing my bit to save the planet, anyone got any views on what we
could do as our contribution to recycling etc?

I have been making my own lead weights, using moulds and lead melted
down from old tyre weights. I got enough lead tyre weights to make me
weights for the rest of my fishing days but i think lead weights might
be banned in the next year or so. If I put in a few old nuts and
washers in my moulds to use much less lead is it going to have much of
an impact on my weights? Anyone got an acceptable green weight making
solution for me?


I'd say definitely keep it simple, I used to fish 3 hook clipped down rigs
with impact shields, but found they were too expensive in the face of a
crack-off, also a pain if one hooklength gets bitten off - tricky to get the
new length correct to clip down properly.

If fishing at range then one hook clipped down with a wire (cheap & green)
bait clip is good. If close in there's a lot to be said for a running
ledger (not so great if you pendulum cast though ;-)

I guess one way of going green with leads is not to lose them ;-) Good
quality shockleader to prevent crack-offs would reduce losses.

--
Rich

http://www.badangling.com
....talking pollocks since 1996

Making Your Own RIgs
 

I thought I might give up using Breakaway bait shields and use bent
paper clips in thin tube. That'd save on costs and theres no plastic
left in the sea. I have seen people using drilled stones as weights in
malta but that seems a bit time consuming and the stones have to come
from somewhere anyway.

Sea Angling going green and eco friendly might be something the tackle
manufacturers need to introduce and then it will filter down to
us..................

Making Your Own RIgs
 

"Paul" wrote in message
...
I thought I might give up using Breakaway bait shields and use bent
paper clips in thin tube. That'd save on costs and theres no plastic
left in the sea. I have seen people using drilled stones as weights in
malta but that seems a bit time consuming and the stones have to come
from somewhere anyway.

Sea Angling going green and eco friendly might be something the tackle
manufacturers need to introduce and then it will filter down to
us..................


Talking of the Med. I was in Gibraltar once and the loacl tackle shop
recommended using shellfish (which were a bit like big cockles) as a
combined weight and bait. You just tie a hook on the end of your line,
prise open the shellfish and hook it in the fleshy part. That's it - the
shell is the weight and the innards are the bait. Worked really well for
small Breamy things.

At risk of sounding like the 10,000 things to do with cotton buds section of
Sea Angler magazine...

Another recycling method when rig making is to make your own coil crimps. If
you can get some old multicore telephone cable, strip out the inner wires
from the outer sheath so your left with several lengths of solid cored
plastic coated wire. Take a length of plastic coated wire and wrap it round
a small diameter former such as the end of a jewellers screwdriver - you
want something about 2mm diameter to wrap the wire around. When you've
finished wrapping the wire into a 'spring' cut to about 10mm in length and
you're done.

To use them just thread onto your trace as you would with a normal crimp,
and secure in place by twisting the coil crimp tightly onto the trace.

They're not a secure as metal crimps, but they do hold surprisingly well and
can be easily moved bu untwisting a bit and re-twisting where you want them.


Hmmm, just remembered 10,000 things to do with an ice cream tub.

--

Rich

http://www.badangling.com
....talking pollocks since 1996

Making Your Own RIgs
 

To use them just thread onto your trace as you would with a normal crimp,
and secure in place by twisting the coil crimp tightly onto the trace.

They're not a secure as metal crimps, but they do hold surprisingly well and
can be easily moved bu untwisting a bit and re-twisting where you want them.

Hmmm, just remembered 10,000 things to do with an ice cream tub.

Good tip, thanks, I have some single strand BT wire I'll try it with.

I accept been authoritative my own advance weights, application moulds and advance melted down from old tyre weights. I got abundant advance tyre weights to accomplish me weights for the blow of my fishing canicule but i anticipate advance weights might be banned in the next year or so.