Assistance required please.

Hi all
I have recently returned to fishing as a hobby after a 25 year break. :-(
I have now retired and am raring to go. I have loads of tackle from the old
days which I feel is a bit outdated nowadays, so I went out and purchased a
complete carp set-up from my local angling centre at an enormous cost. (I
could of bought a complete set-up in 1975 for what I paid for the reel alone
:-))
OK, now to the point, The set-up consisted of a huge array of specialist
tackle for the carp, most of which I can understand its function. But the
few things that have me stumped are,
1 - a plastic bag full of various sized polystyrene balls.
2 - A square type thing that has small herring bone like plastic parts,
(sort of like what you get in an airfix model) some are sort of V shaped and
the rest are like a 2" long stick with small indentations on them, it
appears that you take these of the square frame when needed.
can anyone explain what these items are for.
I managed to discover that the crochet needle was simply not to past the
time by doing some sort of needle-work, but was to assist in baiting the
rig. One last question, when you pull the hair rig through the boilie or
whatever, do you use anything to keep it on the bait, what I mean is years
ago when we put luncheon meat on a hook when river fishing for chub, we used
to insert a small piece of grass through the crook of the hook to keep the
meat in place.
I hope this makes sense to you, as it is complete nonsense to me :-))
best regards
Ray


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