hair rigs (gasp!)

[GloucesterOldSpot]

Too right, there is NOTHING to beat a nice inch square piece of crust with a size 6 buried inside it. My farourite method in the world!!!!! :hat: :hat:

Add a couple of swanshot three inches up the line and you have my standard chub stalking setup. Works for barbel too. And big roach. And bream...

[J.T]

I sometimes combine modern methods with traditional tackle, going back to the other thread about what is a "Traditional Angler", its more a feeling or knowing rather than what you use to fish....within reason of course, you would never see me using a pole!

I also like to think of things such as the hair rig as something that could have possibly been used back in the day, I mean it’s something that could have easily been invented in Izaak’s time, its only a matter of knowing how to tie it after all.

[Mike Wilson]

Gents
You may also wish to consider the hair rig developed by the Late Lenny Middleton for carp fishing is not as new as many believe.
It was first published in C Alma Baker's book "Rough Guide to Big Game Fishing in New Zealand" [ Circa 1934] but a similar arrangement was used at least 100 years earlier with wood or cork baits soaked in fish oils and used for catching sturgeon.

Stu will post pictures later

Mike

[St.John]

I'm sure. Primitive hair rig is in the complete angler.... Anyone?

[GloucesterOldSpot]

And whilst the modern pole is the most despised fish-catching tool amongst those who some term traditionalists, it's worth remembering that Isaac used nothing else.

[St.John]

Yup, although wasn't it more of a whip? I'd love one of those! What sort of length were they?

[GloucesterOldSpot]

Yup, although wasn't it more of a whip? I'd love one of those! What sort of length were they?

Well, I call a whip a pole, but then me and poles go back to the early eighties, when everyone on my local lake used flick tips. The odd specimen hunter might wrestle with a crook, but generally the fish were small enough to handle without any elastic. I've had chub to three pounds on a flick tip.

The Waltonian poles were of varied length, depending what you could find in the hedgerow. Twelve to fifteen feet maybe? I don't know. By the early Victorian period bamboo poles up to twenty feet were in use, and were even slightly longer by 1900. Until carbon came along that was about the practical maximum; I had a glass Shakespeare 7.5m pole which was lovely at six metres, but adding the last section made it akin to a length of hosepipe and resulted in the development of a peculiar technique known as the predictive strike, which required you to estimate when you'd get a bite and strike five seconds early to allow the wobble to reach the tip.

I have never owned a carbon pole.

[The Sweetcorn Kid]

As promised, courtesy of Mike Wilson......

Big Game Hair Rigs............


Sturgeon Hair Rig...................


Lenny Middleton at Savay 1981

[St.John]

As promised, courtesy of Mike Wilson......

Big Game Hair Rigs............


Sturgeon Hair Rig...................


Lenny Middleton at Savay 1981

Not only a hair rig, but a pop up too!!

[DontKnowMuch]

Diagrams and details of hair rigging baits specifically for carp are in Kevin Clifford's latest book A History of Carp Fishing Revisited.

The details were published in a German magazine in 1940. Although the 'hair' method illustrated doesn't have the seperation by length as shown above it involves a method of tying a bait to the bend of the hook as opposed to the bait being on the hook.

Regarding the use of the hair in traditional angling then I can only speak for myself and I'm in Chris Yates' camp with this. Besides when I fished for carp in the 80s I was blissfully unaware of it's existence and carried on quite happily catching my quota of fish using 'traditional' means.

Maybe going back to fishing without a hair for those who've only experienced fishing with it involves a huge leap of faith?