Thank you for the video. I love how you talk slowly and you speak very clearly. A lot of people here on YT from england speak horrible and as a person that is from another country it can be a nightmare to understand what they say! Thx
@@drpaulgarner Gadzooks! just saw the video on tench and the helicopter rig, l thought it was law to use a porcupine float and lift method for tench or suffer being put in yon stocks and pelted with rotten tomatoes!!!!
Trying this for roach on my local canal . Been baiting up every couple of nights since before christmas . Torch off the bridge a couple of nights ago and there was hundreds of them !!! Cheers for passing on the knowledge Doc . You have a subscriber in me .
Love this, roll on the summer!! I use a flying back lead stopped a yard from feeder with a float stop. I'd use that for this method to get the line down too. 👍🏼
Thanks so much Paul put this into practice after blanking several times on a new water it worked a treat caught 2 5lb plus Tench in a evening. Thanks again
Thanks Paul great video well narrated. Aged 66 four years ago I decided finally to take up fishing and loving it. Used a HC Rig for the first time yesterday and caught nothing and I now know why , my hook link was far to long and I was using 6ib line. Oops ! What was the sponge part you mention. Nice to think 4 years on your video is still giving. Stay safe. Safe. Ted
Great tips m8 im just starting up again after a couple of years out with bad health,and I'm learning the Mrs,so great advice,clear and concise info ! Thanks I am deffo giving the heavyweight feeder and you heli rig : ) : )
I had no idea they were such a hard sport fish to catch over there. I caught my first one yesterday....I was trying to help a family get enough sunfish to feed them all and I accidentally landed a small tench (maybe 2-3 lbs....made my pan fishing rod U shaped). The Asian families there and the Russian gentleman were all shocked and told me how hard they normally are to catch. I caught it on a small curl tail jig tipped with some nightcrawler. A sunfish rigging, really.....but I set it on the bottom for a bit because I saw a flash of brownish white and though 'is it a small bass or maybe a baby musky?' but I came out with a fish is never seen before. He hit hard but I'm sure he'd of spit the hook had I not had it in my hand and set it right away. ......I got lucky, is my point.
KandaPanda really depends on the lake buddy. Can be difficult when they have a lot of natural food, but easier when they are hungry. Thanks for the comment, great story. 👍
@@drpaulgarner that makes sense! Thanks for the info! The lake is filled with bass, bluegill and stocked with large tiger musky but its also a very low oxygen lake, from the looks of it. Amazing animal though! Thanks for the reply!
KandaPanda that’s interesting. Tench are pretty tough fish, they don’t mind the low oxygen too much. Naturally they were found in swampy backwaters on rivers here in Europe. An environment that often gets pretty hot and low oxygen. They love being in thick weed too, probably explains the tiny scales and thick slime.
Hi myke, yes no problem. I use Harrison Ballista 12ft 2lb rods for most of my tench and bream fishing as they have enough power to cast feeders a good distance, but are not too stiff that I lose the enjoyment of playing fish on them. I use some old Shimano Baitrunner GT's, which are getting a bit long in the tooth now (they were a bit worn out when I bought them second hand), if I were to swap I think I would go for the Daiwa Bite n Runs - the Black Widows I think they are called. I've been using them for barbel fishing for a bit and they are very nice. Good sized spool, but quite small and light. I hope that helps?
After reading the comments i believe that it works good but my english isnt good enough to understand how exactly it works better if the fish spits out the bait when it thinks that the hook is like a stick or something not good to eat. This rig obviously still has a hook so it should still spit it out if it feels it, right? Im not understanding:(
Hi mate, the idea is that the short hooklength means that the tench only has to move a very small distance before the hook will catch in the mouth. So it will always feel the hook, but with the short line it will have less time to spit it out. Also, by using a popped-up bait the amount the fish has to move before the hook will catch is reduced even more. I hope that makes sense? Best wishes, Paul
Maybe a silly question , im assuming using float stops to create the heli rig stops the Fish dragging the feeder around , close quarters and using it to shake the hook out ? or not an issue ? cheers!
Generally Steve, the float stops will move either on the bite or during the fight. Mostly down towards the feeder. I've not found that the hook gets shaken out to be honest. Maybe it is different we a lead instead of a feeder, but when I've watched in clear water the feeder doesn't tend to jangle about when it is underwater, it acts as a bit of a drag. cheers, Paul
Thanks Johnny, glad you enjoyed it! Yes, it can work OK for bream, what I do then is move the hooklength about 30cm up the line away from the feeder and lengthen the hook length to about 20cm. Tight lines! Paul
Great explanation Paul, thank you. What do you do if the water doesn’t allow fixed leads? Is there a particular safety clip you would recommend to attach the feeder?
Nice vid - but so many lakes insist your heli rig needs to be able to break apart (lead drop off) esp on weedy venues. Does this lake not have that rule and if it did how would you adapt your rig?
Hi Richard, I normally use live maggots, but if small fish are a problem I will switch to rubber ones, although in this instance I don't think they are as effective. Cheers, Paul
I’m going tench fishing tomorrow and was just wondering if this would work with a heavyish lead and fake floating sweetcorn, as all my tackle shops are closed.
Hi Leo, short answer is yes mate that will work and I’ve used similar myself. It does depend on the venue but on most it will work just fine. Tight lines! Have a great day. Let us know how you get on. Paul
Paul Garner Fishing I tied up some short hook links and gave it a go and in turn ended up having my best session yet on the gravel pit I’ve been fishing. Ended up with 9 bream up to 10lb 2 oz and my first tench out of there. So wether I’ve been having tench pick up my baits in the other sessions and the hook lengths have been too long to hook them I don’t know, but what I do know is that I’ll definitely be using this rig from now on. Thanks.
I am not a big fan to be honest Janusz. When we have tested lead core underwater it can get hung up on strands of weed, just like line. Also, you have to be very careful that the hook length can slide off the much stronger lead core if the rig snaps. Having tested helicopter rigs with leaders, tubing and naked I now much prefer to keep them simple and use nothing. If you are worried about the main line lifting then try pinching some tungsten putty up the line.
@@drpaulgarner Thanks for your advice. Got the same idea, but I dont understand, why tench and carp anglers use tungsten putty, not soft shots? What is the difference?
@@januszpuneil2143 hi mate, the problem with using shot behind the rig is that if the main line should break above this then the shot will stop the hooklength from sliding off the line. This could lead to a fish becoming snagged. Putty isn't perfect, as it will sometimes slip, but it does mean the rig is safe.
Hi mate, excuse my inexperience but what knot do you use for the hook and swivel ? Looks like I may have some time to give this a whirl so I want to get it right. Thanks
Ive been fishing all morningnyesterday on sweetcorn and luncheon meat all morning not one bent on the rod, swithed to maggot feeder similar to this and had about 20 fish before 6pm . No tench howere which makes me think my hook was too far from the maggot feeder
Several Steve, it is less prone to tangling (when used with a stiffish hook link material), if the feeder sinks into silt or light weed then the hookbait still comes to rest right (most of the time), and it gives more efficient bite indication. It also casts further and more accurately.
Hi there, yes as long as you don't incorporate a leader. The Rig Stop above the hook length requires only a small amount of pressure to slide it along the main line, so if you should snap the main line the fish will easily lose everything except the short hook length.
hi there, yes it is quite a good rig for eels, I've found that because the hook length is very short then there is little chance of deep hooking. Thanks for the question! Paul
If you can see a tench I have a foolproof way of getting it to take a bait in less than 60 seconds. Once I figured it out I never bothered to fish for tench again because there was no longer a challenge.
