More on fishing with boilies – Hair Rigging

The following is from Wikipedia

The hair rig is piece of fishing tackle allowing you to present baits without them sitting directly on your hook, therefore improving its efficiency. They are mainly associated with boilies but also work effectively with most other baits. The hair rig became popular in the 70's and has revolutionised carp fishing. It has been experimented with by English anglers.

At the beginning, in order to link the bait to the hook they were using some natural wire (from a ponytail). This is why they called it the 'Hair rig'. This material was very discreet but it was a little fragile. The bait also didn't act natural enough. In tests the carp only took the free offerings and left the hook bait. It was a problem because sometimes they lost their baits while they were casting. With the appearance of braided thread, this problem has been solved. Indeed, this new material allows to obtain threads which are as discreet as natural ones but more resistant.

There is one main thing to remember with boilies – you need to have a method of attaching them to the hook or lead line!

I’ll get some pictures of this next time I make up a batch, but there are a couple common things to think about when making your boilies and hooking them.

One option with making your boilies is to form the ball around a toothpick, then boil them. This forms a hole right through the middle, so you can thread your line. Another option with boilies is to use a boilie needle to pierce the boilie for threading. Me, I prefer the first option as I think it works a little better. You can, if you are really creative, even thread braided line through the boilie, THEN boil it. I’ve also been experimenting lately with taking a package of hooks, and pre-forming the boilies right onto the hook leaders. It forms a smaller boilie  ball, but makes it easy in the field – you just swap on a new hook and leader, boilie and all.

The overall goal of the hair rig is to present the bait so that the fish will take it, then spit it back out, but allow the hook to get caught in the lower part of the mouth. you don’t want more than about 1/4 to 1/2 inch between the hook and boilie.

Now for something completely different, a friend of mine has been making his boilies by making round balls, and then stacking them on a coat hanger for boiling. This gives a nice round shaft-hole through the middle, which he then feeds a loop of line through. rather than tying a knot in the loop end, he takes a small piece of toothpick, slides it through the line-loop, and pulls the boilie up against it. This makes putting new balls on really quick, and I’ve yet to see one come off in a cast. I’m in the process of making a couple of harnesses with some monifilament and epoxy so they are ready to go. At the end of the day though, just experiment.