08 - REBAITABLE HAIR RIG

HAIR RIG LOOP KNOT

Using a loop as part of a hair rig is not new nor is the loop knot I am referencing. Using them together, however, may not be quite so common.

Of course, employing a Knotless Knot with a small loop to which has been affixed a Quick Stop is a tried and tested method with boilies and  pellets.

Once you are looking to use traditional baits like worms, maggots, casters, and sweetcorn in a similar rebaitable way on a hair rig, the Internet becomes noticeably quiet as to available options.

If you are familiar with the Knotless Knot, the Mohawk Rig as demonstrated by Gardner Tackle may be just the rig for you. I tried to use this rig without the Knotless Knot as you can see in the following frame:

Unfortunately, this resulted in the hair rig becoming detached from the hook because of the strain imposed by pulling the small hook out for rebaiting. With the Knotless Knot, however, there is nothing to come undone so no problem.

UPDATE - 2nd September 2020

I have been using the Mohawk Rig to good effect on my local bream. I thread some fine braid through a large piece of buoyant sweetcorn, tie one end securely to the hook eye, and tie the other end to the small hook - I use a barbless size 14. Any slack between hook and bait is wrapped around the hook shank.

Baiting the little hook with two small worms or one larger one is a firm favourite with my local shoal. Of course, red maggots are equally acceptable and sometimes the smart choice if they are proving hard to hit ...

The following rig is something of an 'open secret' which I have on no lesser authority than Drennan Fishing Tackle International. For, I wrote to them to see if they could manufacture hook links with the hair rig loop and back stop in place. They very kindly responded that they were fully extended with their current range of products but did helpfully point out that the following rig is in common use and small float stops are a popular choice for the back stop:

(click on photos to expand)

Because I stumbled upon this rig by trial and error (there being nothing much on the Internet at the time), I used a variety of different back stops ranging from artificial rubberised sweetcorn, casters and maggots, to thick strips of brown rubber band. In all cases, I used a small strip of thin red rubber band on the inside of the hair rig loop for the back stop to push the hair rigged baits up against. Friction in the back stop is the key point.

I thought the GEMINI might be an interesting variation but have not had a chance to test it yet on my local bream.

Last summer, I used Drennan's Double Strength (4 lbs b/s diameter 2 lbs b/s) as my hair rig material. I tied one end to the eye of the hook securely and a loop to the other end. I had the length of the hair longer than I needed so wrapped the excess line around the shank of the hook which, being mono-filament, promptly took on the appearance of a spring when unravelled!

The following knot - The Indicator Knot - is ideally suited, with a tweak, to allowing you to measure off exactly where you wish to position your hair rig loop in relation to the hook and how big a loop you want to have.

This means you can avoid the twisting that can accompany the use of mono-filament as hair rig material. My preference, however, is to use braid as it is more durable and has no memory.

So, here it is.

(click on photos to expand)

01 Tie a piece of fine braid securely to the eye of the hook. Form a loop where you wish your hair loop to be

02 Make a loop in your line and push the loop through the loop in the previous frame. The good thing about this type of loop is that, if you are unhappy with its position, you can just pull it out and start the loop again. I did this many times until I positioned the loop exactly where I wanted it in relation to the hook

03 Once you have positioned the loop where you want it and have it the size you want, make another loop as shown

04 Twist the loop slightly towards you as you slip it over the baiting loop. This will lock it into place

05 Trim the end off. Slip your thick piece of rubber band or small green float stop or rubber artificial onto the loop and slide to the back of the loop

PB