Rig making

I have been buying ready made rigs between £1-£3 (depends where obviously as some charge twice the amount for the same rig/brand) since I began fishing. Sometimes I lose a few dependant on venue etc and other times I can use them again next time I go fishing...but it still adds up.

Because I am as tight as cramp I thought I would have a go at making my own, which I did last night. I picked up a few bits over the last week or so. I always try to fish with a trusty two hook flapper. I took a few old used rigs apart for practice and knocked a few together using a ready built one as a jig so to speak. Then made myself a few two hook flappers with the stuff I bought, easy peasy. Got easier the more I did it.

I used glow in the dark beads but have ordered mixed colours, memory free line on the snoods. I dont feel I need anything other than two hook flappers at the moment but will buy a few big fish rigs and try and emulate them as I am keen to catch a few monsters this year.

All in, they cost about 50p to make sure it would be cheaper if I bought big boxes of hooks but its still a saving. Will sit in front of the tv tonight and make a few more, I wrapped the rigs around empty toilet roll tubes and popped them in a bait box.

Any advice or tips on making them? also without paying for rig winders how do you guys keep them/pack them away? I was thinking of putting them around cheap washing up sponges.

Cheers
Simon

Certainly prefer the rigs being on winders, always struggle to get ready made rigs out of the packet without a tangle so I do it at home and put on a winder.

If you are not wanting to buy the EVA winders the pipe insulation or foam swimming noodles seem good enough to me,
Also I'm constantly amazed at how often I see the yellow foam tube that goes around scaffolding laying by the side of the road and just begging to be picked up- probably at risk of a road accident though.

Cheers, will keep my eye out for some round foam!

I love making my own rigs
I get great satisfaction from catching on them knowing it's all my own work

Long snoods for a calm sea and short ones for rougher water, clip down for distance or loose for a lob into the surf.
For flatties beads work well.....
Luminous ones in dark coloured water.
Red and White over clean sand.
Black and Green on mussel beds.

I avoid using floating beads as I'm never sure if my bait is on the bottom where I want it or floating around like a fairy.

My rig of choice is the one up one down as it's easy to make and you know there's a bait on the bottom as well as one flapping around just above which pretty much covers all bases for me.
A two up one down may be better but I always think it's more to get snagged.

To keep costs down I don't use crimps to hold the snoods in place just good old fashioned knots which they say can weaken your line but when using 60lb line for the main body it doesnt make that much difference surely.
I like to use memory free line (15lb to 20lb) for the snoods then it doesn't end up getting coiled like a phone cable.

As for wrapping the rigs I always use pipe laging foam cut to whatever size is required  



Which ever rig you use of course depends on what your trying to catch but with sea fishing anything can happen so the two most important things of all would be top bait and sharp hooks

A friend of mine gave me some plastic foam similar to polystyrene, and I use a piece 15 by 75 by 3 cm to wrap traces on, I secure the swivels with small galvanised staples. Polystyrene works too. If it gets wet, get a new one.

I use the pipe lagging,and I cut a "V"groove in it for each rig.You can cut it to length to suit your rig box.An easy running ledger rig is just a hook on a leader with a swivel,then the main line through a zip slider with a bead to stop the slider going over the swivel.

My wife drinks lots of wine, I find the corks are good for safe storage of my hooks/rigs after use.

Blade7 wrote:

My wife drinks lots of wine, I find the corks are good for safe storage of my hooks/rigs after use.

That my excuse
Took a bit of explaining to the Mrs once screw caps became popular though

Logger wrote:

Blade7 wrote:

My wife drinks lots of wine, I find the corks are good for safe storage of my hooks/rigs after use.

That my excuse
Took a bit of explaining to the Mrs once screw caps became popular though