The assembly of line, float, shots and the hook is called a rig. Match anglers prepare several rigs at home so that they can simply attach the correct rig in their pole when they prepare for the match during preparation time. I usually do not put the hook ready on the rig, unless I am 100% SURE of what type and size of hook I will need. This is done to prevent from wasting hooks and to ensure that I have every time a sharp new hook in use in correct size and pattern.
There are several different types of rigs for different conditions. You might encounter for example the following situations where in every one of them you need a different type of rig. All these rigs that I have shown here are the most typical rigs used in Finland and that means that they are mostly for stillwaters.
In these sessions the speed of catching is crucial. A tangle in line or a line breakage may result in loss of several fish and thus gives a bad result.
For bagging the rig needs to be a simple one and strong. The normal bagging session here in Finland is usually bagging for 50-100 g roach in the early spring when they are spawning. For that I use a mainline with breaking strain of about 2 kilos and hooklength of 1.6 kilos. This strong line is needed to prevent tangles and to make sure that I do not need to worry whether the line will break or not, when I crunch the fish in to my hands in one pull.
The shotting pattern for this type of fishing is the one that determines the speed of the rig. To achieve the best speed, I put the olivette (a special type of weight that is shaped like a long waterdrop and in which the line goes through the weight lengthwise) about 10-15 cm from the hook, and lock it there with a few leadshots, or then I use a several bigger leadshots for bulk (as in picture). This is all that is required from the shotting.
The hook for this type of fishing needs to be a strong one that stays sharp for a long time. The size may be big, 12-14 for this size roach and I use Mustad's Ultrasport range's Light Ledgering. For float I like to use a simple long waterdrop shape floats that are so called "basic floats". They carry enough weight (usually 3-5 grams) and are easy to shot and do not break or tangle at all easily. In other words, simple is effective.
Bleak are small fish that usually go around in big shoals and live close to the surface. This makes it possible to catch big numbers of them fast. 563 fish in an hour is the world record for this type of fishing!
To achieve necessary speed, similar principles are used as in bagging sessions. The only thing that differs is the strength of the terminal tackle and sizes of the floats. For bleak fishing I use a thin, rather long float that will pivot from horizontal position to vertical position in water as the weight in the line pulls it downwards. This slow pivoting makes it easy to see bites that come when the bait is still going down. Floatsizes are from 0.2 grams to 0.5 grams usually, depending on the length of the whip (pole) that I use.
Lighter lines are also used, since the fish are normally about 5-10 grams in weight. I use 1.2 kilo mainline and 1 kilo hooklengths. Hooksize may vary from size 24 for really small bleak to 18 for bigger bleak. The shotting pattern is usually a group of small shots (about size 8-10 shots) about 5-7 cm from the hook. So the principle is similar as in bagging.
Bream are fish that like to eat from the bottom. This in mind the angler needs to set his hook and hookbait there to catch the fish that he wants.
My basic rig for bream on the bottom is a 2 gram Casini float. It is shaped like a grape. Of course the carrying capacity of the float needs to be correct for the flow of the water, but that is what I use for stillwaters or very slowly moving water. Mainline's breaking strain varies from 1.2 kilos to 1.4 kilos and the hooklength from 0.9 kilos to 1.2 kilos depending on the size and number of the fish. Usually the bream are small (called skimmers in the rest of the world) here in Finland, around 700-1000 grams maximum, so really strong tackle is not needed.
The shotting pattern that I use for fishing overdepth is one that has a bulk (from olivette) about 60 cm from the hook, then a group of small shots (size 4 or 5) about 15 cm below the olivette and then a single or double size 10 or 9 about 15 cm from the hook. The depth of the rig is adjusted so that the group of shots under the olivette are just above bottom. Set up like this, some line lays on the bottom. Now when the fish take the bait from the bottom, they lift the group of the shots near the olivette and I see the bite on the float as a liftbite. Those two small shots are needed to take the bait down to the bottom in sensible time.
The lengths of the line between each group of shots is adjusted according to the feel of the moment so that the bites come most frequently and register well on the float.
Roach is a fish that likes to spend time higher up in water than bream, but not on the surface like the bleak. Usually you'll find roach feeding in the layer of 5-60 cm above the bottom.
For this type of fishing I use a rig that has an olivette or a bunch of bigger shots about 40-50 cm from the hook. Then I have either just one small, usually size 10 shot, down the line about 15 cm from the hook, or then I have 2 or three of them with equal spacings down the line. This type of dropper shotting makes the hookbait drop slowly through the layer that the roach like to be in. This usually results in a bite :)
Lines are usually light for this type of fishing since big catches aren't in cards and sometimes the bites may even be very difficult to get. I usually use 0.9 kilo mainline and 0.35-0.5 kilo hooklengths for roach. Hooksizes are from 24 to 18.
This rig has been developed by accident and patented by a teammate of mine, Harri Lindberg. Helicopter rig is used when you get a tangle in your line. Harri just keeps fishing and the more "helicopter" he gets, the better he catches. It doesn't matter what type of float you are using or what your linediameter is nor is the hooksize important. What counts is the amount of tangle on your line, just as the picture shows. That is the story of the Helicopter >;)
