How To Tie The Hinged Stiff Rig
How To Tie The Hinged Stiff Rig
In today’s video and blog post, Urban Bait Consultant and expert Angler, Nigel Sharp, walks you step by step through the process of tieing a Hinged Stiff Rig. Whilst Nigel didn’t invent this specific rig, he has made some important modifications and has some particular recommendations on the components and tieing process based on his years of experience. So we hope this will help you improve your catch rate and your personal bests. Take it away Nigel…
Today I want to talk about one of my favorite rigs namely, the hinged stiff rig. I’ve used this rig for over two decades. It’s not a rig I invented myself, but it has helped me catch fish weighing more than fifty pounds. We’ve all got our own little ways of tying it up so I’ll just run you through how I like to tie it.
Tying A Hinged Stiff Rig – A Step By Step Guide
Step 1: So starting off from the lead end, I use the size 8 flexi ring swivel.
I’ve tended to just use a big-eyed swivel at this end, but recently I’ve started including the flexi ring because I like the ring to revolve around on the helicopter rig.
Step 2: The next part is the hinged stiff rig boom section. This has two different knots, one at each end. My favoured knot for it is the figure of eight loop knot.
You can use a double overhand loop knot but the reason for using a figure of eight loop knot is so that it sits in-line really. If you use just an overhand loop it will stick off to one side which affects the rig. You have to end up steaming it, messing about with it and everything to keep it in line. So really a figure of eight is the one to go with.
Try to keep the loops not too big but not too small. If you have them too small you might as well just use a flexi ring tied straight with a grinner or something. Pictured below is the resulting boom section, probably six to eight inches is my favoured length.
NB: One thing to bear in mind when tying a hinged stiff rig is your choice of material. In this case I’m using a fairly stiff material, a 30Lb mirage. If I’m over weighing my pop-ups I tend to use a stiffer material so it kicks away. If I want a slow sinking pop up I use a more flexible one, a trick-link or something like that, which is more of a nylon type hooklink. The photo below shows the hinged stiff rig underwater scene using a weighted version.
Step 3: Next up from that is another swivel which creates the hinge. In this example I’m using a size 12, just a normal barrel swivel. Like any swivel you should check them before using as they need to be free revolving so that the hook spins. The reason being, it is effectively part of the hook.
Step 4: Above that swivel, which is attached to the boom by the loop knot I spoke about earlier, tied with a three turn Grinner Knot to the swivel, is the start of the hook end section.
Step 5: Then we move up to the hook which I tie with a six turn whipping knot.
Step 6: Then form a D, tuck it back through the eye and blob it. On that I put anything from a flexi bore ring on there to screw a bait on. You can use just a normal D rig to floss your baits on or a micro swivel, or whatever you fancy really.
I tend to mix it up a bit and sometimes like screwing the baits on as they go on quicker. Obviously you can use putty depending on how you want your hook baits to settle and whether you want it to sit down quick or want it to be over weighted. I tend to leave my rods out for long periods of time anything from 24 hours up to 72 hours.
Pop Ups Are A Vitally Important Component Of The Hinged Stiff Rig
So that’s really the basics of the hinged stiff rig. One of the most important components in all this is your choice of pop ups. People criticize the hinge stiff rig or the chod rig for costing them fish because they bump them and lose them and one of the biggest causes of that is your pop up.
Luckily Urban Bait do very good pop-ups and it doesn’t matter whether you use the cork ball ones or the normal pop ups, which are really solid pop ups. They stay up for three days which is massively important. They keep the rig sat dead up right off the bottom waiting for the fish to come. They don’t lay down.
Like I said before I’ll tend to leave my rods out for long periods of time. As such, I don’t want the pop up to be sitting lazy as it affects the way the rig will spin and hook a fish. So I really need to have reliable pop ups and luckily Urban supplies these.
They only do three different types of bait but in each of those baits they do different colour pop ups and washed out versions. So you have a washed out pink, washed out yellow or you have a bright yellow or bright pink. Ones to match the bait, match the hatch as some people say.
They even do cork ball pop ups with mesh around them which is very useful at this time of year when you get bird attacks on your pop ups. If a bird does attack you cork ball it can pluck the sides off it, which will affect the buoyancy. The reason being, if the paste or the skin comes off, the rig starts sitting up off the bottom. At which point you’re effectively fishing with a foot long zig off the bottom without realizing it.
In Conclusion
So that’s the bonus of using a mesh one. So pop ups are massively important for the hinged stiff rig. That’s what I use a lot of the time during the winter months and early spring. So if you’re going to try the hinge stiff rig, maybe try the Urban pop ups as well.
Read More: ‘How To Tie A Wafter Rig And Critically Balanced Carp Rigs’ >>
