Most of my fishing nowadays is done with helicopter rigs. I love the versatility of them, being able to adjust that top bead depending on the spot that you are fishing. It allows me to keep the same leaders on, without having to chop and change all the time.

CREATE YOUR OWN HELICOPTER RIG IN
16 EASY STEPS

Take a length of leadcore

Remove around 5-inches of lead

Find the break where the lead starts again

Push splicing needle through start of the broken part

Push the needle out halfway up and attach a heavy ring

Hook the end of the leadcore and pull it back in to itself

The helicopter aids in preventing the rig from tangling, making it for me, the most efficient lead arrangement going

Pull it through and it should look like this

Do the same at the other end but just have a loop

Take one of the Tungsten 5mm Beads

Push that down the leadcore to the heavy ring

Slide the rig on to the leader

Add a safety top bead to the leader

Cut bit of silicone sleeve in half

Push silicone over lead, which has the swivel removed

One of the limitations though is a conventional set up doesn’t allow you to drop the lead. I remember having to tie the lead on with light line and some PVA tape, but that is time consuming and never ideal.

In recent years, there have been a few products that have been developed to allow you to drop the lead, but one has stood out for me and has played a huge part in my angling in the past few years…

Clip on the C-clip

Clip on the C-clip to heavy ring and pull over the silicone

It is a product called the C-Clip, which is a very small, neat way of dropping the lead. It works on the basis of clipping the lead on, with a silicone sleeve keeping everything secure. As soon as the lead comes in to any tension, or is shook violently, it will it will pull the clip apart and release the lead.

I have found that it drops the lead every time I get a carp bite, but from smaller fish, it doesn’t always drop it, which tells you that it does need a bit of tension to release. I like to use it with a 4oz lead, but I don’t fish it at extreme range. If the clip is put under too much pressure, it is likely to open out. I have fished the 6lb clips up to ranges without any dramas though, which suits pretty much all my angling.

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