Well, that is a bit of a tricky question to answer, as I’m torn between more than two rigs, you might be asking “but what about a pop-up rig?!” but I’ll go out on a limb here and say that if I had to select just two, they would both be wafter rigs for fishing hard on the deck.



1. Wafter Rig – Stiff D-Rig. First and foremost, would be the old faithful stiff D-Rig with a critically balanced wafter. It’s been very kind to me over the years, landing me a fair number of big carp, with very few losses that I can recall. It really has stood the test of time and is my favourite presentation to use if the spot is clean and free from silkweed. For clean, firm silt, I’ll simply move the leadcore bead up 3-4”, but for sand, clay and gravel spots, it will be 1 - 1½” up. One of its best traits is that it’s a super-simple rig to construct, taking literally seconds to ‘whip up’ a fresh one – it’s not something I’ve ever felt the need to carry pre-tied and stored on a rig board.

It’s served me well in all kinds of baiting scenarios too, from single hookbait fishing to minimal baiting, over a wide scattered spread of bait but also over tightly spodded or boated beds of particle, crumb, pellet and boilie.

It’s anti-tangle properties really are second to none, I could happily cast it around ‘all day long’ with very little trepidation that it will ever tangle.

Whilst it may not be the most subtle rig for the wariest of carp and one that lots of people just can’t get their head around using, I’ve seen it do the damage on many waters where it’s not been used or has been forgotten about for a long period of time. Whilst it might not be the most effective of rigs for smaller fish, (it can really single out the largest of tench too!) you can rest assured that if a real biggun’ comes along and hooks itself, that it just won’t let you down.

"I’ll go out on a limb here and say that if I had to select just two, they would both be wafter rigs for fishing hard on the deck."

2. Wafter Rig - Gamma Rig. I can already hear the cries of “it’s just a combi rig, it’s been around forever!”, but I’ve always affectionately dubbed it “The Gamma Rig” due to the material I originally used and instead of “that combi rig with the big bit of curvy shrink tube.” 

I must confess that this is based on a rig I found on the floor on the Car Park Lake at Yateley on the first day of the season in 2007. As soon as I saw it, I knew it would have some mileage on my local club lake, where the fish had been subjected to just about everything imaginable rig over the years. I found out the main material used was a fluorocarbon called ‘Gamma Edge’. I made my own adjustments to the rig, using a curve shanked, offset hook with a cranked in eye and straight point. More by luck than judgement, it turned out to be a very efficient rig to use with barbless hooks – it certainly served me very well in my quest to trip up some of the edgiest and most rig shy carp I’d ever encountered.

It is quite a fiddly rig to construct, and one of those that’s very easy to hook yourself unwittingly as you construct the Albright knot (especially if you’ve hand sharpened the hook first!). I like to tie several hook lengths up in one batch and cut them all to the same length so it’s easy to just tie them straight onto the swivel and add the hook ring swivel and hook bead afterwards. It’s one of those rigs that requires a whole new hook length once the hook point has ‘had it’. It's not the sort of rig you want to be constructing on the bank in a hurry really.

The first time I used this rig lowered in the edge, with a 5oz inline lead and a large balanced tiger nut hookbait, I landed a very rarely caught 32lb common, which I’d only ever seen in one picture of before. The second trip produced a 28lb common and my third trip produced the biggest fish in the lake at 45lb. I was sure I was onto something and persevered into the Autumn. I began drilling out cork ball pop ups and inserting a ball of putty as a counterbalance and using the rig on a helicopter set up with a much smaller lead when fishing out in the pond over boilies and was still receiving relatively consistent results, considering the reputation of the fish.

I think the withy style curve of shrink tubing acts almost like an elastic, spring-like effect once the fish has pricked itself, tugging back and helping the hook point penetrate further and spooking the fish to run rather than attempting to shake the hook out. The hook holds I’ve had tended to be in the side of the mouth, with the shrink tube wrapped around the carp’s cheek. If you hook this over your finger and try to shake the hook off, it’s almost impossible to get rid of and I’m certain that is how it works underwater.

I prefer to use a softer hook bead (TA are bringing out a softer version again soon) to ensure it slides around towards the knot when the hook penetrates fully on the take. It certainly has been a winning presentation for me on barbless hook waters where the fish can rid themselves of a hook more easily once hooked.

The large shrink tube section can look off-putting when the rig is out of the water, but if set right, the hook bait will roll over onto of the hook and tubing, masking it from sight when viewed from above.

In more recent times, I’ve begun to test out Thinking Anglers forthcoming fluorocarbon hooklink ‘Tint Link’ in 0.45mm diameter, coupled with our 20lb Duo-Fleck braid, which is ideal for the tiny flexible section by the hook. My hook choice for this rig nowadays is the TA Curve Shank hook (ideally in a size 6 if I can get away with it), which is not offset, but is much sharper from the packet than the Kamasan hooks I used originally. This helps limit the amount of hook sharpening required once the rig is constructed, which really can be a pig of a job as the shrink tubing gets in the way. I much prefer to do any honing of the hook point just before casting out, rather than risk damaging my lovingly nurtured, hand-sharpened hook whilst trying to get the Hook Bead on!