Line size pole rig

[dodge k]

Hi I'm quite new to fishing the pole been specimen hunting the last couple of years, and caught well, been on the pole now and have ties 40 rigs 20 0.18 mainline and 20 0.14 mainline I'm targeting carp in a match coming up there's a lot of f1s 1-2lb and the odd bonus carp up to 10lb I was thinking of dropping down to 0.14 mainline to 0.12 hook length will this suffice for the carp 5-10lb or would you use stronger/lighter size 16 hook and 3mm pellet also double maggot, answers and reasoning welcome

 

[peter crabtree]

0.14 mainline and 0.12 Hooklink should be ok if you scale down your elastic as well...
I'd be using 10/12 elastic with that scale rig. Your heavier rigs will be better if its tight or you're fishing in the margins .
If you hook a big fish and the elastic is bottoming out the Hooklink will generally break first at the knot.
Good tip to avoid that is, as soon as a fish starts stripping out elastic sink your poletip below the surface which reduces the resistance on your elastic ..

 

[dodge k]

Thanks I've got 12-16 frenzied hollow in two top kits and freenzee hollow 6-10 with pulls in match kit there a very soft elastic, thanks for tip about sinking pole il try that if I hook anything decent

 

[ribblemeister]

All my pole rigs are 0.18 mainline only the bottoms are varied.
I find that the 0.18 is not to big a diameter in the wind I do use back shots anyway but it is also tough enough to slide shot about without damaging the line.
I hate making rigs up so I just change the bottoms whenever a hook change is needed.
Hope this helps.

 

[peter crabtree]

I'm targeting carp in a match coming up there's a lot of f1s 1-2lb and the odd bonus carp up to 10lb

If it's a match I wouldn't worry about the 'odd' bonus carp, I'd go for the f1's on the lighter rigs.
No point in jeopardising your chances of winning an envelope on heavy rigs just because you 'might' hook a Lump....

 

[dodge k]

Yeh I was planning on just targeting the f1s to be fair I caught 31 fish the other day on the lake the match is on and only 4 were proper carp and the biggest was 5lb so I think il go light, there's still the odd chance of landing a lump on 0.12, I landed a 12lb carp on 0.14 so I think I'm covered for upto 8lb safely, I was just wanting some reassurance I was doing the right thing going light, I've read some match anglers even go as low 0.10 0.08 in winter, I could see this for f1s maybe but I don't think I would have the confidence in my rig doing this does lighter line really get you more bites? What's the lowest you would go to carp fishing snag free?

 

[peter crabtree]

Those bigger carp aren't half as lively during the colder months and are easy to land if you are carefull.