Hair rigging artificial casters

I've got a trip to the river teme coming up shortly, and if the current conditions prevail then I think the best tactics are goign to involve bait and wait with casters and hemp.

I think I understand the basic principles (spend some time before casting locating fish, bait up with hemp and casters and give it a good while before casting etc) but I'd appreciate some advice about hair rigging artificial casters (and then combining these with the real thing)

I can see that the artificial can be rigged sideways... assuming I want to fish two real casters with it, I guess I could push an artificial on to a needle followed by two real casters, then transfer that to the hair and insert as small a stop as I can find?

Or I could mount the artificial longways - then glue two real casters lengthways alongside this? Would it make more sense with this to mount the artificial somehow without a stop (perhaps with a loop in the hair through which the rest of the hooklenght is passed)?

Or I could just glue three casters on to the hair?

Sorry for all the questions but this is a presentation I've never attempted before and I'd like to get it right.

(Maybe it will rain loads and I can just chuck out a big lump of meat and hope for the best! )

You could glue the artificials to the hair and nick 2 real ones on the hook itself........

Mmm, interesting idea - i guess I need to spend a little time at home with a bucket of water to see at what point the bouancy of the artificials pops the hook.... though from what I understand, a popped/ neutral balance presentation is probably better than everything sat dead on the bottom?

Jim

There is a vid clip around featuring Martin Bowler using artificial casters for tench which might be worth searching for. As I recall he uses 3 threaded on a non looped hair with the tag end threaded back through the eye of the hook and "blobbed" with a lighter to make a sort of d-ring rig. Although the application is different the principles of the hook set up ought to work.

Can't say as I've tried it myself but it seems to work for MB and those that are "sold" on artificials seem to use nothing else.

Found it !

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnSxQm6HIj0"]Top Tips - The Bolt Rig Feeder - Martin Bowler - YouTube[/ame]

Jim,

Because casters vary in buoyancy naturally you may need to check the rig each time.

I use two artifcial glued back to back, lengthways (eg. orientated in the same direction of the hook shank), and then two sinking casters glued on to those.

After each fish you just have to reglue on two more sinking casters; the real ones tend to get smashed up in the fight.

Squeeze on some tungsten putty above the hook and you're ready to go.

Thanks ****y, that's another way of presenting I'd not come across

Incidentally, what kind of size (and type) of hook do yo utend to use? I was wondering if you might get away with using a slightly larger and heavier hook than you might otherwise use with a bait that size in order to offer more weight to eliminate the need of weight below the hook?

I really to need to do some bucket testing at home, what i'm thinking of is something like a size seven ESP raptor (which has a fair bit of weight) with enough bouancy in the bait to pop up just the length of the hair?

Time to get geeky in the garage I think!

Thanks for the clip Skippy, another presentation to consider... again, I wonder with that one if you could get away with a heav(ier) hook and no pop-up weight?

Jim Crosskey 2 said:

Thanks ****y, that's another way of presenting I'd not come across

Incidentally, what kind of size (and type) of hook do yo utend to use? I was wondering if you might get away with using a slightly larger and heavier hook than you might otherwise use with a bait that size in order to offer more weight to eliminate the need of weight below the hook?

I really to need to do some bucket testing at home, what i'm thinking of is something like a size seven ESP raptor (which has a fair bit of weight) with enough bouancy in the bait to pop up just the length of the hair?

Time to get geeky in the garage I think!

Click to expand...

I tend to use this rig when tenching so my hook is a size 12 barbed Korum S3.

I see no reason why you couldn't balance the rig using a heavier gauge hook but bear in mind that the Teme is painfully low at the moment (the lowest it has been all summer) so smaller hooks tend to be the way to go. ESP raptors would be ok but use the D7 (teflon coated) rather than the T6 which are far too shiney.

Personally I'd stick with the smaller hook and mould the tungsten putty onto a stop knot or hair stop just above the hook, or maybe even over the eye of the hook.

Good luck.

I have found the best way is to glue 3 or 4 to a hair , but use the freshest bait possible .Also if crays are a problem i would use at least 2 fakes with 2 proper ones . Hope this helps .

Neil

Great stuff, thanks for the replies everyone.

****y, are you relatively close to the teme? We're fishing on the stretch just below tenbury wells... I was hoping that we might see a bit of rain over the next couple of days which could make things a bit more interesting. I take it you've not seen any significant rise in the river lately?

Also (if you're close by) are there other species that we could target if the going does get particularly tough? Chub, perch and pike? Gudgeon?

We've got some lake fishing lined up as a fall-back if it doesn't work out on the river, hopefully one way or another I'll get my string pulled!!

Jim Crosskey 2 said:

Great stuff, thanks for the replies everyone.

****y, are you relatively close to the teme? We're fishing on the stretch just below tenbury wells... I was hoping that we might see a bit of rain over the next couple of days which could make things a bit more interesting. I take it you've not seen any significant rise in the river lately?

Also (if you're close by) are there other species that we could target if the going does get particularly tough? Chub, perch and pike? Gudgeon?

We've got some lake fishing lined up as a fall-back if it doesn't work out on the river, hopefully one way or another I'll get my string pulled!!

Click to expand...

Hi Jim,

The Teme and Severn are my local rivers mate.

If you are specifically after barbel; the best advice I can give you is to stay mobile. There are still fish to be caught but I prefer to locate them by sight and then fish for them. Despite the drought I've caught concistently since the start of the season.

Should say I'm a long way downstream of where you are proposing to fish and there is more water this end, but my mate who fishes round Tenbury is still catching but like me he goes for a mobile approach.

As the river has dropped over the summer on my stretches, the barbel have moved from shallow (8inch- 1foot) swims to any deepish oxygenated water. If you can find depth and cover below shallows you should do alright.

If you just want to catch something then go for the chub. They are still pretty widespread although the bigger ones seem to be forming small groups in deeper areas and defending them against smaller fish (watched this just last week). If you do decide to go for chub your best option would be straight hooking your casters.

If you need any more help/ advice, drop me a PM mate

Sorry for the delay Jim; you have a PM