Hair Rigs for predators

Seem to work quite well for me when I'm fishing small "bits" for the Bury Hill zeds but I'm never quite sure about what material to use ?

Do you just use a continuation of the trace material or whip something on a bit suppler ? If so...what ? Braid? Mono? or does it not matter ?

Bearing in mind one of the main principles of the hair was/is to allow a more natural movement of the bait I would have thought a suppler "independant" hair was needed though I dont think [generally] we are looking to have the hook/rig mechanics work in quite the same way as for [say] carp. So we are not [or are we?] trying to make the hook turn and prick the fish. Does it matter how the hook "sits" in relation to the hair or is "off the bend" good enough ?

Personally I think the bit of free movement a hair offers is more important therefore [logically] the hair wants to be fairly supple but not too supple/fine to encourage tangles ...I think ? Last year I even played around with counterbalanced baits using a bit of rig foam as a hair stop. Inconclusive but I wil try that again this year.

So...what do you use & how do you tie your hair rigs when targetting predators ? I'm thinking zander here and I must make it clear that my zandering is restricted solely to Bury Hill where they can be terribly cute and very small baits do work....and by very small I mean very,very small. I know some people dont regard that as proper zander fishing but its all I've got so please humour me.

I'm happy generally with my presentation & rigs apart from an uneasy feeling about the hair....or am I overcomplicating things ?

The kebab rig is a sort of hair rig. it uses a plastic shaft that slips over the hook bend and is held in place with a bait flag, then pieces of fish and also pop up balls are added to the plastic shaft. Whilst this is designed for two or three chunks of fish, it could easily be used for a small single deadbait. The rigs are made by Fox and can be re-used time and time again.

I used them for the first time last season and fishing one rod with this rig against two rods with normal deads, the kebab rigs more than held their own.

Give them a try.

I use wire. Either an extra bit attached to my trace or have the trace extending from the hook.
only issue IV had with using them is stopping the fish pieces from clumping up and leaving a gap between the hook and bait, resulting in the hook been outside the fish. To get around this I have made my hair adjustable, it slides on my trace so once baited I can pull it tighter. This has caught me some nice pike in the last week or so and for me proved much more productive than other methods IV tried.