Terrible Tangles

Can anyone give any advice?.
A couple of weeks ago i had an enjoyable night fishing, catching 4 commons and a Mirror up to 10lb, with no problems. The lake was not pressured at all, so i decided to go for another 24hr stint on sunday.
I had one rod fitted with an In line lead (safety lead), which was quite heavy, and the second fitted with a lighter torpedo, hanging off a safety clip with a swivel. Both hooklenghts were braid of about 8 inches.
For some reason on nearly every occasion that i retrieved the rod with the inline lead, my hooklength was tangled around the weight?....and the bait was missing.
I have two suggestions, firstly, the weight was sinking so quickly that the hooklenght was becoming wrapped around the weight, or secondly, that fish were picking it up and moving it about, and i was not registering the bite.
I also noticed that the lake was weeded?.
Any suggestions? I was tempted to present my bait in a PVA bag, but the lake was pressured on the previous night, and i knew that 4 lads fishing together had piled in a considerable amount of bait, so i didnt want to over do it?........

When fishing braided hooklengths i always use anti-tangle tubing, unless I am putting the rig into a PVA bag, this prevents most tangles but not all of them!

Hi Nick,as i dont use inline leads,only running leads I dont know if this will be of any help.
running lead,then a tail rubber,lead swivel pushed on to tail rubber,then pushed on to the swivel for your hooklenght,then a tail rubber on your hooklenght coming back onto the same swivel,so you have a boom.
it`s not 100% tangle free, but it works,or use a p.v.a.net bag full of freebeis(small)on the hook, and that will keep your hooklenght from tangleing.

a lot of tangles with braid occour as you reel in - the braid falls in a heap around the lead, which is ok as it'll straighten if a fish sucks the bait, but when you reel in, you pull the lead through the "heap". tim paisley/jim gibbinson explain this quite well in their books

thanks for the suggestions guys.....i think i'm going to extend the lenght of the anti-tangle tubing, and revert back to PVA presentation for the time being. It's frustrating to think that the baits could have been out for several hours without a hope of being taken! hahaahaha....
Thanks again!
Nick.

if your using pva, you dont need the anti tanglee tubing (unless you use braid mainline). you could try kryston super stiff......

I'd go with the pva on one rod for a while but fish the other rod as you were before.

You'll then see if the non-bagged rig tangles all the time AND if you catch fish on it, it will tell you if the tangles are occuring on the retrieve as Dave (Tim & Jim)suggests.

good suggestion.....i'm off on a one rod "light fishing" trip to my club water tommorow, but i'll try applying both methods on my next fully blown trip out next week.
Thanks very much for taking the time to read and reply to my mail guys!
Nick

let us know how you got on Nick!

As Dave rothery mentions, the tangle may well occur on reeling in. My other suggestion is to use an inline method feeder, with a short hooklength below the feeder, and your bait pressed in to the groundbait on the feeder. Secondly, you might like to try a helicopter rig with the method feeder, and press your bait in as described. As it flies through the air, momentum ensures the feeder is in the lead, the helicopter swivel is pulled back up the line towards the reel and it doesn't tangle - provided the bait doesn't pull free. Then it might, but helicopters are less likely to tangle than other rigs, as the hooklength is free to spin around the mainline as it flies. See the rig page for good instructions about safe use of helicopter rigs.

thanks guys!
Well, my "one rod rig mission" payed off thanks to the advice you gave me, i fished for a good 10hrs without a single tangle, using a tail rubber and anti tangle tubing with a running lead, rigged up safely of course. I even landed a common just over 9lb so i was really pleased!...not up there with the big boys i know, but my catch rate is getting better and better, and i know i'll be into the 20's soon! hahahaha
Nick