There are many different rigs that can be used with pop-up hook baits, with a a varying amount of difficulty involved in tying them. The rig detailed here may look fairly involved, but in reality the only thing making it more complicated than a basic hair rig is an over hand knot holding a rig ring and threading on a hook aligner. These additions make the rig have excellent hooking properties, and also good hook holds and will result in more fish on the bank. Lets take a look at how to put it together.
Cut sections of hooklink. I normally cut 3 to start if I am normally fishing 3 rods. The length can be anything you desire (so long as you can tie the rig), but about 12in will get the job done.
Strip back about 4in of the coating, and then tie a small loop for the hair.
Add your chosen bait to the hair. You can use a place holder, such as a plastic bait about the same size as the bait you plan to use to get the length right. I do this when I don’t want to risk “contaminating” my hook bait with foreign smells before fishing.
Add your rig ring with a simple overhand knot to keep it in place. At this point decide how long you want your hair. I normally make it fairly short for this rig.
Line up the rig ring on the shank of the hook with the barb. There are lots of different lengths you can try, but this seems to work well.
Simply tie a knot-less knot and you are done, or you can add a hook aligner for better hook turning in the fishes mouth.
You can use either a splicing needle or a braid type baiting needle will work as well for getting the aligner on the hooklink.
Push the aligner over the eye of the hook and add a blob of putty at the point where the coating ends. For a better hold, push the coating down slightly so it “bunches” and then add the putty.
You can either tie this rig directly to a swivel, or tie a loop for quick change options.The final rig. Do the same for the other two hooklinks you cut.
The final rig in the water – a perfect presentation! For reference this is a size 8 hook and 3 grains of Enterprise pop-up sweet corn.
The final rig. This rig has accounted for many, many fish and has had very few hook pulls (can’t remember any actually). The nice thing is that it is very easy to assemble and can be tied up without the need for shrink tube.
