Making wire traces

I'm hopefully going predator fishing at the weekend and needed to make some new traces, so thought I may as well post the process up on here for all to see. Its pretty easy to do, and as well as giving you the freedom to make them the size you want them, it can save you a bunch of money over ready made traces, working out at under £1 a trace, even less if you re-use the hooks and swivels after the wire gets trashed by a fish!

Items needed to make a trace

You will need:

• Trace wire 
• Treble hooks
• Swivels
• Heat shrink tubing
• Wire cutters
• Rig puller

I use a coated trace wire as I feel its a bit friendlier on the fish. I also use semi-barbless trebles for the same reason, and to make unhooking that much simpler. I'm an electronics engineer by trade, so I use the same heat shrink tubing that I use at work for covering solder joints on wires, but I'd imagine the stuff you can buy in tackle shops is just the same thing (but with a higher price tag). For wire cutters I just use my hook cutters that I use to chop the hooks up in the event of a tricky hook hold (be it in a fish or in my hand!). You could use scissors, but I'd imagine you'll ruin them fairly quickly.

Making a trace:

• Cut off a length of trace wire, around 2 ft should be about right.
• Thread the wire through the eye of a hook, running parallel to the shank, leaving a tag end of about half an inch.

Attaching the bottom hook

• Fold the wire over back down the shank, then pass around the outside bend of one of the hooks. Make sure everything is tight and in place, and then whip the wire around the shank back up to the eye of the hook at least 5 times, and than place back through the eye (much like tying a knotless knot).

Attaching the bottom hook

• Cut a short piece of heat shrink tubing big enough to cover the hook shank, and slide it down the wire and onto the shank. Shrink the tubing down with a heat source (I hold it about an inch or 2 above the flame of a lighter, though a heat gun would probably serve better). Pull the rig tight and straight while the tubing cools to keep everything in a straight line.

Tidying things up

• Thread the second treble down the trace to the desired position (this will depend on the size of baits you use, in this case it was for a small roach for zander fishing, so the hooks were fairly close at around 2.5 inches apart), and repeat the same process as for the first hook.

Both hooks securely attached

• Thread a swivel onto the wire to about 15-18 inches from the bottom hook, and then pass the wire back through the eye of the swivel (as you would if tying a grinner knot). Twist the tag end around the trace at least 7 times. This can be done quickly by clamping a set of forceps onto the tag end and spinning them around the trace while holding the trace tight, though you can probably get it neater if you do it by hand. Snip the remainder of the tag end off close to the trace.

Attaching the swivel

• Cut a length of heat shrink tubing long enough to cover all the twists and half of the swivel, and thread onto the trace until only half of the swivel is showing before shrinking down (it just occurred to me you'll want to thread the tubing on before attaching the swivel if it isn't big enough to pass over the swivel easily!). Again pull the trace tight and straight while the tubing cools to help keep everything in a straight line.
• Trim the tag end at the bottom hook, and your trace is finished!

The finished trace

If you plan on popping your baits up off the bottom, you can add a micro swivel to what would normally be the tag end (though attach the swivel first before the hooks) which you can then use to "hair rig" a poly ball to the trace using some bait floss and passing a long baiting needle through the flank of the bait by the bottom hook, and out through the mouth. 

Pop-up trace with micro swivel for "hair rigging" poly balls

I apologise for the poor image quality, now that it gets dark early I had to shoot under artificial lighting which requires a slower shutter speed, and I obviously didn't hold the camera steady enough to get a sharp image. Hopefully they're still good enough for you to see what's going on...

Catfish rigs

I've had a few people ask me about what rigs I use for wels catfish, so figured I'd put the details on here for all to see. I use two main rigs for most of my cat fishing (where it's not possible to use live or dead baits), I've tried others but these are the two that seem to work the best for me. The first is a simple bottom bait pellet rig, and the second is a popped up meat rig. But before we get onto the rigs, there are a few things you should consider when making any rig for catfish which will make the rigs differ from those used for carp.

The cavernous mouth of a 27lb catfish, they go a lot bigger!

The first thing is, a catfishes mouth is big! This means you can use big baits, which in turn will mean you need to use a big hook (and as catfish do tend to pull back a bit, a strong hook!). Also, this means when Mr catfish comes along to gobble up your bait, it's going to get sucked into that big cavernous mouth right to those circular pads at the back, but that's not going to happen if you're using a 5" long carp rig, so you need to use longer rigs, much longer. I tend to go with anything between 18" and 24". The next thing is, its mouth is full of crushing pads which it uses to mush up its food. These are very abrasive (imagine the hooked side of Velcro, only harder and sharper and you'll have a rough idea what they are like) While they wont cause you any real damage, they will shred your hook link material if it's not up to the job, so you need something strong and abrasion resistant. I prefer to use Kryston quicksilver in 35lb, but ONLY where I'm very unlikely to hook a carp, as it's quite abrasive and could damage the soft mouth of a carp. Where there are carp present, or if I'm using smaller baits that other fish could pick up, I use fox coretex in 35lb, which is much softer and coated, making it much more carp friendly. The downside is it's usually only good for one or two fish before it gets too damaged to risk using again. Lastly you'll notice the catfish has tiny eyes, and a face full of whiskers. This means you don't need to worry about what your rigs look like, as the catfish won't see them anyway, so don't let the bright colours of catfish specific hook link materials put you off, in fact they're designed to stand out to deter other species with good eyesight like carp from picking up your baits. You do need to keep things tidy though, as those whiskers probe around when searching for food, and you don't want them touching line looping up off the bottom and spooking the fish.

Anyway, I've rambled on too long already, so onto the rigs. Prepare to be amazed at how devastatingly simple they are!

My bottom bait pellet rig, the pound coin is for scale

This is my pellet rig. It's just a simple knotless knot hair rig, using 35lb quicksilver and a size 1 wide gape hook from korda (tbh I'm not a fan of the korda wide gapes, but it can be hard to find anything better that's big enough from a tackle shop at short notice, and a crap hook is better than no hook!). It's much the same as a simple carp rig, just bigger! You need to make the hair long enough to fit the required number of pellets (in this case 3 21mm halibut pellets) and still allow the hook to lie flat on the bottom out of the way of probing whiskers. It's a good idea to make a large loop at the end too, as you may find you need to use large bait stops due to the size of the hole in pre-drilled pellets (personally I just use a piece of fake corn as a sort of buffer and a normal extender stop, as I find the big pellet stops can cause the pellet to split in half). Also, note the float stop on the hair, as this serves a purpose! When you have threaded your pellets onto the hair and fitted the bait stop, snug the float stop down against the bottom pellet to keep them all in place, it helps keep things tidy and will stop any potential tangles occurring from line getting caught between two pellets on the cast. That's pretty much it, put a few small blobs of putty up the hook link to keep it on the bottom out of the way and you're done, simples!

My popped up meat rig (minus the meat!)

This is my other favourite rig, the popped up meat rig. Again its just a simple knotless knot hair rig, but this time with the hair coming out from much closer to the eye of the hook so that the hook hangs with the shank horizontal as I find this better for getting a hook hold. This one uses the 35lb coretex, as the meat can get whittled down by small fish to the point that other species of fish can pick it up. It also utilises a size 4 fox Kuro S2 hook, a fox pop-up weight, a float stop, a foam disc and a fox anti tangle sleeve. I prefer to use the fox pop-up weights as split shot can damage the braid and I don't like to use huge blobs of putty. Again there is a float stop on the hair, but this time it's to stop the big lump of meat from sliding down the hair to the hook when it's popped up. After the float stop is a foam disc. This is simply to provide a platform for the meat to sit on and to stop the float stop from pulling into the meat, half a boilie would perform a similar function. After the disc there is a fox anti tangle sleeve. This is to increase the diameter of the section of hair that the meat sits on which will stop it from slicing through your meat like a cheese wire. You can use anti tangle tubing or a piece of drinking straw for the same result, I just like to use these as they're about the right size and have a tapered edge which helps thread the meat onto it (that and I have loads floating around my tackle box!). At the end is obviously a pop-up, in this case a sticky baits krill "white one". Meat is fairly buoyant on its own due to the fat content, so you'll find you don't need a big pop-up to lift even a big lump off the bottom. Alternatively you can use about half of a pop-up, and fish the meat on the bottom snowman style. Don't be afraid to pop it up a long way either, if you look at a catfish's head you'll see it's lower jaw protrudes the top, which would indicate it's designed to feed on prey higher in the water than itself. I seem to have more luck at around the 6 to 8 inches mark than I do the 1 or 2 inches you would usually use for carp. Again use a bit of putty to keep the rig pinned down out of the way.

One last thing worth mentioning rig wise is to use a free running lead setup. Like most predators catfish don't like to feel any resistance, especially on more pressured venues, so carp style bolt rigs aren't generally a good idea. Sure people catch on them, but then some people have caught carp on spinners, doesn't make it an effective way to fish for them! Try and use large run rings where possible and bobbins/swingers as light as you can get away with that will still register a drop back, and keep baitrunners as loose as they'll go, or even fish open bail arm if they're really picky.

A 44lb 8oz catfish caught after just a single beep from the alarm proving that big cats can be very wary creatures

The "blowman" rig

This rig is based on a snowman variation I was shown by my friend Joe Drury of Anglers Paradise and CMCR. It's a balanced rig with lots of movement and anti-eject properties, hence why I have named it the "blowman".

You will need:

What you need to make the rig

• Size 6 hook (I use a fox SSC)
• Hook link braid (I use ESP camo sink link)
• Micro rig swivel
• Micro rig ring
• Bait floss (light mono will do)
• Braid scissors
• Rig puller
• Baiting needle
• Lighter
• 18mm boilie and 15mm pop-up (I use CCMoore live system)

Making the rig:

1. Cut off a length of hook link braid about 6" longer than you want the rig to be, to give yourself enough material to work with.
2. Using a 1 turn blood knot, tie the micro rig ring to one end of the braid, and trim the tag end with the scissors.
3. Pass the ring over the point of the hook, being careful not to pierce the braid on the hook.
   
4. Thread the micro rig swivel onto the braid, and then pass the braid through the eye of the hook (from back to front).
   
5. With the rig ring placed roughly level with where the barb would be, begin to tie a knotless knot, with 3 turns around both hook and braid to start, then a further 3 or 4 turns around just the hook to finish.
   
6. Tie a figure of 8 loop knot in the end of the braid and trim the tag end.
7. Cut off about 6 inches of bait floss, and pass through the micro rig swivel to about half way.
8. Thread the pop-up followed by the boilie onto a baiting needle, and then thread them onto the bait floss by doubling over the tag ends and hooking the created loop with the baiting needle. 
9. Push the boilie over the body of the micro rig swivel so only the eye is left showing, and snug the pop-up to the boilie.
10. Trim the tag ends of the bait floss 5-10mm from the pop-up, and then blob them with the lighter to hold the baits in place.
    

Fine tuning the rig:

How the rig should sit when finished

1. Test the finished rig in the margins or a bowl of water.
2. If the rig doesn't sink to the bottom, trim small pieces from the pop-up until it does.
3. If the rig sinks like a brick, trim small pieces from the boilie until it gently sinks to the bottom.
4. When balanced, the hook should lie flat on the bottom, with the bait just resting on the eye of the micro rig swivel.

The swivel allows the baits to rotate without turning the hook, and the D style loop combined with the rig ring allow the baits to move freely up and down the shank of the hook as well as closer and further from the hook. All this movement "separates" the bait from the hook, so in the event of a fish trying to eject the rig, the baits are free to move while the hook finds a hold in the fishes mouth.