Dear Spug,

I am fishing a large weedy lake with gravel spots and I was wondering what type of hooklink and hook to use. I have been fishing this lake for a while and I’m not having a lot of success, so hopefully changing my rig will help me put more carp on the bank. 

Many thanks,

Hi Eddie, and thanks for the question. I will look at both things separately, starting with hooklinks:

Hooklinks
Good man for getting on the weedy waters – that’s where the biggies are often to be found. I have fished quite a few weedy waters over the years and I have invariably found that basic rigs are good enough to catch from them. Highly pressured, smaller waters tend to lend themselves to more tricky rigs, so to that end I would suggest that a simple mono rig using a Knotless Knot will suffice. Probably 95% of the fish I have caught have been on rigs like this. I have used 15lb mono hooklinks for years and have had very little trouble with them.

Just recently I have started fishing a lake where the weed is so harsh (kelp weed) that I have had to consider using a coated hooklink, and for that I use Fox 20lb Coretex, so if for some reason your mono hooklink is not strong enough (i.e. extreme cases) use that, it will be fine.

Hooks
Last year I swapped over to Fox Arma Points, and in particular the SSC (shortshank curved). I have been blown away by the hookholds I have had and I am sure these hooks have helped me put more carp on the bank; unless I am using small baits I always use a Size 8. I am also sure that going down in hook sizes has helped me catch more fish too.

Put these two together and I’m sure you won’t have to worry about your rigs.

I hope this helps, and be lucky

Spug