ASK THE EXPERTS
Dear Panel,
I am a big fan of using long Hairs on my rig and have had some good results. However, I get a lot of tangles where the boilie and Hair wraps around the hook. Can you give me any tips on how to prevent this happening, please?
Thank you for your time.
Mark Lambourne,
Catford,
London.
Dear Mark,
It’s great to get a question about a technique which I myself use a lot. I’ve been a massive fan of long Hairs for a number of years now, and my confidence in the long Haired rigs is so high, that for all my boilie fishing, the long Hair is my number one choice. I fully understand your concerns regarding the Hair wrapping around the hook though Mark. I’ll give you a couple of methods to eliminate this problem and over the years these have always worked for me.
The first and probably the most obvious one is to use PVA foam to trap the Hair against the shank of the hook, this is my first port of call. What this also does is eliminate the whole tangle element too, but the only slight problem I’ve found with the PVA foam is that it can at times cause the rig to spin on the cast. Now while you may not think this is a major problem for some hooklink materials, it does tend to spin the more subtle coated versions a touch. All I do to try to stop this is to avoid pushing my anti-tangle sleeve right up tight against the lead clip, as this gives the swivel plenty of chance to spin, rather than the hooklink itself.
Another tip to stop the Hair thrapping up around the hook is to use a couple of pieces of Korda 0.5mm silicone tubing. This will obviously stop the Hair tangling, but it will also act as a kind of blowback setup on the hook. It neatens off the finished rig a treat, and it will 100% make Hair tangles a thing of the past.
A cracking upper-20 common from a very boilie-oriented water.
There is a third way of stopping the tangling, and that’s to use a PVA stick. Now I used to use the stick method for all my fishing, firstly because you know that it’s impossible for the rig to tangle in any way, shape, or form (and that includes the Hair), but secondly, and just as importantly, there will be that added bit of attraction lying right next to your hookbait. Again, the only slight problem with the stick is that if you’re not the world’s greatest caster, it will cut your distance back a considerable amount, but unless you’re looking to fish at extreme distances, you should be fine with the stick.
So, a few little tips for you to try out there, Mark. Good luck with the long Hair and boilie approach, it’s certainly a winner in my book.
Be lucky,
Iain Macmillan.
