The hinged stiff rig was popularised by the likes of Terry Herne in the 1990s and is now often the rig of choice for many UK and European Anglers. It is has superb hooking qualities is one of the best rigs for fishing a pop up over a softer bottom or slight wee. The rig evolved from the original stiff rig which is fished with fluorocarbon mono straight through. Whilst the stiff rig benefits from the anti tangle and anti ejection properties, particularly when fished over softer bottom presentation can be an issue.
The hinged stiff rig is fished with a stiff or semi stiff boom section and the last inch or two is a curved section of fluorocarbon mono tied to a ring swivel. There are 2 massive advantages with the hinged stiff rig 1) using a supple boom section limits the changes of the rig raising off the lake bed and spooking waring carp and 2) the curve section of florcarbon mono, which is essentially a chod rig, enables you to fish a pop up that has free movement to rotate in the water and has superb hooking properties due to its curved shape and its anti eject properties.
Here’s a step by step guide to tying the hinged stiff rig
Step 1
What you need: some coated semi stiff braid material such as N Trap Soft, Korda wide-gape X hook, ring swivel, micro ring or micro swivel and bait floss.
Step 2
Cut 6 inches of fluorocarbon stiff material. The chod like section you need to create only needs to be an inch or slightly more in length but it is always best to have excess material rather than to have not cut enough off.
Step 3
Threat the fluorocarbon through the back of the hook leaving a tag end of just over an inch. With the main length of fluorocarbon whip it around the shank of the hook until you are level with the hook point then pull the line back out the eye of the hook in the same way you would tie a knotless knot.
Step 4
Next take a micro swivel (a micro ring is also fine) and thread it on the tag end
Step 5
Take the tage end and pass it back through the eye of the hook. Trim the tag end with scissors and blob it with a lighter to secure it in place
Step 6
Next is the curve the stiff material. To do this take a cylinder shaped object and wrap the line around it. As fluorocarbon has memory qualities its curved shape will remain.
Step 7
Take your ring swivel and thread it onto the main section of the fluorocarbon. Using a 2 turn blood not tie the ring swivel on and blob the tag end with a lighter.
Step 8
Now you need to create your boom section. Take a 10 inch length of coated braid and using a 4 turn blood knot tie one end to the free eye of the ring swivel. With the remaining free end of the coated braid, create a loop using an overhand knot. Your book section should be 5 to 6 inches in length.
Step 9
Take a baiting needle and attach a pop up boilie using baiting floss. For a neater finish, blob the end of the baiting floss and whist still hot push it down onto the boilie. Add a few blobs of rig putty to ensure the rig is pinned down to the lake bed.
Step 10
Finally, attach the rig to with a lead clip fished drop off style or for very soft bottoms fish it helicopter style.
