For my own style of short ‘hit & run’ sessions, with little or no preparation prior to the day, I favour a ‘chuck it anywhere’ pop up rig! My favourite rig uses our 25Ib Vigilante as the hook link combined with the awesome Covert Longshank Mugga hook.
Recently I have been using this combination successfully fishing at a silty lake and it has served me well being cast just about anywhere at that venue! The pop up is tied on to a Covert 3mm Rig Ring running between two Covert Hook Stops, so that I can adjust the placing and size of bait with ease. The stop nearest the hook point is left fairly central for baits of 14mm or bigger, but is moved nearer the point for smaller baits of 10-12mm for example or if I am using a grain of Enterprise Tackle corn.
There are two trains of thought on how much counterbalance weight should be used with pop ups, but as a rule I normally over-weight pop ups fished on gravel lakebeds and finely balance hook baits fished over silt. The beauty of this set up is that even a small 10mm bait can effectively hide the big strong hook whilst retaining excellent bottom lip hooking properties. Drop one in the edge and you will see what I mean!
I often sleeve the hook knot with a small piece of silicone tubing protruding about 5mm past the eye as this causes what is already an amazingly quick turning hook to be even more aggressive. You can test this by trying to move one across the palm of your hand. It will turn before moving showing that mechanically the rig is spot on!
Long sweeping curved shank hooks are not allowed on some waters, but a similar set up can be achieved using a Longshank Incizor and a small piece of Covert Supa Shrink tubing creating the aggressive angle below the eye, or a short shank hook with a longer shrink tube ‘kicker’ or simply add one of our popular Covert Hook Aligners.
For a 25lb breaking strain braid, Vigilante has a fine diameter and nice brown colour, and when viewed in the lake it simply blends in exceptionally well on the bottom. I rub some Critical Mass putty up and down the hooklink and put a couple of tiny blobs of it on the link to ensure it settles down flush to the lake bed. Being woven with pure Dyneema, Vigilante is incredibly strong for its diameter, but can retain a little buoyancy unless treated this way.
Finally, I incorporate a Covert Anti-Tangle Sleeve at the swivel and rig foam on the hook to help avoid any tangling on the cast, but for PVA bag fishing I simply shorten the hook link to around 4” and dispense with the sleeve and Dissolving Rig Foam.
The rig has proven excellent for single hook bait fishing over all sorts of lakebeds and will perform equally well fished over beds of bait and in PVA bags too.
What you’ll need:
Step 1 – Start off by attaching a Covert Longshank Mugga to the Vigilante with a simple knotless knot.
Step 2 – Trim off the excess as the hookbait will be mounted on a rig ring, not a hair.
Step 3 – Push 1cm of Covert 0.5mm Silicone Tubing up over the eye of the hook as shown.
Step 4 – Thread the first Covert Hook Stop onto the hook, so that the widest end is facing up the shank.
Step 5 – Thread on a Covert Rig Ring and a second Covert Hook Stop as shown here.
Step 6 – Create a loop knot. We recommend adding an extra twist to make the knot ‘figure of 16’ as this is stronger with braids.
Step 7 – With the extra twist it is a little trickier to bed the knot down. Take your time as a stronger knot is worth the effort.
Step 8 – Smear Critical Mass rig putty down hooklink to make it sink like a stone.
Step 9 – The finished rig – just waiting for a pop up to be tied onto the Covert Rig Ring.
Step 10 – The finished rig.
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