I am not an angler that spends sleepless nights over minute changes that I could make to my rigs, I would much rather they are simple and effective. For this reason, my favourite rig is the snowman rig, with a few little tweaks that separate it from a bog-standard snowman rig, and make it work in the situations that I want it to!

The rig is very simple to tie up and use, and very hard to tangle due to the large bait and anti-tangle sleeve used with a streamlined lead clip set up. This means that I would be as happy using this rig when fishing at extreme range as I would be lowering it under the rod tips. Using the set up with a size 6 Covert Continental Mugga hook and a large, curved piece of Covert Shrink Tube has given me an amazing hooked to landed ratio, even in weedy and snaggy conditions.

This mirror, known as the Lord, is one of many large carp to fall to Calum's simple snowman presentation.

I prefer to fish the rig over a bed of spod mix, generally consisting of whole and chopped boilies with a sprinkling of hemp and trout pellets to get the fish grubbing around and competing for food. A snowman fished over the top will be most effective in the situation, and the hookbait can be tweaked to give even better results. I will start with each rod on a different hookbait, say 2 coloured pop ups and then a pop-up matching the bottom bait. Once the successful rod has been identified, all rods should be switched to this giving the best chance of multiple bites!

This rig will work when fishing over any time of bottom, simply altering the length depending on how firm the bottom is and balancing the bait so that it will not sink too far into any silt. The 2 large blobs of Critical Mass putty placed on the 25lb Sink Skin hooklink will help to make sure it is sat on the bottom out of the way, if say the lead has sunk into the silt slightly.

Another stunning carp that fell to a simple snowman presentation.

Step 1 - Take a length of Sink Skin and strip back approx. four inches of the coating.

Step 2 - Form a hair loop in the end of the hook link, thread on the hook bait of choice and tie on a small Covert Rig Ring as shown.

Step 3 - Attached a size 8 Covert Continental Mugga hook using a knotless knot with the rig ring in this position.

Step 4 - Thread on a long piece of large Covert Supa Shrink Tube (this helps to reduce tangles) and steam over a kettle.

Step 5 - The finished rig. Please note that the white pop up is mounted last. This will help the hookbait sit up as shown.