Anatomy Of A Carp Rig | Iain Macmillan's German Rig (Video)

I started playing around with the German rig a couple of years ago; the QC or Ronnie rig was blown out of the water so I was on the hunt for something else that not many people were shouting about, and the German would be perfect. Initially I was after a pop-up rig, but after taking a look at some of the waters I was fishing I began to think that even a low lying pop-up could be treated with suspicion on a very blatant clean spot, so I changed my tack to a wafter presentation, which guarantees the hook bait is nailed to the bottom.

The German is very simple to construct too; this would be another plus point as I could fire out loads of rigs at home in a very short space of time, and as we all know preparation is without doubt a factor in carp fishing.

The first few trips using the German proved productive, but what was more pleasing was zero losses and the fish I landed were nailed beyond belief, this was just the confidence booster I needed to go all out with it. I felt it also improved my ‘spot’ finding, by this I mean the German has to be fished over clean ground ideally, so finding those sweet spots is key, and admittedly in the past I’d maybe not been as meticulous at finding the perfect spot as I am now.

There are also tweaks on the rig materials that can be made too. Now most of the time I’ll use the Jellywire in 15lb, it’s so versatile and tough, yet incredibility thin for its make-up, plus it also lends itself to sitting well over rougher gravel. If I feel the spot is perfectly flat, and granite hard, then a really stiff hook link like the Green Hornet in 35lb will work as it makes the rig a lot harder to eject due to its super-stiff nature.

I also really like how the rig actually looks very clumsy and bulky; I think that’s because of how close to the hook the actual bait is, but don’t be fooled by this, there’s plenty of separation to allow the mechanics of this setup to function, and hand on heart I can count on one hand the amount of hook-pulls I’ve experienced over the last couple of years while using this mega rig.

Watch the video to see how to tie Iain's German rig.

 

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