The Best Rigs for Carp Fishing in 2024

The thing is, all those ”best carp fishing rigs” are all made differently. How? We’ll tell you in a bit and help you discover which one will sync with you best.

Let’s Learn Some Knots

Before we jump right into our best carp rig nominees, we’ll walk you through the most basic loops that all carp anglers should know.

Knotless Knot/ Simple Hair Rig

• First, grab your line and tie a simple loop at one end.
• Grab the other end of your line and your hook, and thread that ends through your hook eye to decide on your preferred loop placement.
• Bring your line back, and go around the hook’s shank 8-12 times in an orderly manner.
• With the free end still in your hand, rerun it through the eye of the hook and tighten it.
• Don’t let go of the loop to keep your preferred position.
• Finally, ensure that there’s no overlapping, and to secure everything, a drop of super glue will seal the deal.

Loop Knot

The loop knot is the start of any rig making, let it be a classic rig or a more complicated one. You have to know how to do this efficiently.

• Grab your line, and with one end, make a loop with the free end laying under the stabilized one.
• With the free end still in your hand, make another loop on top of the first one, again, with the free end under the stabilized one.
• Take the free end and intertwine it between the two loops.
• Then take the upper loop and pass it above the free end through the first loop.
• Pull the top loop against the stabilized end of the line, then trim the line using scissors, and a lighter if needed.

Palomar Knot

This knot is specialized in attaching swivels to your line. Here’s how to get it done:

• Fold the line over, creating an unsecured knot.
• Grab your swivel and pass that loop through one of the eyes on the swivel.
• Using that same loop, tie a simple overhead knot, and you’ll be left with another loop that is now secured.
• Pass the entire swivel through it, and pull it tight.

General Tools Needed to Make Your Own Carp Rigs

• Scissors
• Baiting needle
• Bait screw
• Clips
• Floss
• Coated braid
• Putty
• Shrink tube
• Hair stops

Our Favourite Carp Fishing Rigs to Hook Bait, and How to Make and Use Them

Now, it’s time for us to start some serious rig-making. Although it might seem a bit complicated, we guarantee that as long as you have your basic carp fishing knots and tools, following through with the steps will be a piece of cake.

Simple Hair Carp Rig

Since the simple hair rig is one of the most elementary carp rigs, we’ll show you how to tie it with the simplest materials.

All you need is some good quality size two carp fishing hooks, a 50-lb line, a barrel swivel, some weights according to how far you want to cast (1-4 oz is the mid-range), and a baiting needle. If you don’t have a bait needle, you can make it out of a cheap hook that you unbend into a straight line.

• Take your line, cut around a foot of it, and make a simple loop at one end.
• Take the free end and thread it through the backside of the hook.
• You’d want to put a distance of about an inch between the loop and the hook’s shank.
• Next, take the free end of the line that you’ve just threaded, and create a knotless knot.
• Leave around six inches to a foot, then create a Palomar knot to attach your swivel.
• Next, you’ll grab your bait needle, store-bought or self-made, stab your bait with it, hook it into the loop hanging from your hook and slide the bait onto it.
• Don’t forget to use hair stops to prevent your bait from falling off. That too can be store-bought, or you can use almost anything, like twigs or grass.
• Finally, you need to connect your weight, and that’s connected via a carp fishing line.
• Thread it through the weight, and hook it to the swivel using whichever fishing knot you prefer.

What’s great about the simple hair rig is that it can be used in almost any situation. It’s simple, and easy, and hooks the fish in the side of the mouth, making it very hard for carp to eject the baits.

Chod Rig

A chod rig is another pop-up rig dedicated more toward lake bed fishing. These carp rigs work great with a bottom bait or a pop-up, as chod rigs tend to do great when there are plenty of weeds and debris at the end of the water column. Yet, how do you tie a chod rig correctly to catch fish?

You’ll need some chod rig filament, 25-lb will do the trick, a multitool, scissors, a swivel, a bait needle, a lighter, a size-5 hook, some bait floss, a micro hook ring swivel, and some rig putty of choice since you need to keep the hook with the chod rig down as the bait floats.

• First of all, cut around 5 inches of your chod rig filament.
• Grab your hook, and create a knotless knot.
• After you’re done securing it, make sure to slide it down towards the hook’s eye.
• Next, you’ll attach your swivel using a blood knot and utilize your multitool to ensure that all of your chod rig knots are secured.
• Cut off all excess chod rig filament, and secure it using your lighter.
• Now, let’s swim around to the other side of your chod rig filament, where you input your micro hook ring swivel at the back of the hook.
• Then take the free end and pass it through the eye, creating a “D” shape.
• Remove the excess line and secure it with the lighter.
• Try to slightly make the line between the hook and the swivel curve using your thumb and forefinger.
• Then add your putty, as much as you need, around the knot and the swivel, away from the hook point.
• Lastly, attach your pop-up bait of choice using the bait needle and the floss.

Zig Rigs

What makes the zig rigs so famous among the pop-up rigs is the ability to move them around freely and fish anywhere in the water column. Hence, a zig rig is used more during the summer and spring months when the fish is showing and way more active.

A zig rig mainly utilizes a lead clip for stability and security, so let’s learn how to tie a zig rig correctly.

All you’ll need is a floater, preferably a 12-lb one, and clear as you want to camouflage the zig rig as much as possible. Plus, barbed or barbless hooks that are a size 8, a swivel, and a zig rig aligner kit (one of your choice).

• Attach the hook to your floater with a knotless or a simple overhead knot.
• Then, using the liner kit, attach the barrel to your loop.
• Take the free end of your floater and pass it through an anti-tangle sleeve, and then add your swivel at the top of the sleeve, using the knot of your choice.
• Don’t forget to add your tail rubber and lead clip, and secure them using the locking bin.
• Finally, attach the whole concoction to your mainline.
• This is an adjustable zig rig, as you can tailor the measurements as much as you’d prefer, depending on the carp you’re going after and the hook size you’re using.

Ronnie Rig/Spinner Rig

What’s great about the Ronnie rig, or the spinner rig, is its ability to do 360° spins. So, it fishes its entire spectrum on the lake bed. Besides, since it lies on the lake bed, and prefers pop-up, as it’s a carp rig, a Ronnie rig has a very low tendency to form tangles, making it one of the best carp rigs.

Your tools to create a Ronnie rig include a curved shank hook, a shrink tube, a Flexi ring swivel, a mini hook ring swivel, a hook bead, a soft coated link, plus putty and bait of choice. The Ronnie rig is pretty simple.

• Take your barbed curved shank and cover it with some shrink-tubing.
• Attach your Flexi ring swivel to the eye of the hook.
• To secure this swivel, pass the shrink tubing over it, and use a lighter to do the shrinking.
• Then add a swivel, the mini hook ring one, to the other side of the hook, and secure it with your hook bait.
• Take your soft-coated link, and secure the swivel under the tubing using a Polmar knot.
• Attach your hook bait of choice using weights and a lighter.
• Finally, secure the Ronnie rig with your putty.

Multi Rig

The multi-rig is another classic pop-up rig that allows corp anglers to fish chip towards the bottom of the water column. What’s great about this pop-up bait rig is that it allows anglers to experiment with Carp fishing.

With a multi-rig, they can use different hooks, swivels, hook lengths, and types of putty, in addition to different buoyant baits. Basically, all you need is a 20-lb coated braid, a lighter, a size six barbed hook, a hook ring swivel, and putty.

• Grab a couple of inches of your coated braid, and tie a figure-of-eight loop on one end.
• Secure the knot by stripping the coating next to it.
• Take your hook and thread the entire loop through its eye.
• Then pass the hook through the hook ring swivel.
• Keep the loop in your hand, and pass it around the hook, so that the hook passes through the loop.
• The loop with the swivel hanging from it will form a curve of the shape “D” against the hook’s shank.
• Using your putty of choice, secure the part you’ve previously stripped, right below the knot.
• Again, tie a figure-of-eight loop on the other side of your coated braid.
• Finally, attach your bait of choice, primarily pop-ups, to your swivel using a bait needle.

Short PVA Bag Rig

There are a lot of basic carp rigs, but a short PVA bag rig doesn’t belong to them. It’s undoubtedly one of the best carp rigs as it creates the entire scene for carp. Everything you use inside the solid PVA bag is aromatic and attractive, making it a highly efficient rig.

You’ll only need a solid PVA bag, wide PVA tape, carp food of choice, a simple hair rig with lead clip and pop-up, pellets, plum juice, and a bait needle.

• Take your PVA bag and fill it with your carp food of choice.
• Now, there are so many varieties of carp food, and there are rig videos that teach you how to make it at home. You only need to know what the carp in your area prefer.
• Fill the first layer, 1/3 of the bag, with carp food.
• The next layer will include your hook bait which you should premake.
• If you’ve attached a boilie or a pop-up, make sure it’s situated on one bottom edge of the PVA bag while the lead clip is lying on the opposite edge.
• The third layer will be pellets and make sure to compress all of that together.
• Then twist the bag shut using your PVA tape.
• Secure the top of the bag using two simple knots, and cut off the excess.
• Go back to the corners housing the hook bait and the lead, pinch them outwards, stick them to the sides with a tiny bit of water, or just lick them.
• Our last step is puncturing a hole in the top of the PVA bag to insert plum juice. Make sure that the entire carp rig is saturated.

Snowman Rig

The snowman rig is one of the highly attractive and unique Carp rigs. It must have a pop-up and a bottom bait to create its shape on the lake bed. What makes the snowman rig one of the best carp rigs is that it stays upright at all times. Subsequently, carp can hardly miss this one.

We’ll need a 25-lb coated hook link, a micro barbed hook, line aligners, a rig ring, anti-tangle sleeve, scissors, stripper, bottom bait and pop-ups. For this specific rig, you’ll decide how much hook length you need.

• Take off that length and strip 4-5 inches of it.
• After that, above the stripped area, tie a small hair loop. Cut off the excess.
• Now, it’s time to add on your bait. Put the pop-up first on the needle, then your bottom bait.
• Thread both onto your coated line.
• Don’t forget to add a hair stop.
• Grab your rig ring and slide it onto your line just below the stripped spot.
• Secure it with a simple overhead knot.
• Take your hook and slide that too onto your line and pass it through the rig ring so that it’s stationed at the bend of the hook.
• Secure all of that with a knotless knot.
• Take your line liner, and slide it towards the hook to sit on top of the eye.
• Now, it’s time for the anti-tangle sleeve, which will stay on the other side of the line.
• Thread the line through it, then tie a figure-of-eight knot at the free end.
• Trim off any excess, and slide the anti-tangle sleeve back over the figure-of-eight knot.

Tiger Nut Rig

The secret here lies in the preparation of the tiger nut itself. This is one of those hook baits that are highly attractive to Carp; hence, it’s one of the best carp rigs out there. They release a strong odour that entices the fish to it.

You can either peel the tiger nut or keep it with the shell. If you go with the latter, soak it in a fish-based oil to help release its own.

Prepare tiger nuts, an extra-stiff 20-lb hook link, a small rig ring, and your hook of choice.

• Once you take it out of the oil, you’ll cut the upper part with a knife and drill the inside.
• Add a cork piece that fills the hole, and cut it flush with the surface of the nuts.
• Thread the floss using your bait needle, and secure it with a lighter. You don’t need a hair stop or anything else.
• On the other side, thread your hook through the line, and secure it with a knotless knot.
• Try to go with as many wraps as you can, 12 for instance, to ensure everything is secure.
• Then as you go through the hook’s eye again, add your hook rind, and secure the hook with your lighter.
• In the middle of your line, add a small tungsten sinker just to make sure that your line lands peacefully.
• The line length should be around 5-6 inches since the tiger nut is used chiefly with shallower waters.

Stiff Hinge Rig/ Big Fish Rig

As its name implies, the stiff hinge rig is all about heavy-duty fishing adventures. It’s simple yet quite potent, as it uses an extra-rigid line and a size five hook on the lake floor.

We’ll require a 30-lb rigidity, 5-size carp hook, micro rig swivel, size 11 ring swivel, 25-lb soft coated braid, anti-tangle sleeve, tungsten putty, and bait floss.

• For this hinged stiff rig, you’ll need around 9 inches of your rigidity.
• Take one end, and pass it through the front of your hook.
• Turn around and pass it back through the hook again to have an unsecured loop.
• Pinch this loop, slide your micro rig swivel through it, and then pass the whole hook through the centre of the loop.
• From the other side of the line, have your size 11 ring swivel join the party so that it’s sitting just a little under the hook and secure it was one blood knot.
• Use your multitools to secure all of these knots, and remove the excess using a lighter.
• Using your multitool, create a D shape over the hook shank, then grab 12 inches of your coated braid, and attach your anti-tangle sleeve over one loop.
• Add your putty, then create a loop on the other side, which you will pass through the swivel.
• Finally, take your floss, thread it through your pop-up, and attach it to the D ring placed against the hook shank.

Our Favourite Varieties of Hook Bait for the Best Carp Rigs

Once you’ve settled on your best carp fishing rig, you must pair it with the optimal bait. Subsequently, we’ve chosen to end our complete carp rig guide with this list of top baits for carp universally.

• Boilies; Bottom Baits, Pop-Ups and Wafters
• Spod Mix
• Maggots
• Corn
• Tiger Nuts

Conclusion

To wrap up, carp is a finicky smart fish that requires a lot of practice to become an expert. Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean that you need to use a complex bait rig to achieve that. On the contrary, the best carp rigs are the simplest ones, such as a classic pop-up rig or your own rigs with some rig putty and a homemade pop-up.

Plus, if you have any speciality rigs that you’d like to share with us, don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments., and check out this basic fishing setup for carp; baiting needle, putty, and shrink tube.