Luke Stevenson - The Chod Rig

Tried and tested, the chod has been around for as long as I've carp fished and I've always been an advocate of its effectivness.

For some reason, it doesn't seem to be as popular as it once was, largely due to the popularity of the spinner rig, it seems more and more anglers have drifted away from the chod and it seems to be more of a last resort.

I really can't get my head around this and I've often heard people question the hooking effectiveness of the chod, which in my mind just seems totally mad.

The chod is my go-to pop up presentation pretty much all year round, it's a classic big carp rig that's deservedly stood the test of time. It offers perfect presentation, allows you to get out with minimal casts and even with a slightly softer drop, you know you'll be fishing.

I like to fish my chods into areas I know the carp like to visit, baiting with generous spreads of boilie, and then staggering my hook baits across this baited zone.

To rig my chod rigs up, they revolve around size 4 Kamakura Choddys, still to this day, the best hook I have ever used. Strong and just insanely sharp, they 100% lead to more bites. To this, I tie a section of MouthTrap, securing off with a two turn blood knot, keeping this section no more than 3-inches.

I then fish these with small Help Safe systems and the lightest lead I can, no more than 2.5oz. Short sections of Kable leadcore of around 6-inches help protect my mainline and when I am playing a fish, the swivel rubs against the lead core, NOT the mainline, something I believe to be very important.

I then attach my mainline (12lb Kontour) to my lead core via a five turn grinner, and position a bead over this knot. I like to fish my mainline as slack as possible, using the small black and white bobbins for minimal weight.

All that flicked over a spread of boilie, as simple as you like, but still as effective as ever at tricking them old bigguns, and it's accounted for a good few 40lbers for me of late.