Shot On The Hook weights

The whole idea of the Shot On The Hook (SOTH) weights is that they make the point of your hook much heavier than it naturally is, thus increasing the chances of it gaining an initial hookhold in the mouth of the carp, and increasing your chances of catching.

The shot-on-the-hook as a concept for carp rigs is certainly nothing new and has been around in various forms for over 30 years

But traditionally it tended to be used for pop-up rigs, making the point sit at an aggressive angle, whereas when Danny Fairbrass used it during the Underwater filming at Norton Disney, where it turned things around in terms of the ratio of pick-ups to hooked carp, it was with a wafter hookbait and on a Ronnie rig presentation, incorporating a D-rig Kicker, and so behaved very differently.

How does the Shot On The Hook rig work?

With many rigs, being able to make your hook point ‘heavier’ increases the chances of it being able to take a hold in the bottom lip.

There are ways of doing this to some degree via the way that your rig is set up and your hookbait is mounted, which when picked up naturally make the hook hang down with the point at a good angle.

But none of them actually physically increase the weight of the point, just mimic the effects of that, and tend not to do so reliably anyway as carp feed differently and the rig won’t always be sitting the same way or enter the mouth the same every time.

The Korda Shot On The Hook actually does make the hook point heavier though, and in a way that is consistent and predictable every time (assuming you’re using the same rig components – including the same size of SOTH weights).

How the Shot On The Hook evolved during Korda Underwater

During the Korda Underwater series filming, you will have seen Danny Fairbrass tying a fiddly whipping knot with bait floss or elastic, and then pinching a shot onto that with a pair of pliers, to create the effect he was looking for in terms of rig mechanics.

Initially he only tried it as an experiment after watching countless carp eject his own rigs, and those of other anglers involved with the filming, and decided that he needed to make some changes – those who have watched the films will have seen he also played around with hook link length plus the addition of an anti-tangle sleeve to remove all movement between the rig and the lead, and to ensure it set properly every time, away from the main line or leader.

All the other tweaks made a difference, but none more so that the addition of a shot on the hook, and it totally turned things around during that session, where he was fishing over a clean hard bottom, and led to a far superior hook-up ratio, with very quick and efficient hook ups.

It wasn’t just a one-off either, as since then Danny has taken it to other waters and put it to good use, as has Tom Stokes who was on the Underwater with Danny, and after seeing how effective the rig was, took it to Stoneacres on the Linch Hill complex, which has a reputation for being very hard, and used it to land several carp, including one of the biggest in the lake, Baby Choco, which hadn’t been caught off of the bottom for over four years!

Making the SOTH as user-friendly as possible

After the Underwater film came out, we were inundated with requests from anglers who had watched it and seen how effective the rig, and especially SOTH, was, but wanted a version that was easier to use.

Many struggle with tying fiddly whipping knots onto the hook, or even getting a shot pinched onto the tag end of the knot, especially if eye sight or dexterity in the fingers is an issue, so Danny was keen for Korda to bring out a version that would mean that anybody, regardless of carp fishing experience and knowledge, could use the Shot On The Hook presentation, straight out of the packet.

After a lot of playing around and trying different things, he eventually settled on something he was happy with, he eventually settled on something he was happy with, attached via a small rubber moulding, and resulting in the three different sizes of Shot On The Hook weights that are now available in tackle shops.

Danny revealed: “Nothing in recent years has made more difference to my bottom bait catch rate.

“I wanted to rush it out, but Damian Clarke and the product team out voted me to make something ‘special’. I’m very pleased to be overruled, on this occasion, as the end result is an easy to use and re-use product that suits any kind of bottom bait or wafter rig, from plastic corn on a size 8 to a 24mm boilie on a size 2.”

How to use the Shot On The Hook weights - key features

Whilst these were designed by Danny with the specific rig in mind that he used on Underwater, there is no reason why they can only be used with that Ronnie rig or spinner rig presentation.

The possibilities are almost endless in terms of playing around with them on all sorts of pop-up, wafter, and bottom bait presentations, where you might want to add some weight somewhere on the hook itself.

The SOTH weights come in a handy plastic container with a sliding lid, with ten shot of the same size weights in each pack, and a choice of three sizes - 0.3g, 0.4g, or 0.5g.

The weights themselves are made from pure tungsten which is then coated in a subtle green coloured rubber moulding, which not only makes the weight less obtrusive than bare tungsten would be, but more importantly gives you a tag with a hole in it, which can easily be slid onto your hook point and down over the barb.

The rubber used grips sufficiently well that the Shot On The Hook weights won’t move out of position during casting, but once you hook a carp they will slide around the hook bend and out of the way, as it penetrates, and so won’t impede hook ups.

Even with barbless hooks they will stay in place securely and in the optimal position for efficient hook holds and to grab hold of the bottom lip as soon as they go in.

They also have the advantage of being very durable and so can be used numerous times - just like the Korda hook bead - by simply crushing the barb on the old hook and sliding the weight off.