boilie stops

The carp I've been targeting w floating bread seem to be wising up. only hooked one on about a dozen hits. Gonna finally try hair rigs. Are commercial boilie stops a must for hair rigs? Or is there something else just as effective? I was thinking I could just use a small piece of a twig or grass. Any local shops sell them( w moreland county)

just buy the tiniest plastic bead chain from the craft section of any big box store. it's pretty much the same thing as a boilie stop. you're not going to find too much real carp fishing gear in this country. i wouldn't even look at a tackle shop. lately, i've been using slivers of stiff, but flexible foam. it's working well. it adds a little bit of buoyancy to my baits, without them becoming a full blown pop up. i fish a hair rig 99% of the time.

This past weekend was my first time using a hair rig although I think I left my hair a little too long as I was getting a few hits but no fish. This was at Seghi's. They sell baiting needles and boilie stops at the tackle shop but I opted to use a thick piece of grass as a stop and it worked fine.

So I tied up some hair rigs w 20 lb fireline, I think fireline is too rigid for a proper hair rig? I also made a couple hooks in my fly vise by wrapping and glueing a 4lb fireline loop at the end. I made some boilie stop out of foam pipe insulation(im using them w floating bread) I made little hourglass shapes about 3/8"sq, too big? Only had about 45min to fish w this setup yesterday, (lunch break)only had 2 hits and no fish. Is the loop for the stop supposed to cinch down on the stop? I'm certainly not giving up yet, but anybody have any suggestions on improving my rigs?

FishinGuy

So I tied up some hair rigs w 20 lb fireline, I think fireline is too rigid for a proper hair rig? I also made a couple hooks in my fly vise by wrapping and glueing a 4lb fireline loop at the end. I made some boilie stop out of foam pipe insulation(im using them w floating bread) I made little hourglass shapes about 3/8"sq, too big? Only had about 45min to fish w this setup yesterday, (lunch break)only had 2 hits and no fish. Is the loop for the stop supposed to cinch down on the stop? I'm certainly not giving up yet, but anybody have any suggestions on improving my rigs?

 
To make a hair rig you just take your line and make a small overhand loop in the line, run the open end through the eyelet so the loop end is laying along the shank about 1/2" from the eyelet then you do a normal snell knot by rapping the line around the shank 5 or 6 times and back through the eyelet.. I run  sufix 832 30lb braid mainline and the same on the hair rig.
 
To make a baiting needle, take a size 4 hook that will bend. Straighten out the hook super glue the now straight hook into the tip of an old ball point pen.
Thread sweet corn or bread balls on the needle, attach the barb of your now straightened hook onto your newly tied hair rig loop and slide the corn onto the hair. I use to just use grass to hold on the corn, clover stems work the best. Make your hair long enough to hold 5 to 7 pieces of corn.
 
Hope this helps
Bill

A boilie stop is around 3/8 long and the diameter of a skinny toothpick. I would not use a hair rig for bread fishing. The way a hair rig works is best on the bottom. If you want to free line bread and fish on top I would simply pinch a chunk of fresh bread over the hook and it will look more natural to them. The reason a hair rig won't work on top is the angle the fish takes the bait. I will post some other rigs that will work better when I get a chance. Can you show a photo of your hair rig also. Stiff line is actually a good thing for hair rigs.

Here it is. Had to reduce the size a bit more, the other link is a better pic.

I can tell you right away why you are not getting hook ups. The hook you are using is an upturn eye. It will make the hair rig pull in the opposite direction. You want to be using a downturned eye hook. Also as said above the hair of the rig is very long. The reason you want it shorter is carp will mouth a bait and if the bait is away from the hook too far only the bait will be in the mouth and no hook. Good tule of thumb is figure out what bait you will be using. Make the hair that size and leave a 1/4inch gap from the bend of the hook to the bait. I bet this will improve your catch rate a ton.

Thanks for the tips guys. I made up a bunch of hair rig leaders w varying hair lengths. But, I think I'm gonna just cut the hooks off and try again w downturned eye hooks. Any suggestions? The only ones I can think of off hand are plain old eagle claws, which I'm not a big fan of. I think I'm gonna use a little softer braid to, power pro most likely. I'm not gonna give up on the floating bread hair rigged yet. I watched a few grass carp suck down a dozen or so pieces of free floating bread, then the 3 or 4 times they touched mine, they dramatically spooked away immediately.

"But, I think I'm gonna just cut the hooks off and try again w downturned eye hooks. Any suggestions? The only ones I can think of off hand are plain old eagle claws"
 
 
go to bigcarptackle. they'll have the hooks you need. they now ship through the mail.
bury those eagle claws somewhere where they can never get into a fishes mouth.