Carp fishing is an art, and choosing the right carp rigs can mean the difference between a blank session and a trophy catch. Whether you’re fishing on pressured waters, snaggy environments, or deep lakes, selecting the right rig is crucial. Here’s a breakdown of the best rigs for different carp fishing scenarios.
When fishing in heavily pressured venues where carp have seen it all, a subtle approach is key. The blowback rig is a great choice. It allows the bait to move naturally while ensuring the hook remains in the perfect position for a solid hook hold. Pair this with a critically balanced bait to outwit wary carp.
If you’re fishing in weedy or silty lakes where traditional rigs get buried, the chod rig is your best friend. Its stiff hooklink keeps the bait presented above debris, ensuring it remains visible to passing carp.
For those targeting big carp with aggressive feeding habits, the Ronnie rig is a fantastic option. Its low-lying pop-up presentation combined with the ability to reset itself makes it incredibly effective.
On warm days when carp are swimming in the upper layers, the zig rig is an essential tactic. This rig suspends bait at various depths, enticing fish that aren’t actively feeding on the bottom.
If you’re looking to target bigger, more cautious carp, the snowman rig—which combines a bottom bait with a pop-up—is a solid choice. This creates a slightly buoyant presentation that is hard for carp to resist.
Best for: Large, cautious fish.
Recommended bait: A bottom boilie with a smaller pop-up.
Key tip: Add a PVA bag of crushed boilies for extra attraction.
6. PVA Bag Rig – For Instant Attraction and Quick Bites
For short sessions or when fishing for quick bites, a PVA bag rig is ideal. The compact bait presentation ensures your hookbait is surrounded by attractive free offerings.
Best for: Instant bites, small lakes, short sessions.
Recommended bait: Small pellets, crushed boilies.
Key tip: Use a short braided hooklink for better presentation.
Conclusion
Matching your rig to the conditions and carp behavior will significantly improve your success rate. Whether you’re fishing in weedy lakes, pressured venues, or targeting mid-water carp, there’s a rig for every situation. Experiment with these rigs and tweak them to suit your fishing style—tight lines and happy angling!
Deciding on which carp rig and bait to use on a session is always a hard task. The modern-day carping has introduced a huge variety of different rigs which sometimes makes things a little overwhelming when deciding what rigs to settle on. Especially for those young anglers coming through!
In my opinion what rig you use depends on what lake bed you are fishing over, and picking the right rigs can really improve your chances of catching. I have 5 rigs I use in all my carp fishing which suit a variety of baits to give me the best presentation possible when I find out what the lake bed is like on arrival to a swim.
The Ronnie rig is my number 1 go to rig and probably the most used pop-up rig in UK carp fishing. I use this a lot in my own fishing, and have caught carp on difficult waters on this rig!
The Ronnie rig offers precise positioning for pop up baits on the bottom of the lake and is aimed at giving you a good strong hook hold.
The goal of the Ronnie rig is to have your hookbait so it can freely rotate through 360 degrees so that when a carp sucks it in it will give you a strong hook hold around the bottom lip.
I like to mount my hookbaits on bait screws for Ronnie’s as this presentation gets the hookbait close to the curve of the shank meaning you are more likely to get a good hook hold.
From the QC swivel up to the eye of the hook you should use shrink tubing to give you the stiff presentation that is so iconic with the Ronnie rig! Make sure you use the same colour tubing to match the lakebed you’re fishing over!
Suitable over: Silt, Gravel, Clay, Clear spots in weed
A snowman rig is one of the most unused carp rigs in UK carp fishing in my opinion. For me I use it when there are a lot of nuisance fish as this gives you a larger hookbait to get through to the larger carp.
A snowman rig is a 2 boilie setup with a standard boilie at the bottom and a smaller pop up at the top. It makes the presentation stand up odd at the bottom and looks just like a snowman, hence the name.
I have had many of my 30lb UK carp on this method like below…
In my opinion the snowman rig works great in situations where you are fishing over beds of standard carp baits because the added topper to a normal boilie really gives you the edge and makes your bait stand out against the loose feed
This rig also allows you to combine savoury/fishmeal baits with bright high attractive, typically sweet, pop ups.
You can buy ready made from my website here: Snowman Rig
OR… if you want to try yourself these are the materials you’ll need:
Hookbaits Used: Pop-Ups, Wafters, Bottom baits tipped with Artificial corn
Suitable over: Silt, Gravel, Clay, Clear spots in weed
The KD Rig is very similar to a standard hair rig which is used by all carp anglers. The key difference is in the whipping of the hooklink around the shank of the hook. With the KD rig, the hair protrudes from the hook closer to the eye.
For my KD rigs I do 2 whips as normal, move the hair to 90 degrees and do 4 whips below.
I have caught many UK carp on this rig including this monster below:
KD Rigs are especially lethal when paired with a solid PVA bag. The PVA bag creates a tight compact spread of bait with the hook and bait in perfect position nearly every time. The supreme hook hold achieved by KD rigs makes them a very useful tool to have when fishing in waters where barbed hooks are prohibited.
A lot of my waters I fish are Barbless only hooks which makes this an option for when I am out on the bank.
You can buy ready made from my website here: KD Rig
OR… if you want to try yourself these are the materials you’ll need:
Suitable over: Silt, Gravel, Clay, Clear spots in weed
The Blowback rig is an often-used presentation incorporating a small sliding ring on the shank of the hook, with the ring attached to the hair as a simple extension of the hooklink running up the back of the hook.
Now I have only started using this rig within the last few months after a few anglers I know were talking about it and it possessed some qualities that I was looking for in my rigs.
A blowback rig goes perfectly in a solid bag setup which is something I’ve also introduced into my fishing lately.
Also not only will this rig hook the cleverest of carp, it can also be used with both bottom baits and pop ups but still provide the excellent hooking potential which allows you to swap methods quickly.
But the main advantage is the fact that the hair rarely tangles and if the rig is ejected it can reset itself, due to the sliding rig ring that runs along the hooks shank.
So if your looking for a rig that resets itself, can try the wariest of carp and you can use any hookbait you want then this is the rig for you!
You can buy ready made from my website here: Blowback Rig
OR… if you want to try yourself these are the materials you’ll need:
Suitable over: Silt, Gravel, Clay, Clear spots in Weed
Now in my eyes this is the most under rated carp rig in fishing. The simplicity of a standard hair rig is often over looked by the modern day angler who follow all the big names in fishing making their rigs extremely over complicated.
Sometimes just getting the basics right is far better than fishing ineffectively.
I have had some of my biggest carp on this simple method, check out below:
The standard hair rig can be fished in nearly every presentation whether it would be over particle, boilie or pellets. By changing the length of the rig it can also be fished over every lake bed apart from weed.
I hope you have enjoyed this read into what rigs I use and what material you would need to make them yourself.
All rigs above can be adapted and changed to suit different scenarios like softer silt or thicker weed; such as varying the hooklength and changing the hook size. These changes CAN and WILL make the difference in banking more carp!
Don’t forget I can tie all carp rigs to order from my shop! Make sure you check it out!
Do you have any questions about the rigs above?
Then please fill out the form below and I would be happy to answer any questions. I aim to reply as soon as possible but please allow 24hrs.
