The Withy Pool - by Dan Chart
I have to confess to being a bit of a lightweight at the moment and am not doing much angling! Instead, preferring the comforts of my house and waiting for the light levels to increase in February before hitting it hard! Fair play to everyone out there having a damn go, I've been there and got the t shirt and with the short days, it's hard work! But, despite the mild weather I have decided to plan my campaign for this year better than I perhaps normally do.
I had a good chat with John last week and we thought we might do some pieces on rigs that have stood the test of time, rigs that we have used in the past that we may still use today, albeit minor changes, but essentially the same rig. For me, it was a no brainer, it is the Withy Pool Rig that, I believe, was invented by Steve Renyard. It was well documented in the early 90's but I only gave it a go after seeing the devastating results my friends were having on the Yateley Copse Lake. It put a lot of fish on the bank for me then with them always being nailed. Incredibly weird to look at, that it often left you baffled as to how it worked so well, but at the Yateley Copse Lake fish were extremely riggy and they simply couldn't deal with it.
Components I used were clear 20lb Amnesia, shrink tube to achieve the aggressive curve that was achieved by wrapping around a cork, Carp R Us Nailer hooks and float stops to stop a ring sliding up too far on the hook shank. The amnesia was doubled up in the shrink tube with the tail having a split shot on the end so that it wasn't on the main hook length. This also helped stiffen up the curve section more.
Nowadays I still use the rig, but with hook link materials like Gardner Disruption, size 6 Gardner Mugga hooks and, my favourite, Gardner hook swivels to give the hook bait that give that 'spin' effect which further helps prevent the fish from ejecting the bait. The rig works well with most lead set ups although my preference has been the helicopter set up.
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