There’s so much more to the Chod Rig than some might have you believe, and Lewis Read is just the person to extol its numerous virtues…

By Lewis Read

LEWIS READ

@LEWISKLEWLESSREAD

THINKING ANGLERS

Photography Joseph Brazil

It is an unequivocal fact that the Chod Rig, along with its myriad of variants, offers us a remarkable capacity to present a hookbait effectively, in circumstances that could utterly ruin any chance of catching a carp on a conventionalstyle rig and lead arrangement.

A GAME-CHANGING MOMENT: Suddenly safe areas opened up…

Whilst paternosters in numerous guises have been documented, and used in angling since the dawn of time (in an angling context), the rig evolved massively when Tel took the Short Rig and added the Hinged Stiff Rig hook section to a long, leadcore leader. Sometimes, such an epiphany has long-reaching and profound consequences, and in this specific case, it created a chain reaction that is still shaping many anglers’ approach to their angling to this very day, well over 20 years later.

Chod tube… just the ‘D’s to form

“The devil, as they say, is in the detail!”

The rig essentially allows you to fish a slow-settling hookbait effectively, over almost any substrate, such as dirty detritus or most weed features; it’s really that simple. Consequently, weeded areas that previously remained safe zones for carp suddenly opened, and any fish that could be seen browsing over the weed, picking at snails, sucking on invertebrates, and even eating anglers’ bait (sometimes), could be targeted far more effectively than ever before.

In recent years, it’s been a presentation which many anglers have drifted away from, not through any sketchy issues of ineffectuality, just the rotation of angling fashions and a slightly sad, popularist perception that ‘Chods are for nods’ (a moniker apparently being applied by some to Ronnie- and Spinner-Rig protagonists too!), when I would proudly counter that the opposite is true. A far truer reflection would be that it still fulfils a totally unique role in our rig armoury, and as such, is just as valid today as ever, and possibly more so, if you take the effects of eutrophication into account.