A bomb feeder end rig for big carp — the semi-fixed setup step by step

The video builds up the channel's favourite feeder end rig, the bomb feeder. It was filmed at Benta fishing park.

What you need: a rod with the line already through, a mono shock leader, a lead clip and its top section, optionally anti-tangle tubing, a ring swivel, a small lead and a hooklink.

The tubing is recommended if you fish a braided leader with a braided hooklink — two braids tend to tangle together. One detail matters: cut one end of the tubing at an angle. The video uses a thirty-centimetre length with the angled end pointing down, because that way it slots straight into the rubber locking section of the lead clip.

The order on the line: line, anti-tangle tubing, the top of the lead clip, the lead clip, the rubber sleeve, and finally a Korda size 8 ring swivel.

That size 8 swivel is the key to the rig. It wedges very slightly into the clip, which makes the setup semi-fixed: fixed enough to set the hook in the fish's mouth, but it releases and runs free once the fish bolts. The same happens on a snag, so the fish can shed the rig.

The knot is a simple clinch — a blood knot in English — with six turns. Pass the line through the small loop, and with a thicker leader take it back through the loop to pre-tension it, then wet it and pull it home. Do not trim the tag flush: leave a millimetre or two, because it seats inside the lead clip.

The rig can be stored and carried in that state. At the lake only two things remain: pull the rubber sleeve onto the clip and attach the lead — a 31 g Guru cube lead in the video, since this rig is not fished at range — then loop the hooklink into the ring on the clip.

A local rule comes up too: at Benta neither a braided hooklink nor a braided leader is allowed, so the video switches to a mono hooklink.

Feeding is pellet-based: 4, 6 and 8 mm pellets with CSL liquid over them. In cold water the liquid, or a spray of water, is there to get the pellet breaking down sooner. Start with two or three handfuls at a distance you can throw — six to eight metres in the video. Note where the pellet went, because the rod has to go to the same place: there is no groundbait on the rig, only the small lead, so you fish around the baited area.

Bait choice follows the feed but has to stand out from it: feeding black halibut pellets, a bait with some black in it works, but with a second colour as well.

And the warning that matters most with bomb feeder: the bites are very aggressive, so always leave the drag open or the fish will take the rod — even a small one.