The weak point of a mono leader — a crimped loop for a lead-shedding rig
Filmed at Csendespart lake near Délegyháza, long-range method fishing in early spring. Its real subject, though, is a rig experiment: what to do about the weak point of a mono shock leader.
First a warning about the venue, which the video makes explicitly: there is probably a snag out in the middle. The fishing partner cast around 130 metres and lost two rigs to it — so be careful with distance here.
The problem the video probes: most lakes now allow only mono leaders, and on a leader tapering to 57 lb the final 57 lb section is too thick. Cutting a few metres back off it makes sense — the partner cuts three metres, he cut two.
That creates a new problem, though: if you tie the swivel on each time and cut it off at the end of the session or when changing rigs, the leader keeps getting shorter. That is not sustainable; the end has to be made permanent somehow.
The obvious idea is to tie a loop in the end, but that runs into a rule: most lakes require a rig that sheds the lead, and a knot on 57 lb leader is a bump no end rig will pass over.
So the experimental solution is a crimped loop rather than a tied one: a roughly fifteen-centimetre loop crimped into the end of the leader, with the end rig threaded into it. The crimp itself may be the weak point — the video does not claim it works, only that it is being tried.
The full arrangement: a crimped end loop on the mono leader tapering to 57 lb, then a 30–40 centimetre length of threadable leader, joined loop to loop.
The practical payoff is PVA pouch fishing: several pouches can be made up in advance and simply swapped during the session. The made-up pouch passes through that fifteen-centimetre loop, so it can be cast quickly without waiting for the end rig to dry.
Bait was SBS Mini Method pineapple soluble in the feeder with two maggots on the spike, plus an SBS pineapple pop-up with two maggots. The fish were around four to five kilos; the maggot-pouch rod produced the second one as well.