What is the most successful ready tied carp rig?

Now this is a very controversial topic, what determines the best carp rig, is it the amount of fish the rig catches, is it the most versatile? is it the one that landed you your personal best? So many factors can come in to this question and there is not a definitive answer. 

If you are looking for the rig that has caught the most fish then historically then you have to look at the hair rig, the first real carp fishing rig which enables you to use all manner of baits and takes advantage of the carps feeding habits, of sucking food in and blowing it out again, the hair allows the bait to be ejected whilst keeping the hook in place. The reason why this rig has probably caught the most big fish is due to how long it has been around.

 If you are looking for a more recent type of Carp rig then the combi rig has to be up there again because of the number of situations you can use this rig effectively, this rig is a combination of proven rigs and combines it all in to one, the combination of the stiff and supple materials makes ejecting the rig nearly impossible, its something Carp really struggles with. Then you have how the bait is attached, do you go for the hair which then combines the anti eject properties of the supple hair or do you go for the bait attachment on the shank of the hook which when a carp is feeding transfers the weight of the bait to make the hook point heavy so it points down?

What if you are fishing over weed or Chod?

This presents its own challenges and where a bait might not be presented properly. The most recent rig to help combat this is the chod rig, a very short rig that is made with a very stiff hook material to keep the rig sitting upright. You should use this rig with a pop up so your bait is above the weed. 

If the weed is only shallow then you might opt for the Solid bag method where the contents of your solid bag will supress the weed and allow your hook bait to be sat in the middle of your free offerings - the real precision way to bait up and highly effective all year around.

What if you want to be able to swap between bait types?

Then the combi rig or the ronnie/spinner rig has to be among the most successful carp rigs, you can use these with all bait types and be confident that your bait is presented right every time. The stiff boom is anti tangle so you know you are not going to tangle up on the cast and the hook section can either lay flat or if you are using a pop up you can add some tungsten putty to ensure that only the hook section is sitting upright. Why not combine the effectiveness of solid bag fishing and ronnie rigs by using a specially designed Solid bag ronnie rig - this is a ronnie rig hook section tied to a very short section of supple braid - normally 2 or 3 inches long. This is then placed inside your solid bag with your free offerings. The short hook length means when a carp is feeding the bait gets sucked in to their mouth and because the short length the rig becomes tight to the lead causing the hook to prick the bottom lip, this then causes the carp to panic and swim off with your rig still in the mouth and a savage take on your bite alarms!

The most successful carp rig is in all honesty all dependent on the application, the environment and ultimatly your location - Find the fish, drop a good nutrional content bait in and a rig that will present your bait right and the bites will follow!