Over the last 20 years of match fishing I have spent many an evening tying up hook lengths for my matches along with pole rigs for the weekend. Now over the last couple of years tackle companies such have Preston Innovations and Guru have released their Ready Rigs in numerous different options for pole, method/pellet feeder work and bomb. 

Being a working chap with limited time to prepare for my matches and I would add my failing eyesight I was quick to try these Ready Rigs out. First out was the Guru Ready Rig range. I’ve always struggled with tying the banded hook lengths and it would have take me ages to get them right. Guru took this problem away for me with their banded 6 inch SLWG Ready rigs and I started using these first. They were a pleasure to use and so easy for me I soon became ‘hooked’ I was cautious at first as I’d read comments on social media saying they weren’t good and read about anglers problems with hook lengths breaking. All I can say is that I have found no problem with them. People are quick to blame faulty tackle for their bad angling and lost fish. I just put this down to inexperience or a lack of knowledge. You are always going to get broken from the odd foul hooked fish, especially if balanced tackle isn’t being used. That why its called fishing and not catching! I’ve used the Guru’s 6 inch Banded SLWG’s Ready Rigs for my pole rigs most weeks now for a couple of years and I can’t fault them. In fact for a generally light hook the SLWG’s have landed some proper lumps during this time and the heavier XS Carp Ready rigs used in the margins for bigger Carp have performed fine with no issues apart from the odd foul hooker. 

The 6 inch SLWG banded Ready Rig range caters for all of my hard pellet pole fishing now and there is a hook size and line diameter option with Guru’s tried and tested ever reliable N Gauge line for every need, be it fishing for F1’s or for large carp in the margins. 

Guru’s range of 6 inch Ready Rigs are ideal for general pole rigs and the LWG’s and the lighter F1 Pellet options are a great option during the winter months when a lighter hook is desired for soft pellets or maggots.

Preston Innovations obviously looked at all these ready rigs flying out of the tackle shops and released there own Ready rigs bit they also came up with the brilliant rig sticks and hook boxes. For the lazy angler this made hook storage even easier. The days of filling hook boxes from the shop brought cardboard packaging weren’t now needed you can buying 6 inch ready Rigs and drop them straight into their hook length boxes. The Guru Ready Rig fit on the blanks Rigs sticks perfectly as well. 

But in recent months the easiness of just buying the 6 inch Preston Ready Rigs and dropping them into the hook box has made things ever easier. I tend to buy their GPM Ready Rigs now and also the newer SFL lighter options for the winter months. In fact I’ve done the same with my 4 inch Method/Pellet feeder Ready Rigs and buy Preston’s KKM-B’s and also the longer 15 inch KKM-B’s for bomb work, all stored in the correctly sized hook boxes. The days of having lots of assorted packets of hooks in my tackle box are long gone. My hook options are now easy to organise, banded or rapid stops. Well done Preston.