How to tie Dai Gribble's inline feeder rig

1) Mainline

Always use an abrasion-resistant mainline, as it will be exposed to weed in your swim at some point. I use Korum Xpert Reel Line or Gardner Pro in 12lb.

My rig doesn’t include tubing above the feeder. I’ve found that bare line cuts through weed much more effectively, useful when a hooked fish  tries to bury itself in the vegetation!

2) Inline feeder

Streamlined, inline feeders such as the new Preston ICS and Korum Grub feeder are less prone than others to getting caught up in weed.

Inline rigs are best for weedy swims as when a hooked tench gets into weed the pressure from the rod moves the feeder first, leaving you in direct contact with the fish.

With a helicopter rig the feeder is always trailing the fish and is more prone to getting snagged.

3) What to feed

Live maggots that have crawled out of the feeder and into the weed will keep the tench grubbing around in my swim for ages.

I generally use reds, but have done well with whites too.

4) Go heavy

The ICS feeders I use are 45g, weight-forward designs which makes them easy to cast with accuracy, while the position of the weight aids the bolt effect of the rig so the fish will hook themselves.

5) Hooklink

I’ve found buoyant baits are best presented using a fine braided hooklink material, and I use 4ins of Drennan Gravel Braid tied to a size 10 or 12 Korum Specimen hook.

Tench can easily eject small baits, but a short hooklink converts most pick-ups into unmissable runs.

However, if I’m facing a lot of weed on the bottom I’ll switch to a longer, stiffer hooklink of around 6ins.

I’ll use Avid Captive Coated hooklink and will strip back the last inch of the coating near the hook end to give the hookbait more flexibility – vital for ensuring good hook-ups.

6) Pop-up hookbait

The aim is to lift the hooklink vertically from the feeder, and I use a combination of rig foam and imitation maggots to achieve this.

I vary the colour of the artificial maggots and will try two or three red ones on one rod and a combination of red and fluoro on the other.

A combo of red and either yellow or orange maggots often gets more bites early on in a session but the tench can soon wise up to these.

If one combo works well, switch both your rods over to the same mix.