A more pike friendly dyson rig

I have never had a bite off while pike fishing but during an eel session earlier in the season, I was bitten off whilst using a deadbait on a dyson rig. I was bitten off just above the short wire trace. I was annoyed it had happened as I don't like leaving tackle in fish and it made me think twice about using the dyson rig again.

After some thought and a bit of messing around, I came up with a simple 'all-in-one' trace to use with the dyson rig. The 'all-in-one' trace incorporates a hook length, buffer bead and up trace. It is basically an extra long trace with a moveable buffer bead.

I tried a few different methods of attaching the bead to the trace but these either didn't work how I wanted them too, were too bulky or they damaged the trace. I remembered reading about a rig on Dave Lumbs blog, which used float stops on the trace to hold a ledger bead in place. This seemed like a good solution so I 'borrowed' the idea and used it on this trace.

I use around 24" of wire, which allows for a 6-8" trace and sufficient for an up trace. The hook is attached in my normal way (3 turn half blood knot), a large float stop is slid onto the wire, followed by a John Roberts buffer bead then a loop is tied at the end of the wire. The trace is threaded through the run ring and attached to the main line via a sleeved quick link swivel.

1. Mainline 2. Quick link swivel and rubber sleeve 3. Wire trace 4. Buffer bead/Float stop 5. Run ring 6. Hook
7. Mainline 8. Sunken float 9. Swivel 10. Mono weak link 11. Lead

The float stop is usually enough to stop the buffer bead from slipping, but on finer diameter wire I hold it in place with a bit of super glue. Slightly melting the float stop with a lighter also worked very well but when testing the trace snapped, so I stick to the super glue. After gluing the float stop it can be moved if required, however some care is needed to avoid kinking the trace. I usually change the height of the bait by adjusting the length of weak link between the sunken float and lead.

A dab of super glue prevents the float stop slipping

I have used the rig and it works fine, during a recent session I caught my modest p.b eel on it and I am confident that it will continue to catch. The rig is very simple to make and it also removes the need for additional swivels/links which reduces the number of knots on the rig (which can only be a good thing in my book) and with the up trace it is obviously more pike friendly/safe.

My p.b eel caught on a Dyson rig with a modified 'all-in-one' trace.

The trace isn't by any means revolutionary but it helps simplify an existing rig and I feel it makes it safer. I am also working on a bottom/ledger rig that could be used as an alternative to the J.S rig. I want to catch a few fish on it before posting it on here, which will probably be next season now.