How to make a dongle rig: Braid
I get a lot of questions from fellow shore anglers here in Norway – both visiting from the UK and locals, and one is about my favourite rig. In the past, it has been a somewhat difficult question to answer as I have been experimenting with different rigs, hooks, and baits. Each mark holds various species, and not one mark is like the other. Nowadays I find the question easier to answer, thanks to a genius little invention and a little fiddling in the man cave.
My go-to rig for targeting any species with fins is a pulley rig with a 2/0 circle hook and a dongle attached to it. The dongle attachment can be tricky to tie in the field and looks complex, but in this tutorial, I will show how I make my dongle attachments.
Quality Hook
The key feature in the rig is a good quality hook, and I find it hard not to use the Cox & Rawle Mutsu Circle hook (SCR44) in size 2/0. Compared to other circle hooks of similar size, I find them to have remarkable holding power without bending, which comes in handy when a bigger fish than expected finds my bait. It tends to bend rather than break when pressure is applied, which is perfect for the job on a mixed to rough ground rig. A 2/0 hook is a small hook, leaving species like Plaice and Flounder capable of inhaling the bait and lip-hook itself.
Dongle Clip
The Dongle Clip (CR.A-MBC) from the Cox & Rawle range is small but makes a neat and strong clip that is tied at the end of the dongle. Due to its size, I find no better for my all-round rig. The eye of the Dongle Clip is big enough for the bait to stay on the hair and is a perfect match for small- or midsized baits.
The Dongle
On my big fish rigs, I prefer to use 100lb mono as a dongle material and stiff rubber tubing to ensure that the bait will not slip off the dongle. Big fish have big mouths and are generally not too picky when it comes to hard baits and stiff hook lengths, but when making dongles for an all-round rig, I scale down, using soft braid and silicon tubing. Braid is easy to tie precise knots due to its suppleness.
Tutorial; how to tie a braid dongle for circle hooks
Step One
I use old/used 50lb braid from my reels for the dongle, as it would have been discarded anyway. It is supple and easy to work with. A small diameter silicone tubing is pushed over the braid to make it more bait elastic friendly. The hook used is the Mutsu in 2/0, and the Dongle Clip from Cox & Rawle.
Step Two
Start by doubling the braid two times, making two loops.
Step Three
Push the two loops through the eye of the Dongle Clip and make a Palomar knot.
Step Four
Tighten the knot into a four corded rope. A Rig Knot Puller (CR.A-RKP-G) is a great tool for pulling the knot together.
Step Five
Measure the length of the braid rope and tie a double Granny knot. This is a crucial part of the Dongle rig, as this knot decides the length of your bait. It takes a few attempts to make consistent lengths, but you get the hang of it. As you can see, I like 3-inch-long baits for this rig.
Step Six
Take a piece of mono, put it through the cords of the rope and double it over. Then, push the two ends of the mono through the silicone tubing.
Step Seven
Pull the silicone tubing over the braid and push it over the Dongle Clip.
Step Eight
When pulling the tubing over the Dongle Clip, you are liberating space on the braid for the next step.
Step Nine
You will need approx. ½ inch of free braid from the edge of the tubing to the knot.
Step Ten
Now comes the fiddly part. Compress the tubing and make a loop-to-loop connection, where the hook bend is one of the loops.
Step Eleven
Pull the connection tight. The silicone tubing can now be pulled back over the eye of the Dongle clip and stop against the loop-to-loop connection.
Ready-made Dongle Rigs are NOW available from Cox & Rawle, tied by expert rig makers and featuring both our SCR44 Mutsu Hook and MBC Dongle Clips!
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Lasse Bøe
Cox & Rawle Ambassador
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