OMC magic twig

[Paul Bullinger]

It's called fishing, not catching.
What's wrong with trying to outwit a fish using "normal" methods, and if it gets the better of you...tough. Just re-tackle, re-bait and try again.
I admire fish that are finicky feeders, its a challenge.
But that's just me I guess?

 

[Kevin Steele]

I can't agree with any argument that a self-hooking device and hair rigs on running line are not dissimilar. There's a world of difference between what's required of the angler... ie. not much, in the case of the carper, until the alarm sounds and he can wake from his slumber and reel the fish in.

Abingdon & Oxford AA (which I'm thinking of joining) has two carp/mixed species lakes among their waters and they have banned the OMC Magic Twig. It appears to be one of their only exceptional rules, other than the usual ones associated with good practice and respect for others. Sounds like my sort of club.
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[Terry Simner]

I can't agree with any argument that a self-hooking device and hair rigs on running line are not dissimilar.

I totally agree. Let's say I'd got an aversion/intolerance/fear of lobworms so I asked a friend to bait my hook with one for me, then I cast that bait out on a rod that I had rigged up myself. If I caught a fish on that rod, I'd be ok with claiming that fish as my catch. But if I kept on missing bites (say, chub bites) and I asked someone else to strike for me, and they hooked a fish and then handed me the rod, then I would not claim that catch as mine.
To me it's not about how the bait is mounted, it's about the 'dynamic action', the physical doing of setting the hook. Either I set the hook or the fish sets the hook, not someone else or some sprung metal and plastic contraption.
N.b.. comparing hair rigs to this contraption is a totally spurious argument/posit IMO.

PS... re. barbel being stupid/thick whatever. Watch "Barbel Day & Ways". Dumb fish eh.

 

[Kevin Steele]

I'm even averse to the idea of someone else helping me land a fish - we have two arms (caveat: most of us), one for the rod, one for the net.
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[Ian Woods]

 

[Huanzhou Zhu]

I can't agree with any argument that a self-hooking device and hair rigs on running line are not dissimilar. There's a world of difference between what's required of the angler... ie. not much, in the case of the carper, until the alarm sounds and he can wake from his slumber and reel the fish in.

Abingdon & Oxford AA (which I'm thinking of joining) has two carp/mixed species lakes among their waters and they have banned the OMC Magic Twig. It appears to be one of their only exceptional rules, other than the usual ones associated with good practice and respect for others. Sounds like my sort of club.
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AOAA is a good club, has some good swims and lakes.

 

[Joe Winstanley]

Interesting Ian, many thanks.

Regardless of any perceived ethical issues regarding the use of a self-hooking device, only a bone-head would use a Magic Twig as it is clear they simply don't work! Even the original underwater footage that AH for so emotional about blatently wasn't showing what he claimed.

The Magic Twig is a pointless item of tackle. All they add is extra snag risk and extra risk of more plastic crap ending up in the freshwater environment.

 

[Richard Isaacs]

aversion/intolerance/fear of lobworms so I asked a friend to bait my hook with one for me, then I cast that bait out on a rod that I had rigged up myself. If I caught a fish on that rod, I'd be ok with claiming that fish as my catch. But if I kept on missing bites (say, chub bites) and I asked someone else to strike for me, and they hooked a fish and then handed me the rod, then I would not claim that catch as mine.

I wouldn’t claim it either but your point is completely well out of context.

Terry if you use hairs for your barbel fishing then you don’t need your mate to strike for you because the rig hooks them perfectly all by itself, Hence 3 ft twitch

My point which obviously wasn’t very clear first time round was that although the hair and the twig are different things and operate different, they are equally as effective when you put the twig into a specimen carp situation and the hair into a barbel situation.
In the two different situations they are both doing the hooking for you.

If you disagree with that then please explain how they are different in those situations

PS... re. barbel being stupid/thick whatever. Watch "Barbel Day & Ways". Dumb fish eh.

I have my own experience to back up my point which I’ll try share.
I don’t fish rivers that are rammed with barbel all that often. Occasionally I do, but most of my time is spent targeting very large fish in small numbers on the nene mostly.
These are big old girls that have seen it all before, yet they are caught over and over and over again. To the same baits, same group of anglers, doing the same thing.
My friend caught one twice in the same day once and myself and my friends have caught the same fish several times just a day apart.

Don’t get me wrong I know they are spooky fish and it doesn’t take much to make them shy away through fear but they ain’t the sharpest knife’s in the drawer when it comes to taking a bait.

Hence the reason….. we haven’t had to evolve past the knotless knot.
Evolution of rigs or lack of in this case is hard and fast evidence that the hair rig on its own is perfect for self hooking barbel.
Things would be different if barbel were able to pick em up and spit em out regularly

It’s evolved and evolved and evolved in the carp world because those crafty fat buggers know how to spit em back out.

I fish for barbel on the float a lot too. The daft buggers can even regularly hook em selves on those rigs with hooks deeply buried in meat.
The chub pull the floats under slowly and if you ain’t sharp enough they’ll let go. The barbel ram the floats down at a million miles n hour and if you ain’t sharp enough they’ll take the rod out your hands.

 

[Kevin Steele]

I wish the barbel in the beats I fish on the Avon would self-hook themselves on my hair rigs. They must be more intelligent (perhaps more than me) over here than in the Nene.

Don’t get me wrong I know they are spooky fish and it doesn’t take much to make them shy away through fear but they ain’t the sharpest knife’s in the drawer when it comes to taking a bait.

The chub pull the floats under slowly and if you ain’t sharp enough they’ll let go. The barbel ram the floats down at a million miles n hour and if you ain’t sharp enough they’ll take the rod out your hands.

I reckon it's anthropomorphising if you're suggesting that barbel are stupid, simply because they've evolved to take food in a way that is different to, say, chub. I'm teaching you to suck eggs, but a chub gently mouths it's food and has time to let go if it detects anything untoward, whereas a barbel sucks the river bed like a hoover. Nature might have made the barbel vulnerable to the fisherman's hook, but its voracious appetite enables it to grow to proportions that a chub could only dream of (if you'll excuse the anthropomorphism).

It's just not in the nature of some animals to change their behaviour just because of us.

PS. Not picking an argument, just thinking aloud... I might have this all wrong.
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[Richard Isaacs]

I reckon it's anthropomorphising if you're suggesting that barbel are stupid, simply because they've evolved to take food in a way that is different to, say, chub. I'm teaching you to suck eggs, but a chub gently mouths it's food and has time to let go if it detects anything untoward, whereas a barbel sucks the river bed like a hoover. Nature might have made the barbel vulnerable to the fisherman's hook, but its voracious appetite enables it to grow to proportions that a chub could only dream of (if you'll excuse the anthropomorphism).

It's just not in the nature of some animals to change their behaviour just because of us.

I don’t disagree with any of that Kevin.
Barbels eating habits and mouth shape and form are definitely susceptible to be easily hooked and thank goodness stay hooked.
Again it’s another good reason why we don’t need to evolve what we already have.

Looking at that video Ian put up it appears the twig is a shower of shite anyway but he makes an important point on his time line and that is for the carp world it is that point where rig evolution is going to the next phase
I don’t believe Ali deserves the grief he’s getting through trying to move things forward. His product obviously needs work but he’s having a crack.
I Terry Harman hit the nail on the head some posts ago. It’s not the product people have a problem with but it’s the product they are using as a valid excuse to burn and I think that’s wrong.