OK, OK....silly title.....

Around the time Terry H's book came out the angling 'press' promoted the stiff and hinged rig really heavily. It would be interesting to hear who mainly uses one or the other.

I recon 'stiff against floppy' is an interesting point in that both can effecively be used in any normal situation.

Which is the best?

Oh I'm stiff as a board
Seriously though, I use the stiff hinge quite a lot especially with the new esp stuff (excellent) I mainly use it because you are sure that you are not tangled and the bait is as far away as p[ossible from the lead. I use braid and light mono links in the margins or a short chuck but I am much more confident using a stiffy at range.
just my opinoin

Mark

Hi, Mr Floppy here, very rarely use stiff links, used to use a combi link a fair bit but didn't seem to see much benefit, now I use the sinking braid by ESP.

I play around with reverse combi rigs or just simple straight forward combi rigs.

There seems to be many different variations and trains of thought as to what is a stiff rig. I have read some say that the stiff rig shouldnt be more the 4-6 inches long. Others say ok to be longer.

Me, a stiff link is any mono/leadcore that doenst bend, no matter how long it is.

I use inline leads for a lot of my fishing
and experiance has taught me that this type of setup and stiff rigs dont really work that well especially when fishing in silt.So its floppy for me( much to the wifes disappointment )

I use a variation of the stiff rig in certain situations, but most of the time I use either snake bite combi links, or straight forward nylon.

Most of the time I use long floppy merlin links with a small piece of tube iether side of the hook link swivel in conjunction with as light a running lead as possible.

But I am having a play around a stiffy as the wife has buggered off

I always use a soft monofil or braid. I never suffer from tangles because I'm just brilliant. I have played around with stiff rigs, but I've never felt happy with what I consider to be the unsound mechanics behind the theories of why they are supposed to work. They obviously catch fish, but I can't help thinking that the carp will wise up to them very soon.
Does anyone sell a substance to make stiff rigs go floppy? Hitting them with a mallet might work.

I tend to use the stiff rigs and braids and nylon rigs etc etc for the situation that presents itself, but i keep ending up using the goos old faithful 12lb or 14lb nylon hooklink with a bottom bait for my summer fishing and a snakeskin pop-up rig for my winter fishing.

have used all the rigs ever invented and i have two tackle boxes full of swivels, leads, braid etc etc

but it keep going back to the old faithful nylon hooklinks !!!

Rafs. That sooooo bloomin true.

I think I have a made up scorpion rig somewhere in the darkest corner of my tackle box.

Why is it we sit at home testing out new rigs, making em up.

And when we get to the bank, on goes ye old faithful and away you go.

Absolutely definitely both! I keep a selection of all sorts in the bag, depending on the lakes I fish. Hardish bottoms I use stiff or snakeskin links and on softer I use braid.

Just to keep my options open I nearly always fish one rod with a simple 12/15lb fluorocarbon link as well. To be completely honest, I have not found one rig consistently outfishes any other. Now my hooklengths are mostly down to to other factors such as casting distance etc.

got to agree with RAF.
i have tryed every rig thats ever been bulished and a few that aint.and keep coming back to my old nylon hook links but with a very fine hair.