The Ronnie or Spinner Rig as it's referred to has become a popular specimen rig to use due to hook being free to spin 360 offering a neat low-lying presentation, especially favoured for use with popups / baits with cork inserts. If you search online there are an abundance of different ways to tie this rig with a plethora of different terminal. We're going to try to breakdown some of these setups and discuss why you might use them.

Arguably the most important component, the preferred hook for a Ronnie rig is a curved shank hook ideally with an in-turned eye. Popular options include:

• Gardner - Covert Dark Mugga
• ESP - Cryogen Curv Shanx
• Korda - Kurv Shank
• Hoboarmour - Curveshanks Hooks
• Ridge Monkey - Tec Curved Shank

Microbarb or barbless will depend on your preference / the rules of the water you're fishing.

Changing the hooklink to suit the situation makes the Ronnie Rig versatile. To generalise if you're fishing on a hard flat bottom then you can use stiff hooklink such as a mono or a stiff coated braid. If however you are fishing over a silty or weedy bottom then a more supple / flexible hooklink is in order.

Length of the hooklink similarly can be changed depending on the situation, on hard surfaces a 8 inch hook length is fine if you're fishing over weed or silt gauge the depth of the weed / silt and make your rig 4-6 inches longer than what you discover.

Some example stiff links for hard surfaces :

• Ridge Monkey - Tec Camo Stiff Hooklink
• ESP - Tungsten Loaded - Stiff
• Korda - Boom Fluorocarbon
• Korda - Hybrid Stiff

Some example materials for soft surfaces:

• Gardener - Ultra Skin
• ESP - Tungsten Loaded - Soft
• Korda - IQ Fluorocarbon

There's a few different ways to present the bait depending on your preference. In the main you either have a:

• The direct option which uses a rig ring or swivel directly on the hook held in place by one or more hook beads.
• Slip-D rig setup where there is a loop of hooklink attached at two points (the eye and lower down the shank). There is then a rig ring or swivel attached to this loop.

Either of these options allows you to attach your hookbait with bait floss. One other variation is to use a bait screw which can be added to either of the options above.

We've covered the most essential components but how is it actually tied! We're going to cover the direct option below, if you're interested in the D-slip option we'll cover this in another article. Firstly we've missed a couple of components which although important are a bit more standard. These are:

• Spinner rig / Quick change swivel
• Shrink tubing / Kicker sleeve
• Tungsten putty
• Hook beads

Steps:

1. Attach your spinner swivel to the eye of the hook
2. Slide shrink tubing / kicker over the setup so it covers the barrel of the swivel and the eye of the hook with an overhang down the shank of around 1/2 inch (ensure the tubing doesn't prevent the turning of the swivel eye furthest from the hook). If you're using shrink tubing carefully heat to shrink over.
3. Slide your rig ring / swivel / bait screw over the point of the hook then secure it using a hook bead
4. Tie on your hooklink using a figure of eight knot to create a 1/2-1 inch loop
5. On the knot or where the swivel ring is attached to the hooklink add some tungsten putty, this should be enough so your hookbait doesn't lift the hooklink from the lakebed
6. Attach your hooklink to the rest of your terminal tackle slide over a hooklink sleeve and tie a loop using another figure of eight knot
7. Finally if you're not using a bait screw use bait floss to attach your back to the loop / swivel that's attached to the hook