The Orbital Rig
When the fish locks the fly or tubefly in its jaws, no power is transmitted to the hookpoints – leading to
bad or no penetration. But with an elastic loop through the tube, your hook will proceed forward into
the jaw – even though the fly is completely locked in the jaw. I have designed several fly-stems of this
type – here is one of them – The Orbital Rig.
Text and photos: Jens Bursell
THE ORBIT RIG is a good example of an reversible moving-hook system. The advantage of this rig compared
to the elastic release-rig (Fisk & Fri 3/2013) is, that if tied correctly, there is no way it can release by
mistake. This means, that no matter how hard and aggressive your casting acceleration is – the rig will
restitute – and the hook will hang correctly. Even though this is not a true release-rig – it works the same
way in relation to leverage. Here there is no leverage, because the elastic loop will absorb any negative
leverage, if it arises.
Disadvantages compared to the elastic release-rig is, that its less flexible and more difficult to tie. Shifting
the fly retying the rig takes a couple of minutes, so with this rig, its best to have it ready in a rig-wallet – and
change flies via a tippet connection – fx a 1,5 mm rig-ring from Kevin Nash. Tying knots on very elastic
materials is something, that takes some time to learn. The knots must be tied tightly enough not to slip, but
if you overdo it, the knot will break. Knots can be secured with flexible silicone glue. The rubber or silicone
material must be 100% fresh to be able to deal with the hard mechanical stress during practical fishing. I
have had best results with Gardner 7 lbs Powergum or multifibre silicone thread.
How to make The Orbital Rig:
1: Tie a size 14-16 Owner ST36 BCX onto the tippet with a dropper knot/bloodloop (z) (see how to do this in
the article on the L-rig at www.bursell.dk – and how it should be turned in knot in the article “Maximizing
the gape exposure and penetration – L-rig and release-fly” in the same section).
2: Tie a 6-turn stopknot (y) on the elastic loop material – fx 20 cm 7 lbs powergum. This is the start of the
stopknot.
3) Finish the stopknot (y) and cut off the bit of powergum facing towards the treble hook.
4) Push the stopknot (y) back towards the dropperknot/bloodloop (z). Tie a simple overhand knot (x) on the
end of the tippet protruding from the dropperknot. It shall be 1-2 cm from the dropperknot. This distance
dictate how long the hook will hang from the fly. The more heavily dressed and long fibers the fly have –
the longer distance between x and z you must have, in order to avoid the hook tangling in the fly material.
Normally it´s perfect, if the top of z is 3-5 mm from the fly materials just over it – but sometimes 5-7 mm is
needed. Adjust to the situation during fishing.
5) Hold with your nails on the stopknot (y) and just over x on the end of the tippet with a small pean. Drag y
down to z.
6) The stopknot fixing the elastic material to the tippet/hooklink in the rear end of the fly is pushed all the
way down to the dropperknot (z). This is necessary to do the final step of The Orbital Rig.
7) Stick the end of the elastic powergum into the back of the tube, and push it out through the front.
Tighten the powergum lightly, so the knot (x) just touch the end of the tube. Now comes the most difficult
part of the rig: Stretch the elastic running through the tube a bit more and fix the front of the tube + the
elastic between your fingers. While you hold here, you make a new small tight 5-6 turn stopknot (v) as close
you can to the front of the tube. When done correctly, the elastic running through the tube is now tightly
semi-fixed on the tippet just in front of the fly. The shrimpfly above is rather short, but on tubes over 3,5-5
cm length, its quite easy to make the front stopknot (v) so its fitting tightly against the front of the tube, so
the moving-hook elastic is 100 % concealed during practical fishing.
If the fly gets locked between the jaws, the elastic inside the tube will stretch, and the hook will move easily
forward ensuring a perfect transmission of power to the hookpoint. Note that the hookbranch pointing
forward in strike direction is 100 % exposed ensuring deepest possible hookgrip and better chance of
penetration on one branch – meaning less power needed for penetration. This is only possible, when the
hook is turned correctly in the blood loop/dropperknot (z) (se the article “Maximizing Gape Exposure….” on
www.bursell.dk. When turned incorrectly two branches will turn in strike direction, meaning a more
shallow hookhold and more power needed for penetration.
You can read more on other types of elastic moving hook systems at www.bursell.dk in the Danish article
“Elastikfluen” on this site from may 2013 – and in the article “Springfly” under pikeflyfishing in the article
section.
On some flies you will get a better positioning of the hook and less tangle, if you semifix the fly +
orientation of the hooklink. On this rig it can be done several ways – one of the easiest is to have a small
piece of silicone tube above the stopknot (v) and to slide this down over the front of the tube. It goes
without saying, that if you want to do this, you must leave 2-4 mm bare tube in front of the flytying
materials. In order to steer the hooklink, so it lies correctly under the fly, you can melt a small crevice at the
lower front end of the tube with a glowing needle, so the hooklink stays here. The silicone must be tight
enough to semi-fix the orientation of the hooklink/fly, but at the same time is shall be loose enough to
allow the hooklink to move unhindered forward, so that the tube does not conflict with the moving hook
effect.
You can read more on the moving hook effect in my upcoming book “Reflections on the coast” who will be
published in October 2013. The book can be bought via www.fiskogfri.dk