Since there always seem to be some people who get their heads around the question "which came first? Egg or chicken?", in this case "Carp angler or Mr. Köller?", here is the origin story. And a hint to those smart alecks in advance: if you can read, you have a clear advantage!!!

How it all began, how it all developed...

I don't need to explain to anyone what a bungee is.

When it comes to the term "bungee rig", the group that can relate to it becomes much smaller.

In 2013 I wrote an article about it in "Rute & Rolle". Again, as a "refresher" and for current reasons, about the origins of the catfish bungee:

It all started over 10 years ago, in the 2008/2009 season. When the catfish weren't in a feeding frenzy, they were only moderately interested in sucking on the baits we offered. Annoying bitch alert! Even big catfish seemed to enjoy tugging at the ends of dew worms or leeches or poking at the dead bait fish on offer. If one of them was a bit hungrier, he immediately let go of the bait and blew it out again. Our assumption: the fish became suspicious when the resistance seemed too great to allow them to slurp up the tidbit unhindered.
The first thing we changed was the hardness of the rod tip. If the top part would give a little, then the catfish could also suck in the bait more easily...?! Thought, done: surf rods were rebuilt. The result looked better, but only a little. In addition, these "converted" rods were quickly at their limit when fighting a bigger fish!
There was also one factor we hadn't considered: when fishing from the shore, additional tension built up by itself due to the pressure of the current - the rod tip bent and thus offered less buffer for sucking in.
The next variation was leader lengths of up to 4 metres. Although one or two more fish came, this was not yet the real breakthrough to success.
In long discussions and shop talk with my fishing buddies Stefan and Volker, I set my sights on the leader. The idea: similar to carp fishing, you would have to integrate a rubber on the leader in such a way that the catfish could suck in the bait without resistance. However, the "catfish bungee" had to be strong enough so that the lure, in combination with the current pressure, would not stretch the rubber to its full length. A challenge!
After a few tests I had found "my" rubber. A rubber from the fishing line, stable enough with sufficient stretch. The prototype was built quite quickly: Interposed in the middle of the original leader with hooks and U-pose, it was inserted between two high-waisted hooks.

The catfish took the bait without feeling any resistance, swam away, tightened the rubber to the full length of the kevlar, slammed into the stone weight, the thinner-than-before breakaway line, a monofilament of maximum 0.30 mm, snapped and the fish hung in the corner of the mouth clean as a whistle!

True to my motto: "Standstill is regression", we continued to refine our "Waller-Bungee". The life span of the rubber we had used so far was rather poor. Instead of the "simple" rubber, we now used hollow rubber. No memory effect, long life and not cheap. But as we all know, quality has its price!

 For the swivels I went over to the high quality 175 lbs and 225 lbs stainless steel swivels. This request came from some Po anglers. Due to the enormous amount of sediment in the river, the "simple" normal swivels became clogged, not so with the closed ball bearing swivels.

Also the "fiddling" with the loosely looped intermediate piece, consisting of elastic and Kevlar, was annoying and still seemed too "untidy" to us. Jonathan gave me the decisive tip during a guiding tour: the solution was to splice the rubber into a suitable piece of leader material. Clear, simple, ingenious and tidy!

A big challenge was to find the right diameter and especially the length of the rubber and length of the leader material used for the respective lures and lure weights offered. Especially the interaction between the elasticity of the rubber and the tightened sheath around the rubber is very important! When the sheath, consisting of abrasion-resistant material with a load-bearing capacity of 100 or 150 kg, is stretched, the elastic is not yet at full stretch. And that is exactly why the inner elastic cannot tear even under maximum load.

 I also had to learn the hard way at the beginning with the coat for the elastic. If the braiding or Kevlar was too hard, the rubber chafed at the exit point and tore. A soft but abrasion-resistant material was the solution.

In the meantime, 5 different bungees "made in Germany" are an integral part of our assemblies: "Light" (L) for leeches and pellets, as well as dew worms, "Regular" (R) for dew worms, leech rigs, small bait fish, "Heavy" (H) for bait fish up to 400 grams, a strong variant for larger bait fish (XH) and an extra strong variant (XXH) for baits over 1000 grams.

The "Regular" version had already proven itself many times. The "Heavy" version for baitfish up to 400 grams had its baptism of fire in early summer 2015. In combination with our Poser T-rig (dead trout on a U-pose system with single hook and treble hook) the result was impressively good: no or almost no missed bites! The catfish took the offered dead bait fish without inhibition. In addition, almost all the fish were hooked on the rear sharp treble hook, cleanly at the side of the mouth.

We were already convinced that the bungee worked with circle hooks. But the fact that it also worked just as well with "normal" hooks and with a strongly executed strike was ingenious!

However, one exciting question was still open: How would the "Waller-Bungee" work on a water with high fishing pressure? Would using it on a river where catfish had already had frequent encounters with hooks even make a decisive difference?

My colleague Volker tested the XH version of the Bungee on the Spanish Ebro in February 2016. His result was also clear: not a single missed bite on the mullet offered, no material wear on the Bungee with 19 caught catfish up to well over two metres in length in 5 days, at low level and clear water!

Tests with the XH and XXH version on the Italian Po took place in spring and early summer 2016, with great feedback from there too. Stefan, a guiding customer from the Danube, was able to raise his PB mark to 239 cm with a Po bull. He fished close to the surface, fixing the rig to overhanging branches.

The bungee was also tested extensively in France, for example on the Rhone. Without wanting to bore you, see the results above!

Whether the "catfish bungee" is a "must-have" for catfish anglers is something that everyone must decide for themselves. If the fish are running, hungry and eager to bite, then you can catch your fish without any finesse. But, hand on heart, how often in the course of a season do we have days or nights like this? And it is precisely for these more difficult fishing spots that this product is intended! The feedback from many customers and also the feedback at various trade fairs and events confirm it to me again and again: the "Original Waller-Bungee" works!

The bungees were initially distributed via Rheinboards in the online shop until early summer 17. Since the beginning of 17, a few selected fishing shops have also had the bungees hanging on their walls.

In order not to be simply copied in the fishing industry and precisely because of the immensely growing demand, and in order to be able to guarantee consistent quality at a reasonable price, from the 2018 season at least once an elastic system, the "R" bungee, will be distributed by a renowned German manufacturer with a focus on "catfish". Carsten Zeck and his team were and are convinced of the system, and since I have known Carsten for several years and also appreciate him, the rest was just a formality! Many will now ask why Sportex or Ockert have not included the bungee rigs in their range. The answer is simple: 1. the bungee rig is already very special and would only represent a tiny fraction of Ockert's range, and 2. it is not! machine-made and therefore cheaper to produce!

In addition to the rigs for sitting on, there will also be elastic leaders for spin fishing for catfish with the aim of significantly reducing the missed bite rate here as well. It will be designed in such a way that the catfish, regardless of the hardness of the rod, can pick up the artificial lure without resistance and is thus hooked cleanly. At the same time, however, the contact with the artificial lure should not be interrupted by the rubber. This shape is also intended for trolling. Successful tests have already been carried out on the Bodden, among other places. Here, the number of dropouts, especially in salmon trolling, fell rapidly.

Rubber leader systems for the fraction of tapping anglers, i.e. colleagues who pursue catfish with catfish wood, have also been tested successfully since early summer 2016, but I only build small numbers, depending on the wishes of some regular customers and for a few specialist dealers.

Marine bungee rigs have also been added to the range since the end of 2017. Here, too, there were a few test runs on the Baltic Sea during cod fishing. Results as before...! :-)

I am currently working on the Carp Bungee Rigs, DropShot Bungee Rig, Dead bait Bungee Rig and and ...

Because: Standstill is regression!