Zig Rig
Throughout the year carp spend a lot of time away from the lake bed, either sunbathing or searching out midwater sources of natural food. They will happily feast on insects like Caddis, Mayflies or Daphnia, with these invertebrates making up a large proportion of the carp’s natural diet. On heavily stocked waters the fish even feed on freebies as they fall through the water, with some !sh having learnt that baits eaten midwater rarely have a hook attached to them and so are a safer bet to eat. The key to fishing a Zig is working out when the carp are feeding up in the water. When the telltale bubbling and bottom activity of feeding carp stops, or when surface activity increases it normally indicates that the main feeding period down on the lake bed has come to an end. This is the time to switch your attentions to fishing with zigs.
Whether the zig is fished with a really long hook link so that the hook bait remains on or near the surface when the fish are up high in the water, or with a shorter link so that the bait is suspended straight up off a lead, the method can be phenomenally affective at picking off fish that you simply wouldn’t catch on bottom baits.
On waters that respond well to floating baits, a change from conventional “floater controller tactics to long-tail zigs fished among freebies can make a massive difference as the !sh are unable to cope with the change in presentation. If the fish in your venue react positively to the sound of a spod landing in the water, it can be worth making a sloppy cloudy mix and spodding this over the zig rigs using a Pocket Rocket or Bait Shuttle. The fish come into the area excited by the spod landing and the cloud of food particles suspended in the water, and will often take a midwater bait as soon as they see it. This method can lead to multiple catches and some fast and furious action.
Whatever type of venue you’re targeting, your hook link and hook need to be as small and light as possible – balanced against the size of fish you’re likely to encounter and the presence of snags. This is simply because the fish are normally eyeball to eyeball with the hook and hook bait, so naturally keeping everything small and neat will be advantageous.
In keeping with this scaling down, smaller hook baits will also normally be more effective than large ones, so rather than sticking on a 16mm boilie it’s worth using a trimmed-down pop-up boilie (trimmed as small as necessary to lift the hook and hook link) or better still, a tiny piece of ultra-buoyant Gardner Zig Rig foam. This foam is available in a wide range of colours, which is really useful as you will often !nd that on difficult days a change of hook-bait colour can lead to a quick bite. It’s important that the hook bait is mounted tight to the hook shank on a really short hair. That way you are certain that when a !sh mouths the bait, the hook will always be in the perfect position to nail the fish.
When Should I Use It?
Warmer water conditions or when there’s a hatch of natural food, although the zig can work at any time on heavily stocked waters.
A zig-rig bait needs to replicate either natural food or introduced bait that’s sitting up in the water column. Foam is a great option due to its buoyancy and the fact that it’s available in so many different colours. Use as light and small a hook as you can get away with as the Carp will get more of a look at the bait when it’s up in their eye line. The length of your zig rig is based on where in the water column you think the carp are feeding, which can be from a foot above the lead right up to the surface. A light and low-viz hook link is needed to offer little resistance to the bait and not show up in the water.
An anti-tangle sleeve ahead of the lead clip over the connecting swivel cuts down on tangles. A zig rig is fished on a standard lead clip arrangement, with the lead providing the anchor point for the buoyant bait and also a weight to deliver a bolt effect to the rig. A length of rig tubing behind the lead clip will reduce the chance of tangling as it keeps the monofilament in line.
Chod Rig
The ‘classic’ chod rig is tied using a specialist high-memory hook-link material, such as TripWire,which enables a curve to be set into the hook link section of the rig so it will always aggressively twist, regardless of the direction the fish approaches the hook bait – meaning more and better hooked fish. With the hook bait mounted on a ‘D’ on the back of the hook the rig becomes extremely hard for fish to deal with. Why?
Well, the pivot point stops the hook from turning when the fish tries to eject it and keeps the hook point facing towards the fish’s bottom lip. Combined with the curved hook section and a free-turning swivel the result is phenomenal. The short Chod-rig hook link is mounted on to a small flexi-ring swivel that runs up and down an extended helicopter rig – moving freely up to a point set by the positioning of a small piece of 0.5mm silicone tubing and Covert Safety bead on the leadcore leader during the cast. As the lead flies through the air, and then drops through the water, the chod rig stays up near the top bead and the hook bait settles gently down over any weed and leaves so the hook bait remains clearly visible to fish feeding in the area.
BEGINNERS GUIDE TO CARP & SPECIMEN FISHING - 3 RIGS YOU SHOULD KNOW AND USE