ZIG RIG SUCCESS
May 23,2008 00:00 by gary
I don't know how I forgot this, Bayes's memory block I reckon. The last May bank holiday is on us tomorrow as I type this with the weather man promising every conceivable type of weather he can get away with again. There is some sun in there somewhere so the below report is well worth taking note of if the conditions come good for it.

Kevin Dear returned the following week after catching his personal best 26 lb plus mirror to catch another 20 at 20 lb 10 oz. He fished with a few friends and in one week the weather had turned from wet and coldish to hot and sunny. Between them they all caught good upper doubles including 3 20's, I don't know the final tally but there was 3 PB's and some pukka fish including a lake record 19 lb fully scaled mirror.

They caught every one of their fish on Zig rigs , not one bite on a bottom bait. Now, last year we saw this happen a lot, very busy weekend, a lot of bank side activity pushing the fish out into open water, the fish keeping high in the upper layers and not many dropping down to the bottom to be caught on conventional methods. That is the time to get on the Zig rigs or even the floaters. There is loads of occasions in the recent past where there has been multi-fish catches by the anglers who use mid to surface methods and the anglers around them miss out sitting there with bottom baits out in the middle catching very little. Its summer now, or as good as it gets, so be prepared to adapt your approach and cash in on the best methods on the day.

The Zig rig for those that don't know is a long hook link fished straight of the lead with a pop-up on a short hair rig. The height of the bottom can be critical some times, I have sat there wondering why I cant get a bite before, then by altering the depth by a foot, had bites on the next few casts only to have to do the same again to keep catching.

The day ticket lake is generally around 9 ft deep so I would start with 8 ft hook links on a sunny warm day, but be prepared to alter this to find the best bite depth. Lead attachment is your choice, I prefer in-line leads in no snag situations but safety bolt beads work as well. Bites wise, sometimes you will get screamers, other times you will get very strange bites, it pays to wind down to any persistent indication.

That's it for this report, wish you luck.

Gary