A method that plays a massive part in my fishing armoury is the devastatingly effective zig rig. Even though it receives a lot of media attention, I still rarely see it used on the bank, which is strange for a rig that can be a huge edge when you get it right.

Carp spend the majority of their time in the mid to upper surface layers feeding on small tasty morsels that fall through the water. When takes off the deck become hard to come by, presenting a zig rig at the right depth can winkle you out a fish even in the most unexpected of times.

Without doubt, gauging the correct depth to fish your zigs is the most important factor; even a few inches can make all the difference. Good starting points are half depth, three-quarter depth and just under the surface. From here, you can really work them, changing the lengths on all three rods on a constant basis. I’ve found that takes on zigs can come fairly quickly once the right depth is found, so be sure to be extremely proactive with your approach.

Placement of zigs is entirely up to you, they can be cast to showing fish, fished in weed beds, with the hook bait just protruding on top, to the side of any large underwater feature, like a bar or plateau, in an attempt to catch any fish making their way to and from these underwater roadways. I’ve had my best results on zigs, fishing to or just off large known spots that receive plenty of anglers’ bait. The carp associate these areas with food and constantly graze past them even when high up in the water.

Be sure to have your lines as tight as possible. Slowly pulling the line with thumb and forefinger until you feel the full resistance of the lead, sets your bobbins tight to the alarm with a slight drop. Zig takes can be finicky, to say the least. Usually, when angling for big fish on weedy waters a single bleep and a slight twitch of the bobbin can result in a hooked fish.  My fishing kit changes when I’m solely using zigs to a nice soft through-action rod and small reel to balance the outfit; my original Daiwa Dictators in 12ft 2¾ definitely prevent hook pulls when playing large carp on small hooks, and light hook links in excess of 15ft. A great little gizmo for zigging is the use of a long, telescopic landing-net handle, which makes landing fish on your own a much easier task.

Small pieces of foam are my favourite hook bait for zigs. On low-stocked, clear pits, trimmed-down black is definitely a winner, and for more highly stocked fisheries, bright pieces of foam such as yellow and white catch their fair share. I also like to soak my foam heavily in oils and liquid additives. Nash Strawberry Oil Pallatant, Big Strawberry and Sweet Cream are my favourite liquids for soaking and they give a constant stream of attraction as small plinks of smell and oil are released from the foam over time. When fishing zigs on a water with a decent stock of carp, I like to spod a consistent amount of Nash sloppy spod mix creating a cloud in the water with small food items filtering through. Big hits of fish can be had on these types of water with this method; the fish love it!

In terms of rig components for zigs, I tend to keep things fairly simple, apart from a couple of small tweaks at the lead end. First of all, a fairly thin in diameter, low poundage mono is needed. However, it needs to be strong and abrasion resistant for when fishing among weed and any sharp objects on the lakebed. Double strength 10lb is my favoured hooklink, strong enough to combat fish in weed, but subtle enough not to stand out in clear deep water. Hook size differs from 10 to 12, depending on fish size or how finicky the carp are being.

My preferred hook pattern is a Nash Fang Gaper or Fang Uni – sticky sharp and indestructible.  Keeping the hookbait fairly tight to the middle shank of the hook, a neat knotless knot can be whipped, around six to eight turns and then back over two or three times to prevent the thin mono from slipping. Lead size usually differs from light 1.5oz Dumpy Pears when casting at showing fish, to 3.5oz Flat Pears when sitting it out after a big girl.

Since experimenting with the zig’s hooking potential over the years, a small silicone kicker is now always added, helping the small hook to turn and take hold in the carp’s mouth. Nash Weed Safety Lead Clips with the small tail rubber slightly pushed on, help to dump the lead on the take, resulting in a much easier fight. Another thing I have been playing around with is attaching a small length of elastic onto the bottom section of the hook link, creating a bungee effect on the zig. This came about after watching a shoal of carp slowly making their way along the marginal shelf of a clear pit in the Nene valley.

I perched up a tree and saw the same shoal scoot up and down the near margin, a foot under the surface. They weren’t interested in dropping for any bait on the slope, so two zigs were tied up at six feet and flicked out at the bottom of the shelf, resulting in two small pieces of foam wafting a foot under the surface. I clambered back up the tree and watched the shoal start to make their way along the margin. As they neared the first zig, an upper-double mirror amazingly sucked the foam and then in-turned and started to waddle off. I nearly fell out of the tree but struck into thin air with no fish attached!

Bewildered, I settled on sheer bad luck, and possibly hook size, so I quickly got two more zigs in place, one tied up with a size 8 instead of a 10. The group of fish were soon back around, and from the height of the tree I saw another carp, around 20lbs, make a beeline for the black foam, the one tied up with the larger hook. The fish slowed down and sucked the hook bait in, and this time the fish turned and the long hook link tightened before the fish was gone; no carp attached! Gutted.

So, after a good think, I came up with the idea of attaching a small length of elastic which would create a driving force by pulling back on the hook and hook link, hopefully resulting in a hooked fish. A small length of number four elastic is tied about six inches above the figure-of-eight loop knot, using a water knot. By running the elastic down the hooklink, the elastic is trapped onto a quick link via a length of silicone tubing; the stretchiness of the elastic can be altered by pulling off mono from the water knot, and creating a small loop. (See Images) Does this make any difference? Maybe, maybe not, but after using this in conjunction with my zigs, bites are more positive and the hookholds are phenomenal, usually nailed in the bottom lip.

 

PROOF OF THE PUDDING

Putting all this into practice, a couple of weeks back I had a fantastic session on the zigs fishing at a rather pressured Oxfordshire syndicate water.

I arrived late afternoon and after a quick scout about decided to plonk my gear in one of the central swims that controlled a decent amount of open water. While waiting for my good friend, Nick, to vacate the swim, a few more laps around the lake were in order and after climbing some of the tallest trees around the lake, I could see shoals of fish just under the surface; a great indication of how high I needed to fish my zigs.

Nick had packed down, and I clipped all three rods up to the desired spots, small holes in the weed at staggered distances. With the use of bank sticks 12 feet apart, I can mark down how many wraps around the sticks it is to the spots, and it helps with marking the length of the zigs, that can be pegged down in between the sticks to keep them nice and tight. I was fishing in 14 feet of water and after fresh glugs of Nash Sweet Cream and Strawberry Pallatant had been added to the foam, lengths of 13, 11½ and 10-foot zigs were soon dispatched into the lake. When casting, make sure the zig can’t get caught up in any objects behind the swim. I prefer to wade out, if allowed, laying the hook link in the water.

The evening passed quickly with the fish still high up in the water. Into dark, there was the occasional roll to be heard and at around 10.30 pm, a single bleep and a slight drop back on the right-hand rod registered a take. I struck into a typical zig take, met hardly any resistance and then, to my surprise, a small tench came scatting into the margins so I unhooked it in the net and checked the length of the zig, it was a 13-footer. ‘Where there’s tench there’s carp!’ I thought, and the rod was soon cast back into the pond.

I hit the pillow until another single bleep had me scurrying out of my bed. A slight twitch on the bobbin had me more than convinced and this time, a healthy weight pulled back. It was now around 1.30 in the morning, and damp air and a cool southerly had me shaking in my waders. The fish felt a good weight and after a few minutes, it was no more than 15 yards out. In no time, it was under the tip, but then decided to go on a mad run down my left-hand margin around the front of a large reed bed so I stepped forward to gain some side strain, but was met with an influx of cold water gushing down my waders!

Luckily, the fish turned and slowly eased itself into the awaiting net. Job done. A nice old mirror lay before me and when I weighed her, the scales settled on 37lb.2oz. I sacked the fish up and stripped off before jumping in the bag to warm up and wait for pictures at first light. The fish was caught on a 13-footer, a depth the fish seemed to be at, so from then on, all three rods were redone with 13s. The rest of the session went mad; over the next two days, commons of 37lb2oz and 23lb 8oz were landed and mirrors of 25lb 8oz and 29lb 3oz.

It just goes to show how effective zigs can be when you get it right and it’s a tactic that can be used any time of year on a huge variety of waters. Give them a go and see how you get on.