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Legered deadbait rig for river fishing - aka - ‘laying on’ or ’stret pegging’ 1
Nothing extraordinary in this rig, as it’s a fairly straightforward river float leger rig in principle, however it is particularly useful when rivers are in flood or flows increase when extra water is coloured and pushing through hard, there are certain points to observe about its use which we will look at as the set up is discussed below.
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(1) Setting up this rig is pretty much as you would for many of the rigs covered across the Pike Online web site. It uses a ‘through the middle’ slider float, ideally a longish one, the one illustrated here is a Drennan Piker, a No.3 or 4 being a good size, or a Drennan Zeppler in similar sizes would be an alternative. The depth is set using the usual Powergum stop knot or silicone braid float stops and a bead. The important thing with this rig is that for it to work correctly the depth needs to be set well over depth, this will be a reflection of the depth and strength of flow on the river you may be fishing and may well vary dependant on river condition on the day of fishing. It will be important to experiment with depth settings on your chosen river, but a setting of perhaps 3 feet over depth will get you started. The idea is to allow the float to lay flat on the surface rather than stand up, this reduces the force of the flow on the float which will otherwise get pulled under and likely dislodge the bait, taking it down stream and away from the spot you wish to fish. The only point of pressure when fished this way will be against the reel line, but as it is pointing downstream the flow will have less area to pressurize and force the bait to shift. In strong flows when the river is in flood conditions you may find fishing down the edge with this rig is more productive as the pike and their prey will want to be out of the flow and this is slower close in. Good holding spots to fish are where side streams, channels or marina’s etc join the river, creating slack water and back eddies. Its not a ‘distance’ method, more an ‘under the rod tip’ way to fish. It needs a little more stealth and quiet on the bank.
Tackle used in this rig set up. (Links to
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Fox Power Gum for tying stop knots Fox Slimline slider float Fox Silicone Braid Stops
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OptionQuick Change Sinkers Quickchange swivel Twin Treble tracesuit bait
(2) Whilst you can use inline quick change sinkers locked on the hook trace to swivel, a group of SSG shots locked on the trace over a small section (2 inches) of 2mm silicone tubing will work a little better and allow more flexibility with loading the rig to suit the conditions. Often just adding one more shot can turn a problem rig into a perfect one. Quick change sinkers, particularly the commercially manufactured ones don’t offer the right amount of adjustment by changing or adding weights. They usually only take one weight at a time when, you might be using a 28 gram weight and want to add a 10 gram to it, but the stem won’t accept it, the only option is to add an SSG to the line or trace, if you don’t have any silicone on the
line or the trace you may weaken either by pinching the shot on. *** Far better to set up this rig with knowledge of the problems you may encounter and using the SSG weights offer better flexibility in many ways over single load weighting. Referring to ‘SSG’ there are a range of sizes available, 1SSG, 2SSG, 3SSG each of which can be used in groups of a single size or in a mixed grouping to get a more accurate loading to hold your stret pegged dead bait. One other point, Pike Online has a policy of recommending an uptrace in its rigs, this is one rig that may break the rule, as the addition of the wire and the
upper swivel may prove a handicap as they will offer greater resistance and the swivel may collect weed, increasing the resistance further to the flow and over riding the ability of the rig to stay in place and as a result give you false bites, very frustrating to say the least, so an uptrace is an option to use if you feel there is a need for any particular reason. (3) Finally the bait to use, this can be what you have available, be it a whole bait as here, or a section of a bait. It may be any coarse fish dead bait or as in this example a sea dead bait, a sardine, a bait with natural attraction, but you can boost this by adding natural oils or flavourings, you can learn more about both on the pike online website. The important point is the way it is