NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016
WINTER ZIGS – MY WAY - ALAN BLAIR
ALAN BLAIR
WINTER
ZIGS MY WAY
WHEN winter is well and truly here I’ll still be confident of a bite even when it’s bitterly cold - and ALL my rods will have a zig rig on them.
Z
igging is not just a summer method when the fish are near the surface, it’s a method that will work all year round and particularly through the depths of winter. I personally feel my best chance of getting a bite in the winter months is using a bait suspended off the bottom. The fish in winter group up together, their metabolism has shut right down and often the last thing on their minds is dropping down onto a bed of bait to feed. Zig fishing for winter carp is more like lure fishing rather than traditional carp fishing.
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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016
WINTER ZIGS - MY WAY - ALAN
“I am confident that using zigs I can pester or tempt them into grabbing at something by sheer persistence.”
“What did I learn? Fishing on the bottom is simply not the key to success in cold weather.” So why exclusively use zigs in the winter? I’ve been there and done it, winter campaigns in the coldest of weathers, baiting and fishing a quality cold water food bait week in and week out. What did I learn? Fishing on the bottom is simply not the key to success in cold weather. Today if I am carping in the colder months you will always see me fishing with zigs. The last thing I want to be doing is sitting in my bivvy freezing cold, zigging
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in the winter can be such an active method, lots of recasting, adjusting the depth, twitching hookbaits and more. It keeps me busy, interested, warmer and catches me more carp. The key is simply if you can locate where those fish are grouped up for the winter months then you can keep the bites coming whilst others around you will continue blanking until the Spring comes around. The same goes for those long winter nights. Don’t be fooled into thinking that when the sun goes down it’s time to reel in your zigs and stick out the bottom baits as I have caught countless winter carp during the night with baits suspended well off the bottom. On some venues it seems night time
zigs is often the only way to get bites. Where many anglers fail when being tempted by the idea of zigs is that they don’t put 100% into it. So often it’s a case of I’ve not caught so I’m going to stick a zig out for the last couple of hours… Zigging always gives you an edge as most anglers will still opt to fish bottom baits. I have all my rods off bottom, trying all manner of depths and colours until I start to build up a picture of what the carp are doing at certain times of the day and certain times of the year and I catch a lot more this way than sitting behind a pop up on a KD rig.
WHERE ARE THEY? A simple question to ask yourself is simply how many hours each day do you think a carp might feed on the bottom for – even in summer? It might be a few hours in the morning, maybe a few more in the afternoon, evening and possibly at some point during the night but it isn’t a full 24 hours rummaging around for food on the bottom. For most of their day carp are likely to be moving from place to place, laying up somewhere and not actively feeding. It’s at times like these that they can be lured into
taking a hookbait that is positioned under their noses whatever the time of year. I deliberately use the word ‘lure‘ as I don’t think carp are considering feeding until the point they see or smell your hookbait and investigate. At this point they either suck it in as it entices them through its inherent attraction or are simply lured into sucking it in because they wonder what it is. If we are intrigued by something we can go and pick something up and look at it, whereas a curious carp will suck something in to test it, giving you a chance of hooking them. When carp activity slows down in the winter the situation becomes even more pronounced, with carp spending sometimes days and days
barely moving at all. But even a carp that isn’t interested in feeding can be encouraged to grab at a hookbait, and the number of times I’ve caught in bitter conditions before I’ve even set the indicator after a recast is a reminder how much the movement of a bait settling (or more accurately rising up to the extent of the hooklink) can be enough to bring some interest when a bait sat motionless on the bottom catches nothing. As long as I can locate where carp are sitting then I am confident that using zigs I can pester or tempt them into grabbing at something by sheer persistence.
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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016
ZIG BASICS
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A weed lead clip allows lead size and shape to be changed but also allows the lead to be discharged on the take when using long hooklinks.
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Straight pointed hooks on Zig Flo links are the go anywhere combination for good presentation and reliable hooking
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Always feather your cast to keep the hooklink separate from the lead as it hits the water to reduce the chance of tangles.
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Tungsten Zig Links over the hooklink swivel act as brilliant anti-tangle booms when casting and add movement to the hookbait for more reliable hook holds.
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Add Zig Aligna tube or use a Ziggaz sleeve and foam to improve hooking mechanics, a knotless knot reduces the gape of a small hook and causes losses.petition.
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Fish with a bowstring tight line to the lead, as soon as the link is tightened the lead bouncing back towards the rod tip helps pull the hook home.
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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016
WINTER ZIGS - MY WAY - ALAN
SIMPLE LINE UP A winter zig set up only needs to be really simple and I personally use a weed lead clip as I feel it casts and feathers better. I also always add a tungsten Zig Link to prevent tangles and also put some increased free movement into the rig to improve hooking. Remember, if a zig is literally a fixed length of line straight off the lead with no additional movement possible then a carp can actually struggle to get the bait in its mouth and you will lose a lot more carp than if you add the zig link. Hooklink needs to be NXT Zig Flo either 8, 10 or 12lb depending on the size of fish and any snags or weed present. It’s such tough line that I’ve landed some really big carp even on the lightest strain.
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BUGS THE BEST HOOKBAIT YET? Length of the hooklink is constantly adjusted until I’m getting regular bites and good hook holds. Hookbait choice and bait mounting need not be complicated either. I used to use a knotless knot to keep the bait tight to the shank and caught plenty of carp that way, but these days I’ve tweaked my presentation slightly and prefer to knot the Zig Flo direct to the hook and use Zig Aligna tube to encourage the hook to turn.
It achieves the same hooking mechanics as a knotless knot but without the line down coming through the eye that reduces the already narrow gape of a small hook, which occasionally can lead to hook pulls or half chances rather than carp in the net. I love the straight point on the Twister and Fang X patterns as I feel they just lend themselves to pricking more readily than for example a hook with a beaked point.
Alan’s favourites – Cased Caddis, Corixa and Black Louse Zig Bugs
Launching Zig Bugs really was a game changer in many senses and was the start of the explosion of interest in zigging, it was the moment where suddenly zigging became mainstream and just couldn’t be ignored. Sure, very select and forward thinking people had always understood carp were catchable on trout fishing style flies, and I had previously made my own or even used over the counter trout flies but making flies was time consuming and trout flies weren’t the answer because the pattern of hooks they were tied to were too weak and I began to get fed up with hooks opening and fish being lost. Nashy was aware by this time of the huge benefits of zigging, fishing hookbaits in safe zones and as a result we developed a range of Bugs that resembled many of the insects carp would come into contact with but tied onto proper carp hooks. A 50 lb common caught from Church Lake whilst testing Bugs told us we were on to something pretty big! The rest as they say is history, the method snowballed and we were inundated with mails and phone calls from anglers who simply couldn’t believe their effectiveness.
choices that carp angling has just never had before.
The range has since been improved again with bigger hooks and wider gapes for better pricking potential, different patterns with elements like two tone colour finishes or shimmering trim to mimic a beetle’s shell when moving through the depths give a range of hookbait
Zigging isn’t all about Bugs though, and a hookbait can simply be a 10mm pop up, piece of foam, bit of cork, basically anything that will support the weight of the hook and your hooklink and is suspended up in the water. Three years ago we launched the Bread Bomb, a year
It’s impossible to say which Bug is the best, just the same as no single boilie is the best in the world so it pays to have a selection, fish with them, experiment and just like a boilie, gain confidence. My personal favourites are the Black Louse with its shimmering green trim on the underside, the Corixa (or Water Boatman) because it looks so much like the real thing and on shallow gravel pits the Cased Caddis.
later and through popular demand we brought out a smaller version and now we have launched the final size in the trilogy – the Ziggaz to house Ziggaz Foams, they are so simple to use and allow you to quickly change a pre soaked piece of foam in seconds ready for a recast. I use them as much as I use Bugs! Ziggaz allow you to change colours in seconds to find the day’s winning formula
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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016
COLOUR CHANGES
WINTER ZIGS - MY WAY - ALAN
ON THE PULL
Lots of choices of shade and colour are vital in your zig hookbait armoury
I’ve been long aware of the effectiveness of movement in a bait and it goes back to my very early years when by twitching a bait on the surface I realised could easily entice a carp to almost snatch at it on the surface.
Just like when fishing on the bottom some colours will work better than others on a given day – I have caught most of my fish with either black hookbaits or black with another colour on the top. I’m sure if the fish are below the hookbait they can see the darkness of the black most easily from below against the sky and the top colour really is to more down to your own preference. Whatever the reasons, blending black with something brighter is a great starting point. Another favourite when fishing in deeper or more coloured water is the Glow Beetle Critter. It has two major benefits, firstly, if I am fishing at range and using an adjustable zig rig, when I want to pop the bait
Fast forward and I'm now employing the same tactic with my zig fishing. The easiest way to make a zig hookbait move is to fish with an adjustable Zig Float end tackle.
all the way to the surface and then back down to my chosen depth, it is the easiest to see and secondly because the glow also helps catch carp! By ‘charging’ the critter with a camera flash it gives off an ultra violet glow. I’m no scientist so have
no explanation as to why it is so effective – I assume it’s back to that scenario of a carp seeing something interesting and unusual in the water, mooching over to have a look and sucking it in as a result – by then the rod tip has pulled over and you’re in!!
For me, this is one of the biggest advantages of an adjustable setup, I can use the float to easily move my bug up and down through the water column. By sitting close by my rods I can slowly pull line from the clutch or conversely wind line onto the clutch moving the hookbait up and down through the depths. Sometimes doing this very slowly will almost immediately induce a take whereas the static hookbait had produced no interest, and sometimes quick twitches on the line can see it snatched from your hand as a carp grabs the bait. I think movement is so under estimated in carp fishing, we are forever fishing static hook baits, I think that element of movement creates a huge amount of interest to a fish, in just the same way a bug would as it moves through the water. It doesn’t matter what country you are from, please take a second and think, do the carp you are fishing for really spend all of their time at the bottom of the water or do they also use the various depths of the water they live in? I think you know the answer! In the colder months fishing off bottom is even more essential than when it is warm.
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“…sometimes quick twitches on the line can see it snatched from your hand as a carp grabs the bait.”
BUG BOOSTING Because they are so realistic and carp eat hundreds of insects without ever being caught, Zig Bugs catch lots of carp as they come straight out of the packet, but there are still times when I flavour them just to add that vital extra incentive for a carp to get hold of one and keep hold of one. Due to the nature of the bugs and the materials used to create them, they will all absorb and take on flavours either penetrating into the foam or soaking into the fur, feathers or hair used in the trim.
the smell but the fish love it! When temperatures start dropping then something sweet tends to be more consistent. I like the really sweet Nectar Juice or the tangy zing of the Citruz spray enhance. Again, it’s all about experimentation – and both Old Skool and Tangleberry from the Ace Cards range have amazing cold water pedigree when used as hookbait dips so they are worth a look as well.
In the warmer months I love something stinky like the Shrimp Juice – be warned – this is NOT for human consumption and you need a strong stomach to even be around
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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016
FIXED OR ADJUSTABLE? An adjustable zig’s main benefit is to allow you to fish in depths of water beyond the length of your rod - it becomes very difficult to cast and net fish with a hooklink beyond say 10 or 11 feet. The adjustable Zig Float allows you to fish in ANY depth of water and present your hookbait absolutely accurately where the fish are sitting. Cast out, bring the float to the surface, if at range some binoculars are required so you can identify your hookbait, then it’s a simple case of rotating the spool until the hookbait disappears just below the surface, from there you can accurately pull the bait down to whatever measured depth you
desire – six inches below, one foot below and so on. Where it is a huge help is when the lake bed undulates. You may want to fish two foot under the surface in ten feet of water, but if the lake bed is up and down and you land the rig in a depression or on a small hump you won’t be presenting the hookbait where you think you are. A float system allows you to always fish accurately and use the surface as the reference every cast before setting the depth of the hook bait.
High Viz
fishing in a snaggy or weedy swim the large float and heavy lead can mean lost fish and in some cases float systems are simply unsafe to use. Secondly, in terms of pure hooking ability, I’d take a carp tightening to a lead on a clip every time to get that point pulled in – with floats you often get a few more fluffed chances.
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A good monocular or binoculars helps you set a zig float accurately at range or in ripple
There are downsides to float systems though. Firstly they don’t cast as well as a standard fixed zig end tackle, and you also can’t discharge the lead, should you be
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