Zig fishing for Carp
– The Basics
Part Two
Duncan Charman
Having mastered the art of zig
fishing there was one last trick up my sleeve that I needed to become competent
using, one that I had watched another angler employ on the same lake I was doing
so well with sub-surface zigs and this was over-depth zigs, a tactic that was
literally taking the place apart.
It was high summer and with many
of the lakes resident carp spending most of their daytime activities close to
the surface it seemed logical that they could be tempted off the top, yet the
amount of birds, especially sea gulls had put most people off. Any freebies
placed on the surface were soon intercepted by these along with the resident
swans, coots, mallards, tuffties and moorhens yet this one angler had overcome
the problem and was simply reaping the rewards. One of the best tactics in
angling is not to be afraid to approach an angler who is catching and ask for
some advice. This is what I did and fortunately the angler was happy to help,
especially once he knew that I had been catching on zigs below the surface. He
was down for a 48hr session and said if he didn’t catch thirty carp during his
stay he would be disappointed. Now this is on a lake where half a dozen in this
time would have been classified as a red-letter session! During the few minutes
we spoke he managed two carp, including a twenty and what I learnt then was
that if you want to catch on over-depth zigs then the most important point is
to feed the birds off at the start. Now I have heard of anglers doing this
before but never witnessed just how much bait is needed but this angler had two
15kg sacks of floating dog biscuits at his disposal for the session and was spombing
two large pouchfuls out every ten minutes or so just to feed the last remaining
birds as well as the carp that were also feeding.
Feeding tactics
Before
progressing it’s amazing how birds can tell the difference between a bait with
a hook in it and a freebie, luckily carp aren’t as clever so once the birds
have had their fill its rare for one to make a mistake, in fact the birds
usually move well away, fully contented leaving the carp to feed in peace. At the start of a session I would have no
problem continuously spombing dog biscuits out to feed the birds and on average
on this lake it took around three kilos to fill them up! All the time the birds
are feeding the carp will be curious to the activity, move in and join in.
Don’t be in a hurry to cast in, what you need to achieve is a few carp
competing, so be patient.
Its best to
target carp on over-depth zigs on days of little or no wind for obvious
reasons, yet if the wind does increase then simply by oiling up the freebies
will create a flat spot on the surface and keep the bait within your swim or
longer without the fear of it and the carp being dragged too far out. I have
found that having a slight breeze of my back is great as I can clip the spomb
rod up at say forty yards and then place my rods at fifty. This allows the carp
to have an area where they can feed confidently and as they follow the bait
further out finally come across my hookbaits. Having already had plenty of
freebies they have no reason to suspect anything and simply suck in my
carefully positioned baits and the rest they say is history. It’s a tactic that
has served me well and one that I always try to employ. The great thing about
using over-depth zigs is it allows me to use two rods as opposed to chasing
fish around with a controller float and the active feeding that’s needed to get
the best out of this method really suits my fishing. Remember I come from a
match background so sitting behind salient alarms for 
Creating a feeding zone and
watching carp slurp down freebies whilst getting ever closer to your hookbaits
is exciting stuff and then to see a massive swirl on the surface followed a
couple of seconds later by the alarm screaming is just fishing at its best.
Inexpensive bait
Not only is
this style of fishing hugely productive it’s also cheap as opposed to boilie
fishing as if bought from the right
outlet a 15kg sack of dog biscuits cost around the same as a kilo of boilies.
Alternatively I buy my dog biscuits from a local supermarket and a few kilo of
value brand ones cost next to boost mine with Nash Gyro Juice.
Instead of
fishing long daytime sessions I found that by arriving mid morning and fishing
through to mid afternoon best. Most overnight carp anglers have left which
allows me to enjoy my style of fishing without attracting too much attention. Something
else I have found is that sub-surface zigs seem to work best early in the
morning or late in the afternoon so this method can be used to great effect
during the usually unproductive midday period. If I were a carp angler and
fishing a lake over a 24 hour period that responds to zigs, whether they be
over-depth or subsurface then this is how my session would pan out. Say I
arrived late afternoon I would start on subsurface zigs over a cloud
groundbait. As darkness fell bottom baits would be fished in the same spot as
the zigs were. At first light, or soon after I would be back on subsurface zigs
before feeding surface baits from around 10am onwards and using over-depth zigs
until I leave. It all seems like loads of hard work but if you want to catch
more than others then you just have to keep changing. 
Although in
the early days I used a drilled out dog biscuit on the hair I soon moved on to
a pop-up boilie, similar in colour to the dog biscuits and whittled down to the
same shape. These stay on and can be cast out and left as opposed to the dog
biscuits that had a tendency to come of easily.
Tackle
I use the
same rods, reels, mainline and lead set-up as used for subsurface zigs but hook
length is adjusted so that it’s a good foot longer than the depth of the swim.
A couple of areas that I did noticed made a difference is not to fish the hook length
at dead depth. The reason I call this tactic over-depth is I want some of the hook
length to be laying across the surface and not tight to the lead. Hook shape
and weight has also made a huge difference and I prefer to use a smallish hook,
around a size 10, not to heavy in the gauge such as a Fang Twister and find
that better hookholds are achieved by placing a hook Kicker on the eye of the
hook.
This tactic
isn’t for the lazy angler but one that’s proactive and it’s these work ethics
alone that make this tactic one that’s rarely used. Next time you find the carp
up on the surface, make sure you have plenty of floating dog biscuits with you
and start spombing them out. Don’t cast out to quickly, just feed the birds off
to start with, watch for those lips and then cast when they are confident. Once
mastered casting a bottom bait out during daylight will be a thing of the past.
Duncan Charman is sponsored by Nash Tackle
and Bait and has his own website www.duncancharman.co.uk He
regularly contributes to top weekly, Anglers Mail magazine and is their very
own ‘Where to fish’ expert for the South East.
He is also an angling guide and can be booked on a daily basis for most
species including carp, pike, perch, zander, chub, catfish, barbel, bream,
grass carp, crucians, roach, rudd, grayling, tench even golden orfe. Guiding
vouchers are also available which make great birthday and Christmas presents
for the angler with everything. For more information and prices email him at duncancharman@me.com or give him a call 07928 617006 / 01252
315271.
He’s also written a book
called Evolution of an Angler which can be obtained at the stupid price of just
£10.99 plus P&P. Again email him for more details.
Images –
1 – Watching big carp like this common slurping down baits
off the surface is for me as good as it gets.
2 – A big swirl is often followed a few seconds later by a
screaming take.
3 – First thing to do is feed the birds off.
4 – The best way to get all the rods fishing at the same
distance is to use marker sticks.
5 – Use the reels line clip to cast to the same spot every
time.
6 – Make a reference on your main line so after a fish is
caught you can cast back into position.
7 – Cheap dog biscuits are great for feeding the birds off.
8 – A whittled down pop-up boilie fished over-depth,
slightly further out than your feed is a brilliant tactic.
9 – ‘The Big Dink’ caught at 32lb on an over-depth zig my
mate Chris Petter.
10 – This was my first carp taken on a zig, what a stunner!
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