I thought it would be a good idea to write about a very recent session, fishing zig rigs down at a southern syndicate water. Fortunately, I had finally managed to get a couple of days off of work during the week, so I excitedly planned to go up there really early Sunday morning, just to do a couple of laps around the lake and to get a feel for where the fish were concentrated and where they had been feeding.

In the morning I pulled into the car park and started to walk around, stopping to talk to a couple of people who had been fishing over the weekend. I had been told that majority of the fish were down one end of the lake and as I started to walk back to my van you could see them poking their heads out one after another! I was quick to get set up and just chucked 3 singles out ‘on their heads’ while I sorted everything out in the swim.

Once the carp activity had calmed down, I decided to lead about and find a clean spot with a view to start baiting it up. I then put all three rods out onto the one area and hoped for the best as the night was drawing in.

I woke up in time to watch first light and continued to see the majority of the fish boshing out in front of my swim, but it seemed like they weren’t interested in feeding on my bait. I continued to watch for most of the morning, but it had seemed as if it was some sort of fly hatch on the lake and the carp were having the time of their lives.

I decided to tie up a rig using the Zig Link 12lb with an anti-tangle sleeve, a size 8 Rigga BCR Chod hook, a Covert Bait Screw and Hook Stop. I used a trimmed down Northern Special pop up as the bait to do the damage. I decided to only put one rod out on a zig as I still had the utmost confidence in catching one on the bottom; after all they were so active that day that sooner or later, they were going to have a proper munch!

Strangely, that night passed quietly.

The next morning drew in and I was awake for first light again. The carp continued to bosh in the same place as the previous day, right on top of where I had positioned my zig. Then all of a sudden, the calm was disturbed when I got a savage drop back! I quickly ran down to the rod, reeled in the slack and struck into the fish. After an epic battle we had a lovely 23lb mirror in the net. I carefully unhooked it and got the rig straight back out there.

About 30 minutes later I had another savage drop back and hit into what seemed to be a better fish. After another good fight, she was in my net! A lovely 32lb 12oz mirror and I was buzzing! It actually felt like all the blanking I had done up until that moment, made getting a result so much more special!

Obviously, I was quick to get the rod back out there, but by this time it had seemed that the fish had moved off. An hour passed, when suddenly my middle rod screamed off. This time it was on the bottom baited spot and again it felt like a really good fish on the end of the line. After a few minutes, the fish started to tire, and I could see that it was one of the bigger commons. Luckily my mate had just come over and he helped me to weigh it. Up on the scales, she went 40lb 0oz!

It felt absolutely amazing to have finally caught some bangers after a good month of blanking on there! We took some nice photos of the common and released her back to her home.

After that I decided to make up another zig rig and to fish 2 rods on zigs and one on the bottom for the last night. I got all the rods out there perfectly and patiently waited.

I was awoken at first light by a couple of bleeps on the receiver, indicating that the zig had a drop back so quickly ran over and hit into it. It was another amazing hard fighting fish, and after a few minutes another 32lb mirror was in the net!

I got the rod straight back out there and almost instantly it went off. I struck into it but unfortunately it had already done me in the snags, so I quickly retied another zig and got it back out there and within 5 minutes I had lost another one!

With that we got some photos of the 32 done and put her back. I was determined to have another one before I went and as I was packing up, my right-hand rod screamed off with an amazing 22lb 12oz half-lin mirror.

All in all, I had enjoyed an amazing session and now can’t wait to get back out there again as soon as work at B&K Plastering calms down a bit!