Zigging with the best mix!

That carp are well off the bottom for most of the day is pretty well known by now. Especially during the daytime carp like to stay in the upper layers. For carp fishermen using a zig, this is the depth to present their hookbait. My greatest successes are booked from midwater to two thirds from the bottom. Say for instance the water has a depth of 3 meters, I start with one zig placed on 1.5 meters and one on 2 meters from the bottom. Depending on the action I get or don’t get, I vary the depth during the day.

Hookbait choice is simple. I always use a piece of foam. Sometimes I flavour it, sometimes I don’t. I’ve noticed that the use of flavour can produce more takes on some pressured waters. On less stocked waters the use of flavour can actually have a negative effect. The colour of the foam is also very important. Sometimes black, sometimes brown or yellow or combinations of colours. During a day fishing with zigs it can be productive to change your colours. I usually fish zigs with my son. We start of with different colours on all rods to find out as quickly as possible which is the best for the moment. In my experience light colours work better in murky water and dark colours are more productive in clear water. Using a combination of a dark colour underneath and a light colour on top, will make the bait more visible for the fish from all angles. A tip: try light colours during cloudy days and darker ones on sunny days.

There a quite a few mixes available nowadays. I’ve tried them all, but none of them acted as I liked. What I want is a long lasting cloud at a certain depth with small parts sinking slowly. It has taken quite some time to come up with the right mix, but it’s here now and it’s perfect! This mix from Martin SB is called: Zig iT and is available in three different flavours. All three do exactly what they are supposed to do, attract carp! I’ve have watched carp go crazy just after the spod hits the water and runs often come while the spod is still above the bait.

Fishing zigs is an active way of carping. There is no sitting down. All day you are changing depths and colours and most important, you need to spod regulary! It’s better to put out a couple of spods every 10 minutes than to put out 10 to 20 spods at once. The very slow sinking small bits in Zig iT make sure that there is always a cloud of attraction around your zig. Zig iT – Just try it!

Written by Martin SB