When fishing on any river or drain there are times when getting a bait into the ideal place to present the baits is difficult, keeping it there is even more difficult. One way to improve keeping a bait in place in rivers with reasonable flows is to adopt 'stret pegging'. This is a method where the rig is fished well over depth with the float fished lying on the surface. Its not a distance method as the bait should be near the rod so that there is minimum surface drag.

The principle is of taking the pressure off the bait and weight putting this into the line moving the pressure point away and absorbing this in the bow in the line. You can also use this rig and method to work a bait down the swim in small stages to get the bait into place by tightening and slackening in small steps. Rigs set nearer the real depths will always be lifted and taken down river by water pressure. The rig below shows this and the detail will be discussed below.

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 are increased 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.

Setting up this rig is pretty much as you would for many of the rigs covered across the Pike Online website. 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 pressurise and force the bait to shift.

In strong flows when the river is in almost flood conditions you may find fishing down the edge with this rig is more productive as the pike will want to be out of the flow and this is slower close in.

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 with knowledge of the problems you may encounter and the SSG weights offer better flexibility in many ways. 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 deadbait.

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.

Finally the bait 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. The important point is the way it is mounted. It should ideally be mounted head up rather than tail first as you might for still waters to suit casting, you won’t be casting this rig, you are more inclined to underhand cast a short distance down the edge or out into the flow to ‘drift’ the bait into position. Additionally the bait looks and acts a little more naturally in the flow. See the Mounting Baits section.

The hook trace can be a little longer than normal, but not overly long, the general size of around 18 inches will be ideal and should use 2 semi barbless hooks in the range 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10, spaced out from around 1 1/2 to 3 inches to suit the hooks and bait size. Don’t use a trace that is too small or too large for the bait. Ideally the hooks should not extend beyond the 2/3 the length of the bait.  Adding red bait flags to he bait holding hooks can make the baits more secure and a little more attractive. Too small or too short hook spacings may see you get runs but not hook your fish. Too bigger hooks and wider spacing that puts hooks too far down the bait may give you deep hooked fish,  so do set them up correctly, rig trace to suit the bait.

One final point with this rig, learn to read the action of how it behaves in the flows and look to spot any pick ups that preceed any runs, the pike may take the bait and not give any obvious visible indications at the float end, if you don’t see the early signs you may get a deep hooked fish.

Otherwise use this rig when the rivers are unsuitable for normal float or leger rigs, fishing  down the edge or close in to any likely holding areas out of the flow, where pike and prey fish may be lying up.