A rig that very much reflects that of the free rover rig you might use for fishing a livebait on still waters. You can use a deadbait and the river is the best place for using a deadbait on a rig of this kind and this rig can be used for trolling if you are ale to get the use of a boat on the river you will be fishing, if so then take a look at the 'float trolling version of this set up.

Shows the float set up and the float here is a Fox Slimline Slider, but this could be a Drennan Piker or Zeppler or a Prowla Bait Slider. This should be matched to the river conditions and to the bait being used. The strength of flow and the size of the bait can make the float sink prematurely if the float is too small, giving you false bites!

The float is set to a depth you might choose using either a Powergum stop knot and bead or a silicone braid stop and bead. The depth should be set to a basic depth at the start of perhaps 1/2 depth (check the depth by attaching an oversize leger weight to the quicklink before attaching a hook trace and cast and recast, adjusting the distance from the bomb to the float until the float briefly sits on the surface before the flow pulls it under, take the length of the trace off and you have the deepest setting to run a bait through and clear the bottom.

Do remember rivers can vary in depth as they do in lakes so you may be fishing too deep or too shallow in some sections, you need to ‘plumb’ each as you work along a stretch, once done you will have the information to choose the depths to fish.

In general fishing 1/2 to 2/3 of the depth should allow a bait to work attractively and tempt any pike you bait may encounter on its trot down river.

Whether you are using braid or mono, they will both need to float, use a floating braid or add ‘Mucilin’ or a similar line floatant to mono lines to prevent the lines sinking during the trot. Sunk line will prevent smooth trotting, risk snags and impede the strike when you get a take.

As with most of the rigs on the Pikeonline site, this rig displays it set up with an uptrace of 30 inches of 30lb BS multistrand wire, and uses a quick change sinker of a weight to match the float size, this weight is locked onto the trace swivel to provide a good bite indication should the pike typically strike from below. It will in doing so lift the bait and weight, giving a early sign of a bite when the float pops up and lies flat on the surface, before disappearing as the pike turns and runs off. Always be alert for this indication as it may help prevent a bait being fully swallowed and a deep hooked pike!

Below the uptrace is a 15 to 18 inch trace of minimum 20lb BS multistrand wire with two size 4, 6, 8 or 10 semi barbed treble hooks, the upper hook being fixed and not sliding on the wire! The big difference in this rig compared with a free rover rig is the way the bait is hooked up. It should be mounted head up, with the upper treble in the top lip and the end treble in the baits flank, just beyond the pectoral root. This mount allows the bait some degree of normal position in the water rather than being handicapped when the bait is rigged with the upper hook in the dorsal. A dead bait mounted this way will look more natural too!

The bait can be worked more purposefully in a river than may be possible than its counterpart, the free rover in still waters. You have motion and the strength of the flow as tools to make the bait work for you. The bait will always go downstream, but a lively bait can also swim against the flow, particularly if fished out of the main current, typically weir pools and slacks where pike and prey fish may be lying.

You can additionally make the bait work at different depths during any trot by momentarily holding back on the line to stop the float, by doing so the bait will likely rise as the flow pushes it up towards the surface, a very enticing action that may cause the pike to strike for fear of losing a meal.

There is a weighting option shown in the diagram and this is to substitute the fixed quick change sinker with a set of SSG shots, mounted on a short length of 2 mm silicone tubing to prevent line or wire damage, that are of sufficient weight to load the float correctly.  The point of these is useful to lighten the weighting to suit the resistance in the float to the action of a lively bait, as a really lively bait could keep taking your float under, giving annoying false bites. During this particular phase, you can remove 1 or 2 of the SSG to make the float more buoyant, adding them once the bait has settled down.

The addition of red bait flags, as shown, adds both visual attraction and increases the strength of the hook holds preventing the bait being lost prematurely.

Experiment with trot speeds and vary the depth setting up and down by a foot or so covering the full range from mid water to running a bait close along the river bed if you are sure there are pike present, but are not getting bites. Search out slack pools, back eddies and around weir pools and side streams where they enter the main river. If they are there this rig will help you locate them.