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Most of the leger rigs that are suggested for pike fishing involve using deadbaits, natural coarse fish and sea fish baits, little information seems to be available on leger fishing livebaits for pike or zander so we will offer a rig to provide a safe way of fishing this way.

Continuing with the legered livebait theme this is a combination rig that was originally devised and developed by two of pike angling's list of notable anglers, Vic Bellars and Colin Dyson, both past Presidents of PAC. Vic set the ball rolling with a rig for perch and Colin extended the development to pike angling although the original design from VB was equally suited to all predators too.
The rig takes a little from float a sunken float paternoster and the general concept of the active efforts of poppered livebait.
It incorporates in this version am uptrace for safety from bite off's, something these type of rigs can encounter. It makes use of a large eye run ring to pass safely over the uptrace top swivel in the event of a loss of end tackle, thereby avoiding the risk of the lead becoming tethered.
The depth at which the bait is fished is decided by the length of line from lead to float and by the tension applied from rod tip to float. By making this tighter the bait can be lowered in the water and by then slackening it can be allowed to rise to it maximum height again.
The distance from float to run ring must be at least 6 inches greater than the hook trace to prevent the bait tangling with the float. Likewise the uptrace should be a minimum of six inches longer than the hook trace to prevent bite off's should the bait become tangled during the cast.

If the method interests you then give it a try, don't use too large a bait though! It works for pike, zander, cats, perch and eels too!

NB: it is illegal under Environment Agency By-laws to move fish from one water to another with out consent and Pike Online supports this restriction on the translocation of fish wholeheartedly and recommends each angler observes this ruling and any that may apply on the individual fisheries you may visit.