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

There is no real reason why so little is mentioned about leger fishing live baits. The method has to some degree been ignored in favour of the more technical and fashionable methods that you see publicized in the magazines and other such publications. Legered live baits were a very definite part of pike fishing history on venues that need an active bait put out to where the pike would be during the daylight hours on reservoirs such as Abberton near Colchester. The method there involved using bait that was available on site from the culvert between the upper and lower sections.

The rig to use today is a little more pike friendly as illustrated in the diagram here and utilizes an uptrace for safety, in conjunction with a large eyed run ring that will easily pass over the uptrace swivel if the tackle should be lost for any reason. This will allow the lead to be shed, preventing the pike being tethered to some form of snag.

The use of a 'bait popper' helps to keep the bait up off the bottom and makes it keep on the move generating attractive vibrations to draw in the pike. This is attached with a short length of fuse wire or similar. The tackle you can use is described in the diagram.

The one problem with using live baits can come from long hard casts which may render the bait inactive due to it being 'stunned' on impact with the water, it may even kill the bait removing the attractive actions of a live bait. However there is consolation in the fact that you will be fishing a fresh dead bait! It would be our hope that when using legered live baits that we have actually caught as a result, but we may never know if the bait was alive or dead when it was actually taken.

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.