Rig school: Float leger rig

When there’s a tow on the water but you still want to fish the float, this rig will guarantee that your hookbait will remain static

THERE are times when the sensitivity of a float is desirable, but undertow can make holding position impossible with a normally shotted float. This is the ideal situation to deploy a float leger. Appearing at first glance to be rather crude, the float leger can be rigged so that it is almost as sensitive as a normal float rig, or turned into a bolt-rig that makes hitting bites a much more relaxed affair. Above all, the float leger is the ideal way to beat undertow in stillwaters, making it an important rig for the budding carp, tench or bream angler – species which prefer an absolutely static bait. Use strong line and hooks with this rig, and big baits such as worms, bread, or mini boilies. A large bodied waggler is required as the buoyant stem is less likely to be pulled under by the tow. Bites are normally indicated by the float shooting under. A good tactic is to find the bottom of the marginal shelf – where the bottom levels out – and then set the float slightly overdepth. Now, when you tighten up the line, the float will slowly sink down to the correct position and the line will be tight from rod to the leger weight. If you find yourself fishing a lake this year with the wind blowing straight towards you, or from side-to-side, and holding position is proving impossible, then try out this very effective, but surprisingly underused rig to give you the correct bait presentation to encourage bites.