Commercial Fishing Tips | How to set up a Jigga rig - Paul Yates

It’s simple to set a Jigga rig up – the hard work comes in finding the depth the fish are feeding at and ensuring that the hookbait is lowered directly downwards through the water. It’s a great summer method for carp and F1s feeding shallow, and allows you to cover more depth of water. 

The Jigga float

I use thick 0.18mm line so that it can slide through the body of the Jigga float easily, letting the hookbait fall directly down. Around 2ft from the pole-tip I fix a float stop to the line, thread the float on and pop another stop in place around 12ins below this. Around four No8 shot are then bulked under this stop.

The plan is to set the two float stops apart at the depth you think the fish will be at. When the float hits the top stop, the bait will be at full depth. Once you lift the pole-tip slowly, the float will stay in the water, but the line will pass through, pulling the hookbait up in the water until it hits that bottom stop.

The Jigga rig

Match Fishing Tips - How to compete with the jigger - Robbie Griffiths

WHETHER you like it or not, the jigger can be a devastating method on its day, as it allows you to catch fish at different depths and its self-hooking properties mean you don’t miss any bites.

That said, you can certainly still compete using normal rigs, but you need to have several of them set up to find the exact depth the fish want to feed at on the day. 

Once you find the right depth, a fixed rig can be even more effective than a jigger because you are fishing in the ‘feeding zone’ at all times. 

A great tip is to have a really short line between your pole-tip and float, if fishery rules and conditions allow it, as this will help you to turn every bite into a fish in the net. 

The jigger can be a devastating method