Running Ledger Rig

(Plaice, Dabs, Turbot, Brill and Rays)

This is a versatile and very effective Rig for all bottom feeding fish. It can be tied from 1m - 7m with one, two or three hooks and arrangements of beads and spoons limited only by your imagination.Tie this Rig with a target species in mind.

Plaice and Dabs for example, have relatively small mouths, but are very inquisitive fish. Keep the hooks small, size 1 or 1/0 are ideal and add coloured beads and spoons, etc. Turbot and Brill however, have relatively cavernous mouths, so step the hook size up ranging from 2/0 - 4/0. From a boat, Ray will take a large bait and have powerful jaws, so increase the strength of the hook length from 30lb to 50lb and try a Pennell rig and double squid, and so on. It is possible to combine these arrangements when fishing an area that holds a wide range of species, i.e. keep the bottom hook and bait large for bigger specimens with smaller hooks on the other snoods in the hope of a Plaice or Dab. There is a chance that a large fish may take the smaller bait but that is all part and parcel of angling.

For the really large species and “toothy critters”, the running ledger requires a small alteration. For example, when targeting Common Skate or Spur dog, change the hook-length to 1.5 metres of 200lb mono and 8/0-10/0 heavy gauge hooks. For Tope and Conger, add a wire biting-trace of 150-200lb. As you can see, this versatile method will target most Irish species.