Check out from the archive an episode of Keith Arthur’s “Tight lines” on Sky Sports. Keith Arthur heads to Brixham Harbour in Devon for a day of trying out LRF with expert Ben Field.
The Cheb Rig or The Cheburashka Rig is something you may have heard of but aren’t really sure how it is different from other rigs that you’ve used in the past, for example, the Ned Rig or the Jika Rig. There are a number of reasons that you might want to consider using this rig, but before we get into why you might want to use it, let’s take a look at what it actually is.
Much like the Ned Rig, it is a great way to fish for perch – especially if you are not having much luck catching them. The reason for this is that the Cheb Rig is a brilliant technique for searching the water and can be fished quicker than the ned rig, therefore covering more water. It is also quite versatile due to being able to change the weight, hook size and pattern very quickly.
The key to success when fishing with the Cheb Rig, is having a range of Cheb weights. Whether you use an offset hook and fished weedless or a mounted straight hook, it’s the movement between the weight and the hook that make the lure look great in the water.
The Cheb Rig is a unique pin and weight system that is perfect for a very effective bottom jiggling technique. It was developed in Russia has become popular in the UK and Europe. If you are moving around whilst fishing and encounter lots of different fishing situations and swims, then the Cheb Rig is ideal. The quick-release and change system lets you fish at different depths, in different conditions, all with multiple weight jig heads in a short session.
The Rig
The rig isn’t anything too complicated. In fact, it is a basic, trace body that terminates in a clip. Add to this the Cheb weights and a hook that is suitable for whatever bait you are using to fish. A Finesse Worm hook is commonly used with the Cheb Rig, though you are also fine using an EWG Offset style hook as well.
Selection of 2g,3g,5g Cheb WeightsCheb Weight with Clip RemovedFully Mounted Cheb Rig
The Lure
Depending on what you are trying to fish with the Cheb Rig will influence the kind of lure you are using. We have listed a few baits that we like to use at the bottom of the page. Whatever bait you choose to use, a float stop can be extremely useful to keep the bait in place.
Cheb Rig with a Float Stop Preventing the Lure from SlidingComplete Cheb Rig with Float Stop
When to use the Cheb Rig
The Cheb Rig can be used at any time of year and can be especially useful if you find that you are stuck in a rut with your fishing and want to try something different or you need to search the fish out.
Advantages of the Cheb Rig
The Cheb Rig is one that comes with many advantages:
The weight is attached to the hook – unlike other rigs, namely the Texas Rig, the weight is actually attached to the hook. This means that you don’t get the same low pressure, running away bites that you can get with a Texas Rig. Instead, you get a firm bite.
It’s easy to change the hook
It’s easy to change the weight
It’s weedless
You can change the weight, hook and bait to fish different species of fish as and when you need to.
The weight sits on the bottom, and the hook can move freely to the bait. It allows action on the bait just sitting in the flow.
How Do I Fish With it?
Fishing with the Cheb Rig is can be done in a fast or slow way, similar to fishing with the Ned Rig. Though when fishing slower you will need to be a little more patient with the Cheb rig, especially when fishing using buoyant baits. Once the weight hits the bottom, you need to let it sit for a second so that the bait has a chance to bob back up. Then using small taps and bounces, no more than six inches of movement along the bottom at a time before you let it sit. Make sure that each time you let the bait sit a little longer than you would with a Ned Rig to let the bait float back up again.
If you are in doubt about how good the Cheb Rig looks in the water, watch it come back up to surface and glide it around a bit.
Setting up the Cheb Rig
Tie a figure-eight loop at the top of the mainline. It’s a small loop, but it is strong enough for fishing the Cheb Rig, but most importantly it is small enough that you can easily pass the Cheb weight over the top of it. This is the method we use to make the Cheb even easier to swap around. However many other anglers just tie an improved clinch knot directly to the Cheb clip without using a loop. It’s entirely up to you. See the videos below if you are unsure about either knot.
To put the weight on the line, choose whatever Cheb weight that you want to use, and then take the pin out of the centre of the weight. Thread the loop through the centre of the weight, the hook the loop through the pin. Don’t put it back in the weight just yet, it’s time for the hook first. Take the hook you are fishing and thread it onto the clip. Once the hook and line are both hooked in place on the pin, pull the weight back down the line and slip the pin back into the centre of the weight.
Not only is this set up really flexible, but it also saves on having to use an additional clip on this rig. It also makes it much easier to swap the hook and weight whenever you want to.
Traditionally, there has been a clear divide been coarse, lure and fly fishing; Until recently, where the line has started to blur. With such a growing variety of angling styles and techniques, it was inevitable that lines would be crossed and boundaries pushed.
The first clear crossover was a few years ago when carp anglers, noticing fish feeding on the aquatic life in the diferent water layers, introduced the ‘Zig Bug’ which in certain conditions is unbeatable. The bucktail lure has been been around for years, being a popular lure especially stateside. A few years ago Fox made the crossover introducing the much underrated ‘fly fry’. Then over recent years, the lure anglers decided they wanted to fish flies but on their regular spinning and casting rods. This is where the ‘Jig Fly’ was born.
What is a Jig Fly?
It is exactly what it says on the tin, essentially a fly with a slight bit extra material than its counterpart, tied onto a jig head or weighted with a ‘Cheb’. This extra weight allows it to be cast be lure anglers on their setups. With many versions popping up featuring articulated bodies, trailing stingers, and endless patterns with some also utilising the new fly tails that have arose recently, you can be certain there’s a Jig Fly out there for you.
How to fish a Jig Fly
A jig fly is essentially retrieved in the same style as a lure, the usual ones being a constant or varied retrieve, twitch and jerk, stop and go and bumped along the bottom. The retrive is more to do, like lure angling, to do with the conditons. There is little point fishing a jig fly quickly on a frosty winters morning as the pike will unlikely be active, such like fishing too slowly on a warm day when they are hunting can pose the threat of deep hooking a fish. I could talk all day about variations of retrieves, but just try what you know already and you will soon find your stride. For those beginners, just stick to the ‘usual ones’ to start and ask others for help. The lure angling community is very welcoming, just don’t expect them to tell you where to fish!
One Life Fish It
Tom Hatton of ‘One Life Fish It’ is one of the many anglers utilizing this fusion technique. He skillfully ties pike and perch jig flies, using them to great effect, catching fish after fish along the way. Only being in the jig fly world for a year, lets see what he has to say…
Everyone knows the days where you get down to the bank, pop the lid off the lure box and decide which hard, soft, hybrid or spinner bait would do the job today?
Well recently there’s been a new weapon creeping into a number of arsenals around the world, the ‘Jig Fly’.
Whilst lure fishing and fly fishing have been around for a long time individually, this crossover has only happened recently in comparison, yet is starting to gain traction in the lure fishing scene.
Being both a lure and fly angler amongst other disciplines, this new creation seriously tweaked my interest and soon enough I had a couple to try out.
With the style of the retrieve being pretty similar to most lures it wasn’t long before I found which retrive suited which fly and the fish started coming!
My setup is made of 2 different approaches, for the lighter end I’ll use a rod around the 10-30g range twinned with either a 2500 spinning reel or a 131 baitcaster. Then when I need more backbone to keep the larger fish away from trouble I use a 20-
80g baitcaster twinned with a 131 which throws a wet 5g fly no problem.
As with all styles of fishing there are pros and cons, the Jig Fly being no exception. In my opinion, the pros have to be the movement, variation of styles/colours, easy to make yourself if you learn, and very effective. As for the cons, you cant load a jig fly with too much weight as the majority will quickly hit the floor as soon as your stop retireving and look anything but natural. This means you cant cast them as far as hard or soft baits without usually dropping line diameter and setup weight, potentially ending up snapping a lot and risking leaving a fish with some unwanted souveniors. Another con is that, like the normal fly, they tend not to push as much water as lures, therefore not creating as many vibrations and disturbance for the fish to zone in to, there are advances being made to try and make this leap, with a few ideas already out there.
Now on to the most diverse area of the Jig Fly; colours. These are only limited by the tyers ability and imagination, but have only one real end consumer to make the final judgement. The main colours I tie and use are ‘green and gold’, ‘copper and orange’, ‘red heads’ and ‘white and gold’. The two styles I prefer in my box are either an articulated fly or one with a titanium stinger and tail attachment. My choice of tails at the moment are the pacchiarini dragon tails as they have proved themselves time and time again, not just for myself.
My best moment since coming over to this side of fishing was one morning. Myself and two good mates headed down to the banks of a mist covered River Severn to be greeted by an emerging sunrise and waking birds. This twinned with a falling and clearing river, gave us the feeling that everyone knows, that moment when everything just feels right. With only a quick session before work, we soon finished the morning brews and started fishing. We all started on soft and hybrid baits looking to get a quick fish to start things off. After an hour of trying different spots with no luck, I decided on a change. Off came the soft bait and on went my jig fly, fresh off the vice the night before. Within 15 minutes the first pike was in the net. Two swims on and in came the second. In the next half hour I managed two more pike on the same fly, with the best being a 97cm female around the 12lb mark. Whilst not a massive fish, it’s a pretty good stamp from the section and to top it off, it came to a Jig Fly of my own creation. It’s a feeling you just can’t beat.
The thing that pulls me towards a jig fly as my go-to in most situations is the movement, not just as a whole, but each indivdual strand or fibre of material moving and glistening individually within that silhouette. It’s almost mesmerizing, watching it dance back through the water until you’re snapped backed to reality by a flash of green and a swirl of water above where your fly was. Fish on!
So get out there, grab a few Jig Flies and gain your own opinion. I never looked back.
DROP SHOT FLY
Another fusion of the lure and fly world is the use of flies on a drop shot set up. Set up exactly the same but adding a small fry fly instead of the softbait.
Again the flowing movement of the lure supassses anything you can get from a softbait and the hang time is extended, often the time when the hit comes. The most successful patterns are the small (approx 25mm) silver fish shapes with dolls heads or added eyes.
The downside is that market bought flies often have barbed hooks, which I have to crush down. Also changing flies when the fly is getting ragged by multipe catches is more time consuming than a quick softbait change, as you need to re-tie the rig. However, that said, the durability of a fly is much better than a softbait. I can often go an entire session on one fly.
The other preferred colours aside from silver is anything with a red flash or black back, obvious lure colours that also work well with softbaits. Last season on my local canal, I nearly exclusively fished the drop shot fusion fly towards the end of the season. I found fishing under bridges and near sunken trees, these lures produced more results than any other lure and often filtered out the wasps and tempting the bigger fish.
Try these killer jig fry patterns for pike and perch. The jig head and feathery bodies make a very durable and life like lure. They catch lots of fish and its lots of fun.
FISHIN ADDICT chats to big fish specimen angler and Drennan Cup holder Neill Stephen. He reveals top fishing tips and shares tales about catching the UK perch record (6lb 3oz).
The best place to catch perch is in any hiding place. Perch love to hang out under trees, in reeds or in amongst roots. Anywhere the can lay in wait for the fry. On colder days they will be in deeper water and warmer day the roam around more in the shallows. If you find a spot it will hold more than one fish as perch tend to hunt in packs. Look out for the surface breaking with fish trying to escape.
TIME
As with most fish, dawn and dusk are best. Late on a Summer day is a good time but perch are not that fussy and will strike any time of day.
BAIT
Lobworm is great for perch and will be hit as soon as it drops in the water. Under a float is good but my favourite is a light lead and a quiver tip.
Prawns and small dead baits are also a good bait, especially on still waters. It always worth chucking in a a bit of ground bait in the area to draw in the small fish.
The best in my opinion is small lures. It always results in bigger fish and adds to the excitement, as you can often see the strike.
The best way to catch big perch is using small lures or swimbaits. Anything that is about 2” (50mm) long and silver or bright coloured. A small 5 or 6 ft rod is perfect for the confined spaces, coupled with a medium sized real, loaded with 4 to 6 lb line. I always add a wire trace; the amount of times I have been after perch and seen a pike cruise out and engulf my bait or lure, make it worth while.
You are looking to imitate the roach fry (perch’s favorite snack), so cast into sheltered areas. A top spot for perch hang outs is always under over hanging trees. Natural food falls from the trees, the branches give cover from birds and the small bait fish hide out in the roots. Look out for schools of perch herding the bait fish and the fry breaking / scattering onto the surface.
WHEN
Perch eat all year round but feed less in the Winter, however the clear waters help them spot your lure. Early morning Spring and Autumn are great times but the best is a warm Summers evening, just before dark.
Check out this clip from Underwater Ireland for perch on small lures.
NANO CURLY SPLIT TAIL 1.6” / 40mm Drop Shot Jigs Micro Fishing Soft Bait TPR | Perch Pike Panfish | FISHIN ADDICT£4.95 – £13.99
