What rig for fast moving water?

[peakoverload]

When the floods have calmed down a bit I want to try for some Pike in my local river. The river when it's not in flood is quiet narrow, about 7ft deep in the middle and quiet fast flowing but it is packed with Pike.

What would be a good rig to use for these kind of conditions for dead baits? Ideally I'd prefer to be able to ledger using an alarm but would be interested in all suggestions?

Is it best to present a static bait, would that appear unnatural in fast flowing water, should a moving bait be used and if so should that be cast upstream so that the bait is retrieved in the direction of the flow but then what about bite detection and line tangles etc?

[pingu]

not done much river fishing for pike but been looking into it as is a plan hopefully for monady

look for the lack water and ledger that
or float and ledger (so no need for alarm
is what i seem to come up with as results
but hope someone else shouts better as well

dave

[NICK R]

I would not fish static. use lures , wobbled dead baits or even a dead bait fished under a small drift float..

[Droppenfish]

forget the smelly dead stuff...have a go with some lures!! (hey admin how about a lure fishing smiley!!)

[Portland Pirate]

You need to look for either natural ambush spots or areas of slack water if you want to use a static bait.
Every water has an area that has back eddies. This is where predators would naturally find a dead fish.

As I have become more experienced, I can now look at a stretch of water and read it fairly well. However as with everything it takes a long time to become experienced. What I used to do was toss a load of twigs into an area of water and watch which ones slowed down and even stopped. This indicated the slack water and back eddy areas.

Give it a try, you might just surprise yourself.