FishTalk’s intrepid Production Director, Kayak Sharpie, and all-around Tech Wiz Zach Ditmars has a chronic angling issue: he changes lures about every five casts. Perhaps a reflection of the ADD affliction (SQUIRREL!) I’ve seen him catch a fish, take it off the hook, then cut the lure off and tie on something completely different. To my angling brain this is just bizarre. But, is this behavior nuts or simply outside of the box? Often while he’s making a switch I can’t resist tossing out some sort of snide comment, like “oh, it makes sense to tie on a shallow diver when you just caught a fish down deep on a jigging spoon,” or simply “are you nuts?!” But a while back while fishing in the Smith Island Fishing Tournament, I watched as his disjointed and sometimes incoherent (to me) tactics kicked butt.
We were fishing in a gut on Smith Island, where a ripping outgoing current swung around a shoreline dropping from wet mud to eight feet of depth in just a few feet. We had taken just a cast or two when someone looked over the side and noticed that the water was peppered with May worms, rushing by in the flow. Then someone spotted a big swirl. Four anglers cast at it madly, to no avail. Then we saw another swirl. And another. After trying several different lures depression began to set in. These fish were 1000 percent focused on the May worms, period, and no matter what we offered up it wouldn’t tempt them.
I sat staring at my assortment of lures wondering what I should try next, when I heard the sound of line being drawn tight against rod guides, followed by the sound of drag, followed by the sound of Zach giggling. My head came snapping around. He was hooked up and it looked to be a nice fish. As he swung a 25” rockfish over the side I looked to see what size, color, and type of lure he had tied on… and my jaw hit the deck.
Counter to conventional wisdom he had rigged up a popping cork. Yes, a popping cork in eight feet of water with the nearest weedbeds miles away. There was two feet of leader beneath it, capped off by a weighted swimbait hook. Yes, a swimbait hook. On the hook there was a two-inch strip of red Fishbites bloodworm, pierced near the end, slid up the shank, and then doubled-back through the point.
Zach released the fish and immediately hooked another. Contributor Eric Packard, also aboard for the tournament, started scrambling to make up an identical rig. Minutes later he had a rockfish on the line, too.
Thus, the Zach Rig was born.
We’re a long way off from the May worm season, but next year you can bet I’ll have a popping cork, weighted swimbait hooks, and Fishbites bloodworms aboard the boat when spring rolls around. I strongly suggest that you do, too. And if you spot fish swirling on May worms and the Zach Rig starts catching, for gosh sakes, don’t cut it off to try something else. SQUIRREL!