HOW TO FISH MAGGOTS FOR BIG WINTER CARP
Paul Garner explains why maggots are the best bet right now
VISIT any well-stocked specimen carp fishery this week and it’s odds on that some of the anglers will be fishing with maggots.
In a few short years grubs have become the number one winter carp bait, for the very good reason that they will bring bites when all else fails.
This success has led to maggots being over-used in some instances, and many fisheries now limit when they can be used, and the amount that can be introduced, to ensure that they are not piled in to excess. This makes sense, as we are talking about a time of year when the carp are more likely to want a bite-sized meal than a banquet.
I have never felt the need to pile in the maggots, and find that a couple of pints is more than enough for a 24-hour session.
There are a couple of drawbacks to using maggots on some venues. Obviously, if the lake contains a lot of silver fish, you are going to be pestered by small fish even in the depths of winter. What’s more, I find that it pays to build up a swim with maggots over several hours, so this isn’t a tactic to use if you are not 100 per cent happy that you have located the fish.
Settle into a good swim, though, and by casting to the same spot every hour you can soon build up a bed of grubs on the bottom. In the cold they will not crawl far, covering perhaps the area of a dinner-plate, and many will not bury into the silt, so the carp will find them very easily.
I like to use a PVA stick full of maggots and perhaps introduce a few small Spombs of maggots at the start of the session. Even so, it is rare for me to use more than three or four pints in the course of a day. I always prefer to use fresh maggots, but this is one instance where fresh bait isn’t really necessary. Big carp are not that particular, and will happily hoover up old bait.
Flavouring maggots can be quite tricky – the skins are tough and do not soak up liquids well. Instead, I use powdered additives, sprinkled into the tub of bait a couple of days before I plan to go fishing. Along with a teaspoonful of concentrated squid or liver powder, why not try adding some stick mix or groundbait to the maggots to give them some flavour?
If small fish make using real maggots impossible, try artificial grubs on the hair instead. Bear in mind, though, that the small fish are likely to be demolishing the free offerings too, so try upping the feed and using a mixture containing a few fast-breakdown pellets and a sprinkling of sweetcorn to ensure that there is always some bait remaining on the lakebed.
RIGGING MAGGOTS
Although maggots will catch the largest carp around, using such a small bait on strong tackle can be problematic. In open water you can simply scale down your rigs and use a bunch of maggots straight on the hook. I like to use
a size 10 or even a 12 hook, as long it is a forged pattern that is quite thick in the wire.
Half-a-dozen grubs on a hook of this size is about right. I tend to hook the grubs through the head end, rather than the conventional way, as used this way they are less likely to mask the hook.
If you want to hair-rig maggots, there are several ways. A size 8 or 10 hook gives a secure hookhold. Threaded: I use a fine sewing needle to load a bunch of maggots on to a piece of strong sewing thread and then tie this to a small rig ring attached to the hair.
This neat and simple method allows me to make the maggot baits as large or as small as I want with minimal fuss. Maggot clip: Another simple alternative is to use a maggot clip loaded with grubs. Once again this is tied to the hair and then loaded with maggots. You can buy clips in several sizes to match the number of maggots you want to use as a hookbait. I tend to add a sliver of ring foam to the maggot clip to counterbalance its weight. Corn and maggot: For a substantial hookbait, combine maggots with a grain of plastic corn. This rig incorporates a size 12 round bend hook tied to the end of the hair with the piece of plastic corn pulled over the point.
Three or four maggots are mounted on the small hook, the point of which is then pulled securely into the plastic corn.
The corn provides a visual slowsinking hookbait, with the added benefit of the bunch of wriggling grubs. Fish this with a PVA stick.