Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Pinkies and maggots
Amer Jawad demonstrates why it often pays to do something a little bit different, especially when it comes to feeding in winter
IT’S pretty much standard commercial fishery practice to loosefeed small items and present a larger hookbait over the top. But this one-dimensional approach can restrict what you catch, while tweaking the tactic will open up far greater angling possibilities. Typically, a 4mm expander pellet is offered above a bed of loosefed 2mm micros but the likely result is skimmers or carp and with current water temperatures being what they are even that’s not guaranteed. But Rive general manager and match ace, Amer Jawad reckons he has the answer – substitute micros in favour of pinkies and swap expanders for maggots. “Everything that swims will have a go at a maggot, so when bites are at a premium, you have more chance of catching a few,” he told us. To see how this is done, we joined the 47-yearold Papworth rod at How End Fisheries at Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire, for a day of old-school feeding.
Why you need to grab a grub
Livebaits have a large water content, so the fish are able to eat three or four times more in volume than they could with pellets. This is particularly relevant when the water is very cold and the fish aren’t eating a great deal. By feeding/fishing for roach, feeding little and often, with light lines and small hooks, Amer reckons your bite ratio will increase tenfold. “With a standardised pellet approach, you could sit it out all day for a carp or two, while you may be accidentally overfeeding the swim. Swapping over to grubs will enable you to target silverfish, perch, and carp. It also means you can ‘attack’ the swim, feeding more often, so you are making things happen and drawing fish into the area. There is no better groundbait than feeding fish,” asserted Amer. Another advantage of maggots and pinkies is that even in the coldest water they still wriggle and it is this movement that can often entice a bite from torpid fish. And, as Amer is fishing for pleasure, there is very little reward in looking at a motionless pellet-fished float all day. Even if you are only catching tiny fish, you are still catching. “And, if you get bitted out, simply increase the feed rate to feed them off,” he continued. “This is not something you could do with a straight pellet approach as you’d more than likely kill the swim rather than make it better.” Another advantage of Amer’s approach is the high visibility offered by maggots and pinkies. Pellets are a muted brown, whereas pinkies, especially the fluoros Amer uses are akin to moving sweetcorn, they stand out on the lakebed when the water is clear. You can also mix and match colours – whites, fluoros, reds, discos – to create a rainbow of colour!
Set up for winter swims
An island opposite was an obvious place to have one line. Fishing into 2ft of water, Amer’s rig consisted of a 0.2g float, with a 0.12mm (2lb 8oz) mainline, 0.09mm (1lb 9oz) hooklink and a size 20 hook. The short line – at around three metres – had a larger 4x14 Mick Wilkinson AJ float for the deeper 4ft swim. The long line he feeds using a pole pot, not
a cup. The reason being that he reckons it is human nature to feed more than you should when using a larger pole cup. “I can feed little and often with a pole pot, then, if I need more, I’ll feed twice as often. It’s so easy to overdo it with a large pole cup.” To kick off the long line he feeds a dozen pinkies and two or three maggots, while the inside line is handfed. The key is to build the swim slowly, gauging what the fish want. “I will often try feeding 20 pinkies or maggots and then not feed for longer just to gauge the reaction,” Amer explained. “Alternatively, try feeding less, more often. These are all viable options when using grubs rather than pellets because they are not as filling so you have a wider choice of feeding regimes without risk of harming the swim.” One element that’s true is that a grass roots approach of fishing and feeding can be more positive that following a ‘standard’ approach. As Amer was quick to point out, he had only had one carp all day. The rest of the catch were quality ide, roach and perch, fish that he never would have caught on ‘traditional’ pellets. Just something to think about for your next pleasure session…