Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
TACTIC TWO: Getting grubby
Maggots, if they are allowed on the fishery (check first) are a great cold-water carp bait. However, I think they are used incorrectly by many carpers. I have a gallon with me today, but I won’t use them all. I tend to fish maggots to the same spot, slowly building up a bed of feed over the session, much as you might with a Method feeder. Maggots look to the fish like a hatch of naturals. The carp know that this hatch won’t last long, and that they need to feed while there’s still time. You can use maggots as they come from the shop, but I like to pep my maggots by removing the maize flour and replacing it with boilie crumb. This is, once more, a 50:50 mixture of Complex-T and Tigernut. Not only does this give the maggots more of a flavour, but there is nothing for the carp to fill up on, so they tend to feed more confidently. As for rigs, I use a standard combi rig made from coated braid. The paste balls are simply hair-rigged, while the maggot rig has a small rig ring and a sliver of foam threaded on to the hair. I then attach the maggots by threading 15-20 on to a length of dental floss before tying the bunch on to the rig ring. So, how did the day go? Well, after having two quick fish on the first day, the water in front died. The following day, when the cameras turned up, we noticed a couple of shows at the opposite end of the lake. After upping sticks and moving to one of the shows, a mid-double, fin-perfect common carp was safely nestled in the folds of my landing net 30 minutes later. This was followed 10 minutes later by another common of 18lb and a 16lb mirror 20 minutes after that. At this time of year, if you find one, you tend to find them all! Adopting short session tactics, regardless of the length of time you plan to remain on the bank, will always pay off in the end.
“A mid-double common was followed by another of 18lb, and a 16lb mirror”