Around the first weekend in November a strange phenomenon happens in the Duchy, local match anglers that have seemingly hibernated
Magic Maggot!
Well the humble maggot is still doing me proud! But more of that in a bit, on Saturday I got asked to do a bit of a teach in for the leeds junior team. The venue was the Stainforth and Keadby canal as they have a national on there in the next month or so. Now I feel really happy with the fishing on the Stainy so I thought id be able to help them out. I used to fish with the Leeds Juniors and had lots of great times, so its nice to put something back in. Paul Stead who runs the juniors wanted them all to sit with me for an hour or so, so that I could talk them through my rigs and feeding etc I got there before the kids arrived so I could get set up and was shocked by how clear it was. I wasn’t very confident in catching, let alone with 30 people stood behind me!!!!!
I needn’t have worried, because as soon as I started I fed my 16m skimmer line and had 4 in 4 chucks, I then lost one so decided to talk them through squatt fishing and that was solid as well!!!!! Anyway they all left me and I continued catching the skimmers for an hour and decided to more or less pack up and spend some time with them all. It was really hard for them and the wind made it impossible for them to fish long and I couldn’t really help them much with the squatt fishing as they simply where not getting many bites! A few eels were all most could muster. But the lad on the end had a nice net and won it with nearly 5lb so all was not lost. Hopefully I’ll be able to get out with them on a wind free day and I might be able to put them right. I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Normal Service Resumed!
Normal service was resumed on Sunday and Sessay was calling me. I woke up and the wind was absolutely howling, which at The Oaks is a strange one as it means you cant hold the pole, but it usually fishes really well with the added tow and cover the ripple provides. I drew peg 79 which is really good but the wind was howling down the straight, I had John Chapman and Ian Bowman to my left so had my work cut out to beat them. I used the usual rigs but reckoned id need something heavier so I set a 0.6 mp3 up for 2 foot of water with a long lash of 3 foot or so. I plumbed this up and couldn’t even hold it at 13m, but I knew nobody else would fish across so felt id have loads of fish to my self!!!! So it was hopefully gonna be worth the risk. I had a wander behind Chappy and he decided the longest he’d fish was 6m as he said he couldn’t fish any longer and Ian was the same!!!!
I kicked off by feeding the far line with a big dump of maggots(I’d brought ten pints) and fed 2 track swims with the same. I went across and caught immediately but it was ridiculously windy and if im honest ive never fished a harder match before. So after about 15 fish long in the first hour I was well on track but decided to try and save my back and go down the middle. Now after last week I thought it was nailed on to catch down the middle, I was gob smacked when it didn’t go under in 20 mins of trying. And I thought id need to give myself a hernia and hang on to my pole and just graft my way through the match. It was quite good and far better than the previous weeks, and after 3 hours I had a good few but noticed Chappy sacking down the side, my fish where very small and I was also catching loads of ide between 6-8oz. Going into the last hour I felt chappy was battering me, but it turned solid with f1s and I was really frustrated because it was one a bung but the wind blew a lot of them off!!!! Anyway to cut a long story short chappy weighed 40lb and I had 52lb for another section win. That’s 7 in 7 now and I’d fed 8 pints of maggots during the day and was well chuffed that my hard work had paid off.
On the bank holiday Monday Lee Kerry had asked me to go to Heronbrook with him to try my maggot method as he had the first round of the UK Champs and felt with the fishing very similar to sessay it would be worth a go. I drew on meadow 35 which is a flier.The wind was howling but kind of off my back so I really fancied it and with 60 on the match I was looking forward to it. My plan was to fish pellets across and maggots down the track, and rigs for the day was a 4×12 malman cedar for the pellet on 0.12 and a 16 801 and a 0.6mp3 and a o.10 hook length and the usual 16 801 hook. I kicked off with a few micros across and a big dump of maggots down the track, and shipped straight across with a Dynamite swim stim 4mm hooker and had a 10lber first chuck!!!
I had 4 in 4 chucks for probably 20 lb and was well happy with that, but the wind was picking up and it was doing my head in the wind needs to be perfect for effective pellet fishing and it was far from it. I decided I’d just go for it and make the maggot work. I was a bit concerned as meadow is mostly proper carp rather than f1s, and ive found F1′s love maggots but wasn’t sure about the proper carp situation. I needn’t have worried as I had 7 in 7 chucks and also magicked some f1s!!!! It was a day for feeding lots very regularly and usually the bite came after 1-2minutes. I was fishing with a bit of line on the deck and 13h hollo laggy was taming them nicely. I really lost track of how I was doing until Lee rang me and said you are walking the match. So I decided to just plod on with the maggot that ‘wasn’t meant to work on meadow!!!’
Northern Raiders!
I followed the scales and 60lb was best I went on to put 99lb 8oz on the scales for a match win, Lee was 4th also, so it was a trip made worthwhile. Just a quick note on how I prepare the bait, as im taking 10 pints to every match they stink if im honest.[And it’s a bad smell to wash off your hands, so ive been playing with flavourings that just take the edge off the horrendous smell. I get the shop to put tons of maize on my maggots to absorb the flavour and this also lets me dampen it slightly so they stick well in my kinder pots. But what I do when I get them home is put a full bottle of Dynamite Baits XL Scopex Liquid and it seems to be doing the trick nicely. I don’t really do it for the fish attracting properties more so to stop my hands stinking!!!!!
Anyway im off to france next week for the world club champs and ive literally been snowed under with prep and rig making, hopefully it will be worth it. Ill let ya know how I get on!
