Halibut pellets in winter? Boilies in winter?

[Adrian Mitchell]

I’ve caught afew on plastic casters. Confidence is the key

I usually use pellets nowadays but if I've had a run of blanks which has happened a lot recently I have a day on the maggot feeder occasionaly just to get some bites.I always slide a plastic caster onto the hookshank as well as a single or bunch of maggots dependent on hooksize on the bend.I've still got confidence that something is on the hook even if the maggots are being shredded by small stuff and have caught barbel on this setup.Will try it next week,been blanking again!

 

[Chris Belcher]

Mag aligner and 5 wrigglers on the bend of a sharp hook . . .as Rich says - ignore the knocks and rattles but hit the big twitches . . .

 

[Alex Gowney]

I usually use pellets nowadays but if I've had a run of blanks which has happened a lot recently I have a day on the maggot feeder occasionaly just to get some bites.I always slide a plastic caster onto the hookshank as well as a single or bunch of maggots dependent on hooksize on the bend.I've still got confidence that something is on the hook even if the maggots are being shredded by small stuff and have caught barbel on this setup.Will try it next week,been blanking again!

That is the great thing about rubber/plastic imitations, you know there is still something resembling a maggot or caster on the hook despite the attentions of small fry. I've caught many barbel and tench like this with an inline feeder and 1 imitation to two real maggots/casters. As well as ensuring there is always something on the hook/hair it adds buoyancy to the rig. I usually use a .75 bs hair and thread the plastic bait on then superglue the real ones to the plastic one. A very effective rig indeed.

 

[Huanzhou Zhu]

I like fatter and smelly baits in the winter, most of the time, I am using the meat and mussel.

 

[Marcus Ruoff]

Great advise, thank you all! I use a plastic maggot nearly every time with any bait for the reasons mentioned. Also put a few real maggots on the hook when I used pellets and boilies as hookbaits. Worked well!

Ever since I started fishing another stretch of my local river though its pellets and boilies only and my catches have increased. Which is probably due to there being more and bigger fish ;-). So no firm conclusions here.

Will probably give the maggots a try again this winter and see whats coming up.