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Maggots or Big baits

A

Adrian Mitchell

Senior Member & Supporter
Looking at next weeks mild forcast,thinking of my first trip of the year to the Nidd.Undecided regarding method.Any thoughts appreciated.
 
Had two nice chub from the Wharfe last week , one on lobworm the other on Boilie paste ( C food )
I was feeding ground bait laced with maggots. I’ll be doing the same tomorrow .
 
Chub if that's what you are thinking are not fussy, bread, maggots, pellet, meat, worm, minnow, all work, and much more. I feed a few free offerings before casting, just to get them confident. Can't go wrong with the weather forecast next week...at last!!
 
Adrian Mitchell said:
Looking at next weeks mild forcast,thinking of my first trip of the year to the Nidd.Undecided regarding method.Any thoughts appreciated.
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Depends….. on what my approach is going to be.

If I’m moving a lot and doing a bit of hunting then for me definitely something like paste, boiles, worms, bread, corn etc are all good single hook baits for winter roaming. No loose feed just drop it where you like and move on if nothing is there.

If I’m not hunting and I want the fish to come to me …. You can’t better maggots as a winter pulling bait for all species. I’d Just wade through the nuisance fish and keep the bait going through all the time. Not big volumes or at least not to start but very frequently

Those would be my personal approaches for chub or barbel in the winter.
 
Thanks for your replies.I only asked for a couple of reasons,firstly I have always struggled to catch if I fish this time of year.Secondly,I intend to fish a new length to me ,it's more of a prospecting trip so a mobile approach may be the way to go.Thanks again and will keep you posted.
 
Agree with Rich - I think with static set ups for winter barbel using maggots / a maggot feeder accuracy is key as well as regular feeding in exactly the same spot; building a swim with a regular stream of freebies and being patient until bites become wrap arounds
 
Richard Isaacs said:
It’s a good winter tactic. I use the rubber ones on a hair or clip. Real ones get demolished in seconds on our stretch.
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Richard, what size of hook and hook length are you using with maggots? I tend to use size 10 or smaller but I found the eye is bit small when doing a knotless knot with 12lb fluorocarbon.
 
Don't bother with hairs or clips - far too fiddly - standard gauge hook (straight shank pref) with a mag aligner (fake maggot pushed up and over eye of hook and the hooklink threaded through at the tail of the fake maggot) 5-6 maggots nicked straight on the hook and another small fake pushed around the shank and opposite the barb to keep the wrigglers in place and the hookpoint unmasked by any over active mags. Even with small nuisance fish your still fishing as you have 2x fakes on the hook . . .

An alternate rig is the double hook - standard hair rig with hook of choice but with a small piece of plastic corn / small hard hooker on the hair. Instead of tying a loop (for a hair stop) tie the end of the hair to a small barbless wide gape hook size 14/16. Thread your maggots on the hook and pull the small hook down into the top of the plastic corn / hookbait to mask the point and retain the maggot - much easier than topping a bait with a clip etc . . .again the rig is still fishing if the maggots get sucked etc - this works better as a combi rig or with coated braid stripped at the hair to enable tying the small hook on
 
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