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Popped up maggots.

Graham Elliott

Graham Elliott

Senior Member & Supporter
What's preferred on still waters?

Foam to match maggot colour?
Rubber floating maggot?
Anything else?

If using foam where on small 14 hooks?
On the knot or tip of hook. Shaped?

I have always used hair rigged maggots with popup corn but they seem wary of corn it in my water.


Cheers Graham .
 
All my tench this year have fallen to a T-rig using Guru MWG or QM1 hooks, the Enterprise buoyant casters and maggots on the hair balance the hook weight and I add a few live maggots on the hook. Fished on a helicopter setup and a blockend feeder.
 
Steve. Doing much the same.

Can be fair bit of silkweed bottom of the lake I am fishing Mon and Tues.
Big fish though.
 
Steve. Sorry should have said Thank You.
Always worry that the rubber maggot may prevent hook ups.
Using a hair set up has given me a few indications on this lake without hookups.
When I changed to on the hook last year.....did manage 2 as the fish moved on!!!
They never seem to stay more than an hour in the swim whatever feed is there and simply move along the lake to fairly regular timings.
Not lots of fish but most 7lb plus.

May just T rig on the hook. But that was the reason I have been considering foam.
 
Paul Whiteing said:
Even Google couldn't translate that :D
Click to expand...
Yup! T Rig had me going as well Paul but just found it on the Gardner site. Simply it’s an artificial maggot/castor mounted long ways on the hair with another crossways making the T shape. I’ve not come across it before but then I am a dinosaur . Quiet natty but I can’t use it on my local club water as there is a “no artificial’s rule”
 
Steve Roffey said:
All my tench this year have fallen to a T-rig using Guru MWG or QM1 hooks, the Enterprise buoyant casters and maggots on the hair balance the hook weight and I add a few live maggots on the hook. Fished on a helicopter setup and a blockend feeder.
Click to expand...

Hi Steve, the QM1s are quite thin wire aren’t they - they’re a great hook but I had one open a bit with a large Bream last year, have you had any problems with them?
 
I've been using the Drennan buoyant maggots on a magaliner style with 2-3 maggots on a size 11, on a helicopter set-up. It's not popped-up per se, but it's nicely balanced without being too wafty. If over silkweed, the only changes I make are to add a small piece of dissolving rig-foam to the tip of hook on each cast, and I switch to using a barbless hook (it's pretty much the only time I use them out of preference as I'm not 100% sure they don't have the potential to cause more mouth damage). I knicked the barbless tip from a carp angler, and when you test it, its notable how easily the barb of the hook catches the silkweed whereas it seems to fall away from a barbless.

What I will say is, the above rig has caught me loads of tench the last two seasons, I believe more than anyone else on the same water, but no big tench. By that I mean nothing over 7lb 10, whereas others are (not just a handful either) I had put it down to bad luck, but the results of the first few sessions of the season are leading me to think i'm kidding myself.
 
I have had a go at the rig. It's a bit fiddly, but got there. It's quite short, but it makes sense. Hope to give it a try soon though.
 
Yes. So did I.
The fiddly bit for me was tying the tight bottom hair rig loop for the foam with a size 12 and wanting to use stiff line.
 
Used to pop them up or make them slightly buoyant all the time when bream fishing, tips I picked up in Holland where they always use floaters.

Get some fresh maggots
Put a handful in a bait box and add some warm / hot water, just enough to wet them
At this point they will wriggle like mad, put a lid on and leave for 20 mins
Take the lid off and replace with a lid with a large access hole cut in it then add enough water that they float
Some will still sink, some will float vertically and some horizontally
These are the most buoyant
2 or 3 on a hook and they will float, obviously more for a big hook. Use a small shot above the hook to pop them up a small amount
Use a couple of the vertical ones to have a vertically wafting or slow sinking bait
 
Cheers for the comments/ advice guys..
Going to fish one rod with the mags on the hook with a rubber one and also try the hr foam.

It's a place where over 2 days a fish would be nice! But a small chance to better my previous pb 9.12 from there.
 
Never had a problem with caster over hemp on the float in 'old days' in the Water Parks at South Cerney. Early weeks of the season a huge bit of bread flake were snaffled up by hungry Tench using the swing tip.
Both buoyant baits.:cool:
 
Compost heap read worms red /white maggots caster on a size 14 animal hook over a smattering of tinned corn with a bit of tanches senses groundbait has worked really well over the years for a good mixed bag float fishing , still does or something very similar.
 
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