Commercial fishing tips | Bomb out a maggot feeder in the cold with Dan Hull
Think feeder for carp on commercial fisheries and most anglers will instantly reach for the Method... and who can blame them?
The effectiveness of this type of feeder is well known, and it works superbly in winter for putting a hookbait just inches away from a small dollop of feed.
Are you missing a trick, though, by automatically choosing the Method? As the water cools, the appetite of carp and F1s for pellets diminishes and maggots begin to play more of a part in our plans, especially when fishing the pole – so why should the same not apply to feeder fishing?
To introduce maggots through a feeder there really is only one choice... the maggot feeder. This is better-known for catching chub and roach on rivers, but the maggot feeder can be devastating for commercial carp when they’re not interested in larger helpings of feed.
Maggots are the ultimate trigger bait to get fish feeding, and are so often what we turn to for getting a bite when all else fails. They also catch everything that swims and so aren’t as selective as pellets. This is handy on cold days, when anything gracing the landing net is more than welcome.
Feeder choices
Classic-style maggot feeders aren’t really designed for longer casts on commercial carp waters so you’re better off picking up a newer design that is more streamlined and will cast a long way with ease.
I use a Middy Carp Bomb Feeders, which has a loading in the base and a slimline shape to hel with consistent, accurate casts. My ploy is to begin with a bigger feeder to get bait into the peg but then scale down to a smaller model once I begin to get bites. This will give the carp just enough freebies to keep them in the swim without filling them up.
Not just maggots!
I don’t put only maggots in the feeder. In addition there are fluoro pinkies in the mix to give the fish something a bit different and to also provide me with an alternative hookbait if I’m struggling for a bite.
The ratio is 60:40 red maggots to pinkies, with single maggot or double pinkie my main hookbait – although double maggot will come into play if the fishing is good.
Have more options
It’s convenient to have just one line to keep fishing and building up all day, but this limits your chances of catching well – if I were fishing the pole I’d have two or three spots to feed and fish, so I don’t see why it should be any different on the feeder.
That means a line on a long cast of say 40m and then a second one at around 20m, depending on the depth of the lake you are fishing. So long as these two lines put you in the maximum depth on the lake, you’re in business.
Pack the feeder
Maggots will soon wriggle out of a feeder, so I take a bit more time to fully pack them in on each cast to stop this happening.
They’ll have no problem getting out once the feeder hits bottom and provided you are using a small Carp Bomb Feeder, there’s no need to worry about introducing too much feed.
Accuracy is vital so you don’t end up with a spread of bait over too wide an area. ‘Keep things tight’ is the motto here, so if the feeder doesn’t land where you want it to, wind in and cast again.
Bite times
The fish will tell you how long to leave the feeder in before casting again, but as the water cools this time will lengthen, and up to a 20-minute wait might be needed.
That’s as long as I would wait, but I would begin by casting every 10 minutes to keep a reasonably regular amount of maggots going in. Then, when I begin catching, I can change this according to how fast I am getting an indication.
Tackle bits and bobs
Although my lines are reasonably strong, made up of 0.20mm M-Tech Carp Commercial mainline to a hooklink of 0.16mm Lo-Viz, the hook is very small to suit fishing with single maggots.
A size 20 KM-4 is small but very strong, and will land big carp easily while getting you more bites in clearing water.
When it comes to hooklink length, this too varies. On some days the fish will sit well off the feed or follow the bait down as it falls before taking it, meaning a long link is better.
On others they’ll be on the feeder immediately with a fast bite, which is where a short link catches better.
