[Music] a tactic that everybody should have up their sleeve in Winter the maggot feeder can be a winning tactic on its day as a standalone tactic or alongside the pole this is a great approach it's a great way of targeting all species on the maggot no matter what the conditions I can explore much more more of the swim using this [Music] tactic there we go well that was a really positive bite just as the sun breaks through the clouds it's a really really cold day but we're getting a few bites and that's the main thing
on these cold days you just really want to be getting a few bites and the method that I'm fishing today is certainly a method that's going to get your bites all the way through through winter from lots of different species and as you can see I'm fishing with a rod line and it's a really really simple method we're here at a very wellestablished fishery now this is Aston Park Fisheries just outside Sheffield and we're catching chunky little very cold I might had now I picked it up f1s like that legs like this are full of
silverfish they're full of f1s there are carp iner as well and today I'm fishing with maggots I'm fishing with a very simple maggot feeder approach and it's a fantastic way of fishing no matter what the conditions no matter what the peg that you face with but that's something I'm going to tell you about in more detail but firstly let me show you the the tattle and just show you how simple you can keep this approach to make sure you get in bites right the way through winter as the name suggests today I fishing with a
maggot feeder and that is obviously designed for fishing with maggots let's face it all fish eat maggots you know and when we are fishing through the colder colder months it's nice sometimes just to get bites there are days when you want to be a little bit more selective if you're just fishing for carp or bigger species but most of the time you just have to put in some fish in your net you know and if you're fishing lakes like where I am today where there's a mixture of silverfish there are carp there are R f1s
you know maggots are going to catch all those fish and that's exactly what this feeder is designed for you can fish with a maggot feeder you don't have any sort of complications of you know picking ground baits mixing ground bait anything like that with maggots you know it's a nice cheap bait and a pint of maggots is more than enough on many many cold winter days so it's a fantastic bait to use however when you actually fish with it in conjunction with a feeder that opens up lots and lots of different areas of the lake
particularly if you're fishing venues where the fish might be out of pole range now the swim that I've got today is a lovely lovely narrow swim here predominantly these venues are designed for pole fishing however certainly in the winter months when the water Clarity goes clearer quite often particularly with fish like f1s the fish can back off into areas that are inaccessible with a pole and when the water is clear sometimes just the fact that you've got a pole over the top of the fish can actually scare the fish so that is where a tactic
like this can allow you to present maggots out of pole range and in areas that you wouldn't normally be able to access but it can be a vital tool as part of your total approach so even if you are pole fishing and the fish back out of pole range that is when you can catch a fish on the pole early if the fish move further out that is when you can pick up this sort of a setup and go and continue catching fish that have moved out of range and that's exactly what's happening here today
whilst I'm not fishing with a pole I've been able to start towards the point of that Island there just slightly away from that far Bank it is really cold today so I'm not fishing right across into the really shallow water I'm fishing about 2 m away where it just goes down into that slightly deeper water but with a with a setup like this you've got the flexibility to fish where you where you want if I suddenly wanted to go into shallower water I can and if I suddenly want to go down into the deeper water
I can do that as well I'm not worried about having to replum up Rigs and all that sort of stuff because this is such a flexible approach but what's happened here today is that I've literally only been able to get one or two bites in one particular place and then the swim literally just goes lifeless it's only then when I've been able to move a couple of meters to one side or a little bit further out that I've then been able to catch another couple of fish and that's really what happened happens a lot on
venues like this it's a bit of a standing joke I know to people that don't fish venues like this where they think that if you can come to a lake like this and sit here on your own like I am doing today where people think well you're going to be catching fish all day you're the only one there unfortunately that's not the case especially in Winter because what happens is there's obviously obviously been a little bit of disturbance here just through me setting up and casting in what happens is there are lots and lots of
places for those fish to back off to you know when when you have got a lake that is quite like this and quite often you can sit on a lake like this on your own expecting to catch fish and you struggling for bites and quite often that's because those fish they've just moved out of the way you know by having a nice simple setup like this it's going to give you so many more options of places where you can actually find the fish and just go looking for the fish if you're not catching it's a
super simple setup this for me is just a 10-ft rod it's a the uh Horizon Pro commercial 10t the length of Rod that you choose depends on the venues you're fishing if you're fishing a venue like this you could get away with an 8T Rod or even a 9-t rod but if you are fishing venues where you might have a little bit of a longer cast you might find an 11t Rod is better to help you achieve that little bit extra distance but on a any sort of venue like this a 10t is going to
be more than ample for you to to cover all your options all I've got no fancy shot leaders I've just got Horizon 8 lb mono on my re that is it just right the way through straight through to a a maggot feeder which is attached via a snaplink swivel and that is free running always be careful with your rigs there is a a free running fishery rule here for your rigs so be very very careful if you're going to use a fixed style rig however this particular feeder that I'm using which I'll show you in
a little bit more detail you are actually able to change the stem on these feeders which allows you to fish it like I am doing which is like a traditional feeder setup or there is actually the option to fish it in line and that is a way that I would use if I was predominantly targeting carp for example with shorter hook lens but this time of year I'm fishing for anything fishing for all species so a nice free running rig like that is ideal I've just got that stopped with a medium rubber stopper there it's
all you need it doesn't damage the line and then I've just got my hook length it's a 20 cm hook length that's attached Loop to Loop I've got uh 0.12 diameter hook length and a nice sharp size 16 hook and that's allowing me to fish without a single or double maggot and that is it super simple and even with this balance setup I could land carp into double figures if I was to hook one remember in Winter that the C hard fighting carp and the bigger fish that you catch through the summer don't fight us
anywhere near as hard during winter and that allows you to catch them on lighter tattle and let's face it the lighter the tattle you can get away with generally the more bites you're going to get make sure you've got your drag set like that when I'm fishing like this I'm fishing very mobile so I'm not even fishing to a line clip I'm just plopping the feeder in the area that I'm targeting and because I haven't got a line clip on I can go further I can go to the right to the left I could even
go to my left here if I wish so I haven't got a line clip on so those of you that are a little bit concerned about fishing commercials with line clips about hooking carp and all that you don't have to worry about it just make sure your drags set like that nice and loose so that the bikes even today on a cold day have been from nowhere they've nearly pulled a rod in you've got light tattle on so use your drag that's what it's for and that is it that is a setup that you can
use particularly with a free running rig on just about every type of venue you're going to come across and the types of feeders that I'm using are ones that are versatile there are different sizes so you can step that up if you want to put a bigger feeder on to introduce more bait then that is an option but for me while I'm being mobile personally I like to use the smallest size feeder that I can because as you moving round you're not leaving huge piles of baits everywhere it's just a sprinkling of a few maggots
before we get into the fishing this is a tactic and a way of fishing that is transferable across so many different venues up and down the country and we know lots of you enjoy fishing like this particularly with a maggot feeder what we'd like to know is what kind of venues you fish with the maggot feeder what kind of species are you after and how much success have you had using these tactics please let us know in the comments below because we'd love to hear what kind of venues you've been fishing well I thought that
was a liner but it's still twitching let's see if he's on no I just felt something there so there's obviously a fish around the feeder which is always encouraging so all I'm basically fishing with a double maggot and I started off with double red then I went on to try double white and as you can see all my fish have fallen to one red and one white interestingly and one thing to remember when you're fishing with a maggot feeder like this is that what You' got to remember is that the the water's really cold so
when these maggots go in the water it's going to stun them you often find that if you fill your feeder too much and you pack too many maggots in there it takes longer for them to empty so as you can see I'm not filling the feeder I'm only putting a few maggots in and like I said earlier if you are being mobile it's good to you know not spread too much bait everywhere so all I'm doing now is I've actually worked my way further behind the point into that bowl as you can see that is
where we've literally as the name suggests as the phrases States we've chased we've chased the fish out there but on venues like this don't be afraid to start closer to yourself and catch what a lot of people refer to just reset the stopwatch really important when we're feed a fishing it's something that uh I'll talk about in a moment but stopwatch can really help give you it gives you kind of a guide gives you a structure to your to your session but don't be afraid on venues like this particularly in winter in starting closer to
you because you can often catch two or three early fish the braver fish if you want to say that the camicazi fish and then as the fish back out you can obviously chase them out the spot that I'm casting to at the minute I wouldn't really want to start the session there because you're hoping you're going to catch one there and if you do you've got to play that fish all the way back to you and just by doing that that could spook fish out of all this area right at the outset and so you
find that you're almost at your maximum cast to start with so yes you might catch a couple of fish early but after that you've then you've run out of space so you can literally spend the the remainder of the session struggling for bites so just have a try and have a nice clear plan about how you're going to tattle your swim on a peg like I've got today as you can see I've got lots of room to my left I can go straight out in front of me or I've got all this room round to
my right so whilst I was setting my box up whilst I was getting my rods out I looking at the swim and just trying to plan my session it would be ideal to start straight in front of me there for example and catch there all day but let's be honest how often does plan a work for the full session so you can have a starting point but then think about where you're going to work to you know particularly if you're fishing a match you've got five hours it's a long time you know and so you've
got you've got to have some sort of an idea of where you think you're going to start your match where you're going to move to after that ultimately where you're going to be in the second half and then right at the end think about where you're going to finish your match a prime example of that is for example you could start straight in front there and try and catch either close to that island or just off it into that slightly deeper water if you can catch fish there that's great but once it starts to die
just like have another little indication there so there are one or two fish Milling about out there that's been out there just over 2 minutes so I know there's one or two fish out out there so that helps your confidence but if you can catch those early fish straight in front of you it means that you've got a couple of fish in the net and then you haven't even gone looking anywhere else I've got all that room to my left that I could explore and I've got all this room to my right so you can
just work your way out as the day progresses inching out you know utilizing the hole of your swim but don't forget wherever you're going to hook a fish all that water coming back to you is potentially been Disturbed and what we often find is that when we refer to chasing fish out it's very very rare in my experience and a lot of the Anglers I mix with that once you've Chase those fish out it's very very rare or almost never happens where you can actually come back close again so just think that you know you've
only got so many moves in a match until you get out to your your maximum cast so think about how much time you've got think about how much time you're spending in each spot so that you can utilize you know the full session and the other thing to remember is regardless of how your match starts we all know how hard fishing can be in Winter and quite often the last hour is going to be your best hour so always try and have a clear idea of where you're going to spend that last hour because that
can literally be the the time when you you know you can go from from nowhere to to winning a match you know if you suddenly get an arrival of fish in an area where you may have fed or even just an area where you've left quiet because quiet areas can be just as good as areas that you fed I always like to feed somewhere in my swim always as a throwaway line because if fish are going to suddenly want to feed later on in a match that can give you a chance of winning the match
because you're going to go on it and if the fish are there feeding confidently you can have a run of fish but on the flip side of that I always like to leave areas of of where it's just been left quiet where there have there hasn't been any disturbance and on a peg like this today it could be anywhere to my left it could be this bowl to my right but one thing to remember is that wherever you can try and enhance the chance and the chances of fish being nearer to you now by that
I basically mean for example today I've caught most of my fish to my right so when I've hooked fish I've struck to the left and I've played fish and I've netted them here by netting fish here it basically means that I'm trying to keep all that area there quiet and all this area to my left so for example today if I was going to feed I could feed down to my left out of the way and by doing that and having that a clear idea of that in my head it means that all the fish
I've caught today have been netting over here because you want to give that margin line or that area you want to keep quieter as quiet as possible so just try and keep some areas of your swim where it's a little bit quieter so if the fish are going to back off they've got a nice quiet area to back off to where the stopwatch comes in is it just gives you a great guide of how long your feed has been out there it's very very very easy particularly on sociable matches to lose track of time I
tested myself with this about seven or eight years ago where I was on a venue it wasn't fishing great and I started setting my stopwatch but not looking at it and I would sit there and wait for a bite and after a while I'd think right I'm just gonna have a guess about how long that's been out there and it was frightening how how um out I was on my timing I was sat there and I was thinking right that's been out there 7 Minutes 8 minutes and I was looking at my stopwatch and it
was like 4 minutes it was unbelievable and when you're pouring a cup of coffee out some people are sat on the phone if you're chatting to the Anglers either side of you it's so easy to lose track of time by having a stopwatch it just gives you a great guide of how long the feed has been out there and it's amazing how many times you spot patterns it's amazing how many times where there's a window where you might always get your bites you know some days it might be between 3 and 5 minutes for example
it's unreal and you know we'll never know the full reason for that but it's amazing how many times you can spot patterns like that and that can help you plan your match because if I know for example all my bikes are coming in under 3 and four minutes well when it gets to 5 or 6 minutes I'm thinking about well I might as well just just have another cast because all my bites have been coming quick and on the flip side of that you might find that particularly in Winter on some venues when you go
on to larger Open Water Lakes you might be leaving your feeder out there 15 20 minutes sometimes 30 minutes when it's really hard and you can only do that properly with a stopwatch so whilst it's a great tool to have a stopwatch don't stick to it religiously you know if you're if you're saying I'm starting on 5 minute casts as soon as 5 minutes is up if you've just had an indication don't just start reeling in give it another minute or two you know it's just a guide but it's a great tool for just kind
of keeping track of of the way that you're managing your swim and how long you leaving your feeder out there so looking at the stopwatch now I'd no idea this had been out there as long as it had I mean I'm obviously sat here talking that has been out there now 8 minutes and 20 seconds definitely time for a recast I did get a couple of little indications but to be fair I've had a couple of fish from that spot now so what I'm going to do is just go a couple of me to the
right and see if we can pick off another fish the white maggots come off that so I'm just going to put a another fresh white maggot on there just a size 16 hook it's a nice size cuz you can still fish with single maggot on a size 16 I'm only half filling that feeder okay just so those maggots can exit nice and quickly and what I'm going to do now is I'm going to go on the same sort of a line but I'm just going to go about 2 m to the right of it to
clean water fresh water where we haven't cast before and see if we can find a fish there that may have just backed off but that's what it's all about it's all about being mobile but it's good to have a plan you know I don't think it benefits anything if you're just completely random it's nice to have some sort of a plan for a couple of reasons one is it it it gives you you know if you sat here after an hour at least you know where you've been you know where you've started so that because
you've paid attention and you've had some sort of a system it hasn't just been random because what can often happen at this time of year you may have to wait 2 hours 3 hours for a fish and if you are not sure where you've been you're not sure that you've got piles of ba everywhere it's going to help your confidence if you know that there are certain areas that you haven't been into it's going to help your confidence and let's be honest you know particularly at this time of year if you're waitting waiting a long
time for bites confidence is massive in in all our fishing and when you're confident in what you're doing it's going to keep you just keep you working hard it's going to keep you just having some sort of an idea of how you're managing through through the session I think ke must be on well this is one of the smallest fish but that's literally only been there a couple of minutes that Sun's just gone behind one of those clouds and it just shows I've only gone 2 m to the right as you know and it's amazing
how the fish can just back off that little bit you know when they cage you like this so don't be afraid to be mobile you know it's these fish they're just like wild animals you know and if they get scared then they're going to back away from an area where you possibly caught one or two fish but that's one of the smallest ones today that one it's freezing cold it always reminds me how cold the water actually is when you get old of the fish but it just shows that you know I've only literally gone
2 m and if you can catch on smaller Inc increments like that you know instead of moving say four or 5 m because if you do that every time you've got less moves to make haven't you because you've only got so much room out there so if you keep the increments really nice and small 2 m I think is about right on a feeder on a feeder approach it's going to give you you've got lots of 2 m moves haven't you throughout the session left and right as well as going further out as well so
this has only been a short session but that really shows you how simple this approach can be the beautiful thing about it is that literally with even half a pint of maggots it's a cheap method but it's one that's going to catch you lots and lots of different species and keep you busy through winter on these mixed Fisheries so whilst it's been a short session I'm going to continue a little bit and carry on enjoy this session while the weather's is nice and I really hope you've picked up some tips from this video and uh
we really hope it's going to help you catch a lot more fish going through winter
