With the weather forecasted to be nice for the middle of November, no wind and rain and mild for the time of year I made a last minute decision to take a day off work, using up a spare holiday day rather than taking it in December when it probably wouldn’t be as nice a day.

I hadn’t been to Woodland View for several weeks and I fancied a change of venue and booked into the mid week open this week split over two sections on Front Deans and one bank on Back Deans. I drew on Back Deans 47, finally a great draw! A great winter end peg in the deeper water. It hadn’t produced recently but the potential was there, I just needed to catch them.

I set up a maggot rigs for short and long pole work, soft pellet over micro for into the corner in the shallower water and also a maggot feeder for throwing over towards the aerator. But being such a nice day I hoped the catch on the pole.

Slow start

I started the match out at 13 metres fishing maggots, just feeding a few maggots via a cad pole to gauge how the day was going to plan out and if any fish were feeding. I didn’t want to put much bait in yet. I spent 30 minutes here without any return. The angler on the next peg had caught a couple of Skimmers short so I tried the short pole next, again just cad potting in a few maggots but after another 30 minutes all I had was one small Skimmer and something needed to change. So I big potted in some mirco’s into shallower water going into the corner but at the bottom of the shelf to my left for trying later and I began to a throw a few maggots short while going back out to 13 metres. Another 20 fishless minutes passed before coming short over the short line I’d been feeding.

Throwing maggots short

Throwing maggots short changed the peg. A soon as I went on it I caught a carp around 4lb and then another straight away and then nothing. So I tried soft pellet over the micro next but no bites developed and so I went back to the short maggot line and caught an F1 and a large Skimmer straight away again and then nothing. This got me thinking I needed to rest my lines. The day was bright with no ripple on the water. Maybe my pole hovering over the top wasn’t helping. So I continued to loose feed maggots over my short pole line and returned to pellet line for 15 minutes. No bites came from the pellet line but at least my pole wasn’t over their heads on the short maggot line. After another 10 minutes I went back to the short maggot line and caught straight away and then nothing again. A theme was developing, catching straight away and then not!

Resting pole lines

So it was clear resting pole lines was needed. The pellet line hadn’t produced anything yet so I topped it up every 30 minutes with the intention of fishing it later and I began to fish maggots on my short and long pole lines now, picking up a couple of fish of each line before resting them and alternating between the long and short maggot lines. I wasn’t catching many carp and F1’s but the stamp of the Skimmers I was catching was very good. These were around the lb mark and a couple were edging 2lb so these were good weight builders. These were caught on double maggot. I tried 3 on the hook and hoped for carp but this didn’t work and I retuned to double red maggot. My short line was proving to be the better line but as the day progressed it was fading, but I was really enjoying the day catching these decent Skimmers. Looking around the pool seemed to be doing OK but with just my bank in on Back Deans it was difficult to tell. I knew I really needed some Carp to boost my nets. So for the last hour I decided to forget about the pellet line which hadn’t produced anything anyway and planned to finish off the match at 13 metres. I ‘d been feeding maggots there now for a few hours picking off the odd fish before resting the line so I began to feed little heavier with the maggots on the 13 metre line hoping for Carp. This attracted some small F1’s which I was happy with as they were all adding to my weight but I hoped for a Carp. 20 minutes later I hooked one at last but it was foul hooked and was soon lost but this gave me the confidence that I could land one soon and I went on to catch several more in the last 40 minutes before the all-out.

The weigh in and Result

I had caught 7 carp, a few small F1’s and a good net of decent Skimmers. Being on an end peg I couldn’t really see how the other anglers had faired. I could see an angler on Front Deans behind me had caught well but I had no idea how Back Deans had fished. I estimated I had around 50lb which for this time of year is a good weight so I hoped for a pick up. My Carp weighed 36lb which was good anyway but I knew these Skimmers had been good weigh builders and they tipped the scales around to 19lb boosting my total weight to 55lb. This was enough to win Back Deans and the section. But I was sadly one decent Carp off wining the match out right. the winner had 60lb and 2nd was 57lb. But I was happy the weather had been nice all day and I really enjoyed catching those Skimmers.

Best Rig of the day.

These were actually two but very similar Rigs. Fishing for anything with maggots. The 1.5mm tip on the Slim float aids seeing the bites on calm days and even with a light 0.11mm size 18 SFL-B hook length you can land decent sized Carp when using the green Preston 11 Dura Slip.

13 metres – 6 foot deep – 4×16 Preston F1 Maggot set up on 0.17mm Guru N-Gauge main line with a bulk of 6 no.8 shot 18 inches from the hook with 2 no.10 droppers above a size 18 Preston SFL-B 0.11mm 6 inch Read Rig set up on 11 Green Preston Dura Slip elastic

6 metres – 5 foot deep – 4 x 14 Preston F1 Maggot set up on 0.17mm Guru N-Gauge main line with a bulk of 6 no.9 shot 18 inches from the hook with 2 no.10 droppers above a size 18 Preston SFL-B 0.11mm 6 inch Ready Rig set up on 11 Green Preston Dura Slip elastic