More Lazy Maggot Drowning

With Agnes on it's way making the coming weeks weather a tad unpredictable I got myself down to the estate lake for a spot of maggot drowning. Dry and windy was the forecast. One other angler was there when I arrived in the car park after trying every combination lock code I knew and still getting it wrong. The number of combination locks, doors, fire alarms, cards, etc. that I need a four digit code for is getting silly. Admittedly I don't need some of the codes any more but I've used them for so long those are the ones I remember. I've only got three months to remember this one before the club changes it again. Really it would be easier just to get my ticket out and look at the code on that but I'd forget it by the time I got to the gate.

 

After a bit of a wander I decide to fish the down wind end near the island. Despite the number of times, over the years, that I've fished here I've never fished this part of the lake for silvers. I've only ever fished for carp or pike. Two float rods were set up. One to fish about a rod length out with maggot over hemp and the other to fish the deeper channel near the island with maggots over ground bait. Two more anglers arrived during this time both intent on a spot of maggot drowning like myself. Having tossed several small balls of ground bait out towards the island I started on the inside line and had half a dozen very small roach and perch quite quickly. Before it went quiet.

I then went over to the island and had a skimmer first cast on half a dozen maggots on a size twelve. After waiting for the next bite I changed to a similar number of dead reds but this failed to elicit a bite. I chucked out a couple more balls of groundbait and  returned to the inside line Eventually I had four small roach. Slightly bigger than those I'd caught previously. After a couple of very small perch there was a scattering of bait fish and the swim went dead. As previously I went over to the island and caught a skimmer nearly straight away. The wind had now got up a bit more making bite detection a bit of a problem.

This is how it continued for the rest of the session. The skimmers never seemed to settle and the predators kept attacking the inside line. Unlike previous visits it took a long time for the fish to come back. After five hours I had four skimmers and three dozen small roach and perch. Reports form the other anglers were similar although had had a decent bream.

A pleasant five hours was had even if the fish weren't very cooperative. The weather had been reasonable warm and the breeze not too troublesome. Strangely I didn't catch any rudd this time. Nor would the skimmers take dead reds. We'll see if the rest of the week allows for any fishing as it appears it's going to continue to be wet and windy. I don't mind either, it's both I dislike.