By David Williams
I visited The Cunneries in Lancashire yesterday for the first time when invited up by Simon Marsden. Not knowing too much about the place Simon popped me on peg 10 on Hawk lake (a good area winter and summer). We managed to have the wind off our backs a bit but it was a horrendous day weather wise, with gusting winds to 60mph and heavy rain most of the day… Perfect….🤣
Got to my peg and found similar depths at top 2 plus 2 in front and at 11m out so used the same rig on both lines, the longer line on Spotted Fin 6mm F1 Soft hookers and the closer line was to be maggots and lots of them (for winter). I also set up a line off the edge of the island in 2ft but it never ever felt right to be honest.
I also brought along a pouch of Spotted Fin Milled Expander, as over the last few weeks on my club water I have been having some good results using this product on the matches I have been fishing.
Rigs for the session were simple 0.14 Accupower main line to a 18s Guru 6 inch hook length and same float on both rigs 0.2g DT Floats RB.
I started off long, trying soft pellet but could only pick out a few Roach and some Gudgeon too. I gave the line just over an hour and to be fair the wind was ripping through and presentation was not so good. While out long I was feeding 20 maggots constantly on my short line and decided to give it a go with not much coming out elsewhere. First drop in, a gudgeon, so I popped some wetted milled expander in a small Matrix pot and started potting in and after 30 minutes I managed my first F1.
I felt like there was a lot of fish there and continued to feed heavily over the top with maggots. With the next few hours being manic, the time flew by and by the time the weather beat us, at around 14.30hrs I removed my nets and was surprised by the amount of F1s I had actually netted. What a day it turned out to be. I clicked 52lb but guessing it was more like 60lb of Prime F1s.
I have found over the last few weeks even with the weather being poor I have caught well using the positive maggot method, for me it has worked, so i carried it forward on this session and it worked again, and also with the milled expander too I am guessing the F1’s still want that extra bit of Fishmeal even in the cooler weather.
Dave
