Missed Bites

[Silver fan 82]

Went to one of my club lakes for a session today. I decided to fish the waggler and maggot for silvers. I caught loads of small roach, perch and a few skimmers up to about a pound and a quarter.
Overall a good session. However I misses more bites than I put fish on the bank.
I started fishing the session with a size 16 and double maggot, tried different colour combinations, went down to a size 18 and single maggot but was still missing bites.
So I tried shallowing up and altering shotting patterns, both a strung out approach and a bulk of shot about a third away from the hook. Tried sharpening the hook.
The better fish came fishing about 11 feet deep in about 13 feet of water.
The thing that puzzled me though was that a lot of the time the maggots were coming back completely undamaged and in tact.
So what do you reckon guys? Line bites possibly?

 

[Silverfisher]

My guess at that depth would be a mix of line bites, more likely to happen with that much line under the water than say 5-6ft, and fishing taking on the drop again with that much line under it can take a while for the bite to show. That said I've had days where I've missed loads of bites then fished identically in the same place another time and hardly missed anything so it could be down to a whole range of factors possibly beyond control. Sometimes the fish might not be feeding as confidently or your reactions might be out, all just part of the variations of fishing.

 

[Arry]

Deffo line bites... when fishing deeper waters I tend to feed with a dropper or small hard balls of laced groundbait to keep the fish on the deck rather than loose feed... the other thing you could do is shot your float to fish on the drop so shallow bites are spotted earlier if you loosefeed

 

[JLK]

A few things to try are feed more maggots less often to keep the fish down. Feeding less maggots but more often can bring them up in the water which can cause the problems you had.
Fish positively. Rather than strung out shotting. Set the rig up slider style. Especially at the depth your fishing at. You can fish a bulk and a couple of droppers more effectively then which gets the hookbait down faster.
Bombing the bait down quick can be much better for catching roach as they don't get the time to inspect the bait and bites can be much more positive.

Hook the maggots side on rather than conventionally, or fish a banded maggot.
And try and keep your line as tight to your float as possible to help hit bites quicker.

 

[Silver fan 82]

of

It was the first time I had fished this particular swim, I didn't realise it was that deep until I plumbed up lol! Makes sense though what you say about a lot of line under the water.

 

[Silver fan 82]

loosefeed

When you say on the drop do you mean no shot between bulk shot and hook? I tried a shirt button approach.

 

[Silver fan 82]

inspect

I might try a slider approach next time. Would you use a slider float for this? Side hooking may also work.

 

[Silverfisher]

I've never fished a Stillwater that deep so could be completely different but my standard Stillwater rig is just the locking shot then a number 8 above the hooklength then occasionally another 8 about a foot further up. I generally only do fancy shotting on rivers where you have to get it right for the flow and/or bomb through bleak!

 

[Freesolo82]

Skimmers are notorious for giving the shyest of bites and can be tricky to catch on the pole never mind rod and line, Interesting you changed to a smaller hook I might have tried a bigger hook to see if you connect with more bites

 

[Ken the Pacman]

If you want to be sure if you are suffering from line bites have a few casts without any hookbait and it should be obvious.

 

[The Ginger Bread Man]

Went to one of my club lakes for a session today. I decided to fish the waggler and maggot for silvers. I caught loads of small roach, perch and a few skimmers up to about a pound and a quarter.
Overall a good session. However I misses more bites than I put fish on the bank.
I started fishing the session with a size 16 and double maggot, tried different colour combinations, went down to a size 18 and single maggot but was still missing bites.
So I tried shallowing up and altering shotting patterns, both a strung out approach and a bulk of shot about a third away from the hook. Tried sharpening the hook.
The better fish came fishing about 11 feet deep in about 13 feet of water.
The thing that puzzled me though was that a lot of the time the maggots were coming back completely undamaged and in tact.
So what do you reckon guys? Line bites possibly?

Too much weight on your float ??

 

[The Ginger Bread Man]

How were you feeding? Every put in? I'd have probably fed less to encourage more direct bites.

 

[Silver fan 82]

get

I was using a 4bb insert waggler, 3bb shot around the base of the float, 4 no 6 down the line (tried both as a bulk and strung out) and a size 24 micro swivel to attach the hooklink.

 

[Silver fan 82]

on

Had about half an inch of the tip showing. I wasn't feeding every cast, just as the bites dictated. Put it this way, I probably used apprx quarter of a pint of maggots in 6 and a half hours.

 

[The Ginger Bread Man]

Had about half an inch of the tip showing. I wasn't feeding every cast, just as the bites dictated. Put it this way, I probably used apprx quarter of a pint of maggots in 6 and a half hours.

May have just been small fish attacking matey...

That's fishing...

Enjoy. Tight Lines JonJoe

 

[Silver fan 82]

matey

Yeah true, there are quite a few smaller silverfish in there. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Silverfisher]

Blimey that is light feeding so you definitely weren’t over feeding. In a 6-8 hour Stillwater session I usually feed the best part of a pint of maggots and the same of hemp, bit less this time of year tbf but still don’t think you were doing anything wrong so just one of those days I guess.

 

[Silver fan 82]

I

Yeah as I say I was feeding according to how the fish were biting. It was pretty much a bite a chuck, shame I missed so many. There was a pike in the swim right under my feet at one point so that killed the action for a bit.

 

[ukzero1]

It could also have been fish mistaking a dropper shot for hemp.

 

[Silver fan 82]

hemp

Yeah true, talking of hemp does anyone know where you can get hold of tares?