After three quite challenging trips to the river I wanted something a bit more relaxing so headed for my local commercial at Fields End. I had quite a lot of maggots left over from the previous river trip so decided to make them the main bait with some spam and bread flake as alternatives. I couldn't remember ever fishing maggots on the lake and the predominance of small perch came as a bit of a surprise. Roach and rudd got a look in but only just !

I caught a perch on the first cast and continued to catch them throughout the session. The disgorger was busy as many took the maggots down. Changing to spam in the hope of attracting rudd, or at least better perch, didn't dissuade the smaller fish.

Both maggots and spam were taken on the drop as well as off the bottom. The only respite from the perch was when I switched to bread flake and although I caught a couple of roach on it, bites were few and far between. It seemed that the perch had colonised the swim, probably as a result of me regularly feeding maggots from the off.

I managed a couple of better quality rudd during the session and a few of the perch were a bit better than the rest, but the story of the day was one of perch.

On the plus side there was plenty of action and the time passed quickly. And it was the relaxing session that I had sought.

I had expected the rudd to dominate but it wasn't to be, and having not fished the lake with maggots previously I don't think I will do so again. One chalked up to experience.