Dead or alive!

[nottskev]

Cheers Keith. I'm not in favour of "static solid lumps" of groundbait either. Would you imagine I am, from my posts? But I did think it was worth pointing out for someone who inquired about the value of deads that you can put relatively more in a softish mix for throwing without it breaking up BEFORE it hits the water or on impact, which will be a problem if you put more than a few lives in.
And I'm in favour of fresh clean bait, too. I was just reporting that deads, counter-intuitively, caught me more fish than lives on a lake I fished through this winter when I tried both lives and deads as feed and hookbait.
Just making it clear I'm not in the "dead" camp; I'm in the "try it, see what works best" camp.

 

[thames mudlarker]

Snap!....your messenger ain't workin' Stuart .

Arh right ok Ian, I'll have a look in me settings, no doubt something I've missed mg:....doh


Try now mate, I've just enabled me private message settings :thumbs:

 

[mikench]

I've fannied around with all sorts of methods of killing 'em Kev and I can cock it up with the hot water method in the blink of an eye.

Now though I just riddle them off and bung them in the feezer, still in the bait box.

I found them to be lacking when thawed but, if taken out the evening before and covered with water, they seem to take on a lifelike state again albeit a bit still as far as any movement goes.

I'm sure that freezing dehydrates them and the overnight soak enables them to take moisture back in, it also stops them turning black if kept submerged and for all intents and purposes I find they are as near to identical as a live maggot.

Good to see another Notts lad here by the way, I hope you're not going to spoil things by saying you're a County fan?

---------- Post added at 20:17 ---------- Previous post was at 20:02 ----------

Mike...

Just to add, if you can get hold of Archie Braddock's musings on dead maggots I reckon it would be well worth a read.

He was also very successful by 'gassing' small quantities of maggots for hook baits in a small airtight container lined with one of his additives... I recall watching the interview which Bob Roberts did with Archie in his garden shed which I think doubled up as his little lab.

IIRC that was from Barbel Days and Ways.

That I must do! I frequently muse about many things holidays, new tackle, food, money, health and matters of academic interest but never about dead maggots