Maggots

[mikench]

I tend to use red and white maggots if I use them at all! Are pinkies preferred by certain species over normal maggots and when would you use bronze?

 

[O.C.F.Disorder]

In commies I like pinkies but for natural venues red maggot buried in a red "carp hook" is a killer tactic.

 

[john step]

More to do with the size of hook and bait presentation. I used to use them when I wanted a really small bait on a tiny hook mostly in winter or on canals or when scratching for bites.

 

[sam vimes]

The fish on certain venues appear to show a general preference to different coloured maggots. However, go on a different day and you might get a different impression of what that preference might be. Pinkies tend to often be considered as a bait for smaller fish and canals. They can be a good bait when the going is tough. The name doesn't indicate their colour, they can be dyed any colour, they are simply greenbottle larvae rather than normal maggots being bluebottle larvae. Squat(t)s are the larvae of houseflies and are generally used because they don't tend to burrow into a lakebed. Gozzers are the only other type of maggot I'm aware of. However, these are usually homegrown and not generally available to buy from a tackle shop. Availability of the other types can also be hit and miss. Many shops don't keep squat(t)s these days and some won't have pinkies regularly either. Demand for either has died away with the rise of commie fishing.

I tend to buy a mix of reds and whites for stillwater fishing, unless I feel that the venue tends to show a marked preference for another colour. I may occasionally ask for a sprinkling of discos (fluro pink) to give me a change colour. When it comes to my local rivers, reds and whites will do the business, but, based on experience, I tend to favour bronze.

 

[fred hall]

Have found that River Ribble fish seem to prefer red maggots over other colours. Maybe this is because more red maggots than others go into the river ie a self-fulfilling prophesy.

 

[peter crabtree]

maggots

Short memory Mike?

 

[nottskev]

Can't add much, Mike. Bronze were de rigueur for a long time for river fishing, and I have a liking for them for roach and chub. Reds then came into favour and dominate sales. Not sure why, although there were issues with some bronze dyes, and even now with safe dyes I think it's fair to say that reds, with the colour fed in to growing maggots, stay bigger and keep their colour better than surface dyed bronze, which seem to me, at least, to shrink more and fade quite fast. Someone here probably knows all about different dyes and their effect on the bait.

Pinkies are, as well as a very good small fish bait, attractive to small tench, and I always take some red or disco pinkies when after them in the spring.

 

[tigger]

I always get a pint of red and a pint of whites all chucked in together. I use them as a cocktail of colours on the hook and often add some corn with them on my hook.
If I had one choice of maggot colour it would be natural white, it always catches as good or better than any other colour for me.

Chris, I reckon maggots burrowing into the substrate is an old wives tale bud. Manys the time i've dropped some into the margins and they never bury themselves. I'm not sure it's possible for them to do so even if they wanted to because they're quite bouyant and if they press onto the substrat they push themselvel up in the water....i've checked em out in a tank also .

 

[sam vimes]

Chris, I reckon maggots burrowing into the substrate is an old wives tale bud. Manys the time i've dropped some into the margins and they never bury themselves. I'm not sure it's possible for them to do so even if they wanted to because they're quite bouyant and if they press onto the substrat they push themselvel up in the water....i've checked em out in a tank also .

I wouldn't dispute it. However, the buggers will crawl away from the baited area given time. I've had them crawl up and out of fifteen feet of water on the syndicate. I doubt that would happen with squats.

 

[tigger]

I wouldn't dispute it. However, the buggers will crawl away from the baited area given time. I've had them crawl up and out of fifteen feet of water on the syndicate. I doubt that would happen with squats.

15 foot of water!.....you must have dropped them in the edge when feedimg, or someone had been there before you. They can't crawl anywhere in water, they just suffocate and stretch out fair quick really.....unless you'd been feeding them some crushed iotopes or summot lol..

 

[sam vimes]

15 foot of water!.....you must have dropped them in the edge when feedimg, or someone had been there before you. They can't crawl anywhere in water, they just suffocate and stretch out fair quick really.....unless you'd been feeding them some crushed iotopes or summot lol..

I think you might be surprised. They definitely last a lot longer under water without suffocating than I ever expected. The pit is, in places, rather deep, quite close to the bank. I've seen my own maggots crawl out on quite a few occasions. I've even seen slugs do the same. Naturally, it helps that there aren't that many fish to mop them up, something that won't be the case on many waters.

 

[thecrow]

Havent used bronze for a long time but many years ago you could tell a Trent angler from the colour of his hands.

 

[tigger]

I think you might be surprised. They definitely last a lot longer under water without suffocating than I ever expected. The pit is, in places, rather deep, quite close to the bank. I've seen my own maggots crawl out on quite a few occasions. I've even seen slugs do the same. Naturally, it helps that there aren't that many fish to mop them up, something that won't be the case on many waters.

I reckon you've got some kind'a super strain maggots there Chris!


Graham, I once had some bronze maggots mixed into my usual ones and the poisonous dye made my hands yellow , my stradic real was perminently stained along with my corks. I wasn't best pleased and let the shop know next time I called in. Only reason the shop assistant didn't get a slap was because I knew him.

 

[thecrow]

I reckon you've got some kind'a super strain maggots there Chris!


Graham, I once had some bronze maggots mixed into my usual ones and the poisonous dye made my hands yellow , my stradic real was perminently stained along with my corks. I wasn't best pleased and let the shop know next time I called in. Only reason the shop assistant didn't get a slap was because I knew him.

It would have been Chrisodene Ian, it was blamed for causing the death of an angler that died from bladder cancer but I don't think any link was ever proved, I think it was banned for colouring maggots after that though.

 

[tigger]

It would have been Chrisodene Ian, it was blamed for causing the death of an angler that died from bladder cancer but I don't think any link was ever proved, I think it was banned for colouring maggots after that though.

I thought it was banned but it wasn't, it was that stuff they used in my local shop! The assistant even showed my how they did it and got out the tin with the name on it. He sprinkeld some onto some white maggots and shook them about and the stuff coated them and soaked into em but also stayed on their outer skin so transferring onto the angler.

 

[tigger]

It would have been Chrisodene Ian, it was blamed for causing the death of an angler that died from bladder cancer but I don't think any link was ever proved, I think it was banned for colouring maggots after that though.

I thought it was banned but it wasn't, it was that stuff they used in my local shop! The assistant even showed my how they did it and got out the tin with the name on it. He sprinkeld some onto some white maggots and shook them about and the stuff coated them and soaked into em but also stayed on their outer skin so transferring onto the angler.

 

[markcw]

More to do with the size of hook and bait presentation. I used to use them when I wanted a really small bait on a tiny hook mostly in winter or on canals or when scratching for bites.

Try fishing half a squatt on a 26 hook in winter John, that's scratching for bites around here.

 

[markcw]

carp on commercials are partial to pinkies, I used to feed pinkies and fish maggot over the top, I watched some carp mopping the pinkies up on the bottom, so a few pinkies went on the hook and presto, so did a carp, Another way is to feed boiled rice and fish maggot over the top, or bulk the pinkie feed out with boiled rice, Morrisons do multi coloured rice so that is another option, I use turmeric to put a bronze type colour on my white maggots, It was chrysodine that got banned, if you got it on your fingers it looked as if you were smoking 60 fags a day, I think annatto food dye is used to colour maggots now.

 

[mikench]

Short memory Mike?

Oh dear! Guilty as charged! I blame ageing! If I can forget Tackle, bait and what I went upstairs for I'm sure to be capable of forgetting about posting previously about maggots! Thanks for the reminder Peter! The info received in replies is however just as helpful as first time round to me and maybe to others!

 

[tigger]

Oh dear! Guilty as charged! I blame ageing! If I can forget Tackle, bait and what I went upstairs for I'm sure to be capable of forgetting about posting previously about maggots! Thanks for the reminder Peter! The info received in replies is however just as helpful as first time round to me and maybe to others!

It's when you forget why you went to the toilet that you need to start worrying