mikench
Well-known member
Oh go on then I'll buy a riddle or Markcw will never forgive me! 
Things you have never done.
- Thread starter mikench
- Start date
flightliner
Well-known member
Like discovering the meaning of life skip !
flightliner
Well-known member
Garden section at Poundland Mike , perfik !Oh go on then I'll buy a riddle or Markcw will never forgive me!
mikench
Well-known member
I have never caught a catfish . Praise be!
I used my Normark today and enjoyed it. I have never seen a carbotec rod: any good?
I used my Normark today and enjoyed it. I have never seen a carbotec rod: any good?
Mark Wintle
Well-known member
Carbotec rods are just a bit special.
I have the FAST No 3 Quiver tip and the No 3 float rods and they are rather special.
A joy to use and very forgiving.
If I was match fishing I might be inclined to do the same. However there are also situations where quantity is an advantage over quality..a river with a big head of fish and not many other anglers for example.
That would be the important bit then if catching fish is the primary objective when you go fishing. Which it is for me.
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sam vimes
Well-known member
Fine and dandy, but the operative word is "may". For every angler that says it doesn't matter, there'll be one that thinks it does. The lack of a few extra manky maggots isn't going to make or break anyone's day, even if the fish don't care. However, if you like dipping your hand into a tub/bucket of maggots and having manky maggots split and stinking putrid goo on your mitts, you may as well save the effort. If you don't mind a face full of old, manky, excess maize meal if you try to use a catty into a headwind, save the effort, not that it is a great deal of effort.
The reality is that most anglers that have had at least some element of match fishing influence in their angling tend to make a bit of effort with their maggots and casters. Those that haven't tend not to give a hoot. Ultimately, you just do what's right for yourself. No one will change their ways because of posts on a forum.
It matters in the context of the fishing you are doing.
For example if your fishing in a match situation on a venue with little in the way of preferred pegs and the fish evenly spread out then every tiny % could make a difference and the angler using the better quality bait could have an advantage.
If on the other hand your fishing a lightly fished large river or still water with a big head of fish that will eat everything & anything chucked at them and the more you put in the more you will catch then riddling or taking anything out will put you at a disadvantage.
I don’t know where the idea of putting your hands in a maggot bowl so rancid your mitts come out covered in stinking putrid poo comes from. Only you mentioned that.
For example if your fishing in a match situation on a venue with little in the way of preferred pegs and the fish evenly spread out then every tiny % could make a difference and the angler using the better quality bait could have an advantage.
If on the other hand your fishing a lightly fished large river or still water with a big head of fish that will eat everything & anything chucked at them and the more you put in the more you will catch then riddling or taking anything out will put you at a disadvantage.
I don’t know where the idea of putting your hands in a maggot bowl so rancid your mitts come out covered in stinking putrid poo comes from. Only you mentioned that.
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Well Philip I'm afraid you don't find match anglers using dirty bait very often,for matches or pleasure fishing,better bait equates to better fishing in the main,think how well you'd do if to spent a few minutes doing it...
sam vimes
Well-known member
I'm not talking about a tub of maggots so rancid that they are all dead and stinking (though I have seen the odd angler with no qualms about it). Just a normal pint of maggots, sometimes even fresh from the shop, will have the odd stretched, dead, and blackening, maggot in amongst the livefresh ones. If these are left and go that little bit too far, they have a nasty tendency to split as soon as they are handled. I see it when I'm a little lazy with my bait. Those that do even less must see it, even if they aren't so bad as to let their bait end up as a manky soup.
However, as I said before, almost nothing of my bait prep is done with what the fish want in mind. Even if it were proven beyond doubt that less than perfect "live" maggots were more effective, I'd still waste my time riddling and picking of deads and casters. I'd also sieve off manky, or excess, maize meal and replace with fresh maize meal or bran.
As I said before Alan I think it depends on the context of the type of fishing your doing. I am not arguing that “Bad” bait will out fish “Good” bait thats obvious.
The thing is people always want to jump to the extreme examples …Competitive Match fishing in this case so now consider an opposite extreme….the guy chumming for Shark..do you think many Shark fishermen spend time picking out the best bits for Chum ?
Between those two extremes there is an awful lot of other possibilities to consider
For my own part I have done allot of prebaiting on rivers. The idea of carefully prepping tens of kilos of bait day after day is unworkable. Would doing it improve my chances ? ….maybe ! ...but I am not going to do it because the I don’t believe the rewards = the effort. I also work on the principle that the fish are basically going to eat everything I put in so why would I want to take anything out ? On the other hand would I riddle a pint of maggots if I was fishing an open match ? …probably !
At the end of the day fish eat all sort of rubbish day in and day out and while riddling your maggots wont do any harm to your chances I doubt many fish will be put off by the odd stretched maggot floating past either.
Fred Bailey comes to mind in this discussion.
There is an excellent spoof that will give you an insight in to fred the bread's approach on Dave Harrell's facebook page a couple of month's back. It's in a series of stories called something like "Dave's magic waders".
Anyway - I turn my own casters - so riddles are an absolute essential. One of mine is about 35 years old - so value for money is pretty good.
The stench on your hands of a split rotten maggot is hard enough to get off with soap and water - let alone when out fishing.
Good bait means high confidence means better catches .... simple as.
Why deliberately handicap yourself? Unless you're of the Fred Bailey persuasion.
The story of the groundbait ball at a roadshow is more likely to have been Ian Heaps IMO.
There is an excellent spoof that will give you an insight in to fred the bread's approach on Dave Harrell's facebook page a couple of month's back. It's in a series of stories called something like "Dave's magic waders".
Anyway - I turn my own casters - so riddles are an absolute essential. One of mine is about 35 years old - so value for money is pretty good.
The stench on your hands of a split rotten maggot is hard enough to get off with soap and water - let alone when out fishing.
Good bait means high confidence means better catches .... simple as.
Why deliberately handicap yourself? Unless you're of the Fred Bailey persuasion.
The story of the groundbait ball at a roadshow is more likely to have been Ian Heaps IMO.
mikench
Well-known member
I have bought a riddle so there.
Alex,Fred Bailey used to put some horrible smelly additives in his manky casters to insure they sank,it was all old sh1t that they riddled off in the tackle shops that Fred got dirt cheap by the gallons.....,the barbel didn't care two hoots.
or the chub!
I suspect roach and dace might be more discerning ... but I could be wrong
theartist
Well-known member
Roach and Dace don't give two hoots either cos they're too busy trying to beat the Barbel and Chub to it
I think so too - I saw him do this trick at an Irish Angling Roadshow in Manchester in 1986, and at some angling show elsewhere.
As for riddling your maggots..... there's no argument for not cleaning your bait, any more than there is for not washing your socks.