How safe are the maggots we use?

Peter Bishop · Jan 14, 2007

As we all digest the terrible news about John Ledger, and some closer to home with a close friend of mine, it gets you thinking not only about poor Johns situation, but about the reasons why so many good people are afflicted by this dreadful disease.
Just off fishing in a minute and riddling my maggots and you wonder...
Most of us have fished for years and only recently have measures been taken(allegedly) to stop the use of carcinogenic dyes on maggots.
What do they use to colour red or bronze now and what did they use when we were all much younger?
Anybody got any thoughts on the subject? Whats in the ready made pellet and boilie mixes that we dont know about?
It's a thought isn't it?

John Huntley · Jan 14, 2007

Peter, there are so many possible carcinogens and pollutants about it would be impossible to evade them all. However you do have a point that the prepared baits that we use are probably not vetted in anyway.

Gav Barbus · Jan 14, 2007

Dont say that chaps im always nibbling corners of my boilies think ill get a knife instead food for thought that peter.

Graham Whatmore · Jan 14, 2007

Bronze maggots are dyed using chrysoidine and this is the dye that reputedly has carcinogenic properties and can cause bladder cancer. I have never heard of other colours being a problem but that doesn't mean that they aren't dangerous. Maybe this or this will help a little.

Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA) · Jan 14, 2007

I don't think they are allowed to use Chrysodine any more Graham, but I will check.

There are of course many substances still around us that are carcinogenic. One of the most common is the chlorine that is put into tap water which acts as a disinfectant. Chlorine can combine with other organic materials to form what are known as Trihalo-Methanes - nasty stuff indeed.

Of course water authorities do no talk much about the negative effects of chlorine, it's not PC to do so. But if you ask me, the ingestion of chlorine contaminated water is one of the biggest causes of stomach and bladder cancer around. Never drink water direct from your tap. Either boil it or use an activated carbon filter.

Les Clark · Jan 14, 2007

Chrysodine was banned from being used in maggot dyes a good 15 years ago i believe .

Graham Whatmore · Jan 14, 2007

Believe me, tackle shops still use chrysoidine to colour bronze maggots whether it is legal or not, it is the only one that colours properly, they won't admit this though. Smithy's shop in Longbridge B'ham used it even after poor old Smithy died of bladder cancer caused, supposedly, by chrysoidine.

You would be quite surprised how little colouring it takes to colour 10 gallons of maggots, I used to watch them doing it in Clissets after the maggot deliveries. They all come in natural white and need a thorough cleaning then various quantities are coloured red, yellow, bronze or whatever, they transform in seconds right before your eyes, it used to fascinate me watching Neil do it.

EC · Jan 14, 2007

Chrysodine was banned a long time back.

In Ireland once we happened across a maggot farm, and asked a few directions to a lake!

Some poor kid working there was bright red with the dye used to colour the bait (possibly rhodamine B). I mean, every part of his body was bright red, not a dust mask or gloves in sight!

Terry D · Jan 14, 2007

On this subject I believe it's all down to luck of the draw. There are so many things that can suddenly start cancer cells to multiply, but hand on heart, nobody can say for sure why or what factor is the trigger. Maybe it's just a slight genetic twist of fate or a single chromosome abnormality that some people are susceptible to it and others not. You only have to look at smokers for that. I'm now of the opinion you just have to enjoy each day as it comes and take your pleasures whilst you can, as when your number's up, your number's up.

Michael Howson · Jan 14, 2007

To pose a hypothetical question.How long would it take for all species of fish to become used to seeing and eating just white maggotts if all coluoring was banned in their entirety?.

Steve Spiller · Jan 14, 2007

I remember using Chrysodine when I was a lad to colour my own bronze maggots and then it was banned.

A couple of weeks ago I bought some bronze maggots from a garden centre, after using them my hands/fingers were covered in the bronze dye. This used to happen with chrysodine too, could they still be using it? I was quite concerned as I have not experienced this for a long time.

ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one) · Jan 14, 2007

do you remember the anatto rolls you could get for colouring maggots

ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one) · Jan 14, 2007

It was a natural dye/flavouring that was ( I think )harmless ......

I just found THIS about anatto

Mark Wintle · Jan 14, 2007

Anyone who thinks aniline dyes have gone away is living in cloud cuckoo land. They were never banned. Chrysodine's main use is still making cardboard brown instead of grey.

Michael Howson asked about what would happen if only white maggots were allowed?

Back in the early 80s Wimborne DAC did just that for about 5 years. Despite the protests that we'd all stop catching fish, catches actually went up. One angler got disqualified in a winter league for using what he said were tumeric coloured maggots though they seems a bit bright. That is possibly the best answer - use whites coulured with turmeric or other flavours like Scopex or pineapple essence.

Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA) · Jan 14, 2007

Make no mistake, cancer is an insidious and horrible disease that can strike anyone at random. A few of my greatest friends have died from cancer and do you know, most have them have been non-smokers and a few - tee totallers. My mother died from cancer at the age of 44. She never smoked as far as I can remember, nor did she drink any alcohol.

My dad is now 89, smoked heavily for a major part of his life and as a plumber in the early days, handled lots of lead and asbestos.

I certainly will not be buying bronze maggots in the future. I do very well with reds and whites.

Annatto by the way used to be used for colouring cheese and butter. I wonder if it is still used for such purposes?

Personally I think that exposure to the sun causes more cancer than most other things. In my life I have had to have taken out, either by surgery or cryogenics, a number of lesions on my skin, caused by living at high altitude in Africa of course.

I get the shits in when I see young people laying for hours in the sun. I even get more the shits in when I see people in this country who go to warm and sunny climes with the sole aim of getting a "tan".

What a load of bowlocks!!

They are taking years off their lives!!

Thats why I wear a proper hat, especially in summer.

Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA) · Jan 14, 2007

Mark, in Holland you can only get white maggots. Dyes are taboo there.

And I certainly would not object if maggot dyes were banned here. After all, the natural colour of maggots is white - ish!

ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one) · Jan 14, 2007

Are you sure the shits you get aren't just due to the figs ??

Graham Whatmore · Jan 14, 2007

Bronze maggots first became popular on the Trent, so much so that anglers believed you couldn't win a match on the Trent unless you used them, me included. A lot of those anglers also fished the matches on the Severn so it was inevitable that they became popular there as well and no self respecting match angler went to a river venue without bronze maggots.

Even to this day if I use maggots on the river I almost always use bronze and I still put tumeric on them even then, it takes days for the dye to wear off my fingers. I still believe that bronze maggots are more consistent catchers than whites but there again I never use whites on the river so I have nothing to judge it by.

Eerily, my mate that I always go fishing with, John Jones, who did a few articles on here you may remember, has very recently developed prostate cancer, in fact he gets the results of his tests tomorrow at 11 a.m. to see if its treatable, he too only uses bronze maggots on the river. I rang him lunchtime to wish him well and told him I shall spend tomorrow morning on my prayer mat until he phones me with the result.

Neil Maidment · Jan 14, 2007

Graham, your comments on the Trent anglers describe me many years ago. For a while I used to use nothing but bronze in the belief nothing else would catch as well.

That changed when I fished some of Wimbornes waters and as Mark says - with white maggot. I had some of my best ever river and lake days on those whites!

I also vividly remember perpetually having bronzed fingers and hands.

Those were the days (I think not!)

Steve Spiller · Jan 14, 2007

If I'm fishing maggots I never go to the bank without bronze maggots, combined with reds they are deadly for roach and chub.

How safe are the maggots we use?

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