Help! I Think I've Murdered My Maggots....

I'm off out for a little session early tomorrow morning after the elusive tench (again) and bought myself some white maggots this afternoon. Only a pint in a two pint bait box.

La Señora Maceo takes noisy and aggressive exception to keeping maggots in the fridge, so I put them in a shady corner outside and hoped for the best.

Just been out to get them and as soon as I picked up the box I noticed it was pretty warm on the bottom. When I opened the lid, the maggots have stopped moving. There's no sign of life at all, despite stirring them up with my finger. Nothing at all. They haven't started to change into casters as far as I can see - there aren't any chrysalis in there. They're just lying there flaked out and apparently dead.

I've sneaked them into the fridge about 10 mins ago (risking severe marital discord!) but is it likely to be too late? Have they died of heat stroke? Are they on the turn?

Has anyone else experienced this?

If they're "brown bread" will they still work tomorrow? I'm going too early to be able to buy any more.

Any advice welcome! Thanks in advance...

I've never managed to do that, could it be suffocation ?
I would go buy some bread if I were you, in case they don't work.

I was out fishing yesterday and left my maggots in the sun and about half of them were killed. I doubt you`ll see any recovery from yours tbh. On the bright side you can still use them, I`ve seen some people who reckon that dead maggots are better for catching large fish and I know dead maggots are a popular bait choice when fishing the method feeder.

A tip for keeping them a bit cooler is to put your bait box inside a slightly larger container that has a few inches of water in the bottom of it, I suppose you could throw some ice in too to make it even colder.

Why not buy yourself a second fridge, either regular size or one of those small ones designed for keeping a few cans of beer in. Failing that a cool box.

Dead maggots are fine to use,fish must see them as a safe bait,as most anglers chuck left over bait in when they finish the session and obviously the fish will gobble them up after they've been in the water for a few hours,plus dead maggots just waft around in the swim rather than burying themselves,i like using worm over a bed of dead maggots(that i've pre-frozen),also maggots can be excellent bait when they start honking a bit.

Well they've been in the fridge for about 30 mins now and cooled down a lot, but still no sign of movement. I think you're right DM - they've gone to a better place!

I'm going to use the lift method tomorrow, so I'll use these dead ones in the groundbait and to loose feed and see what happens. I've got some corn to use as hook bait and I will take some bread along too.

I might try the dead maggots on the hook out of curiosity to see what happens and will report back....

I'll also set up a search on flea bay for a cheap little fridge I can stick in the shed - that's a good idea.

Heat stroke - they have overheated and succumbed to that great fly in the sky. Still good bait though.

I wouldn't count them out Yet you'd be surprised at the state i have Resurrected maggots from.

They have probably overheated and sweated and even if you cant bring them back to life there is something you can do to make them more appetizing, you need to get rid of the sweaty ammonia, which i dont think the fish are too fond of in my opinion.

Tip them into a much larger container say a bucket.

Get some white flour and throw a generous helping in and give the whole lot a good shake about.

Tip the whole lot into a riddle if you havent got one you might have a net or something which the holes arent too big in and shake off the excess flour.

Return to the big bucket and store in the big bucket untill you are ready to go then return to your normal tub.

If you had put them in a big container with the lid off they probably would have been fine and being bigger wouldnt have crawled out not good to keep them in a bait box in this weather especially with the lid on.

As you might have guessed i have had to do this many times. doh

another tip is put a whole weetabix in the bucket with it as it helps soak up any moister and just change it every so often