Breeding you own maggots

Reading the thread “Another one bites the dust” (Steve2) and the comments made so far by the posters on it. We are clearly in some areas heading for a crisis in bait and bits of tackle “local tackle shops did/does carry. This is being mirrored in my area too, the last local tackle shop is up for sale as a going concern after 50 years of trading. Retirement being the case here of the second generation of the family owners.

It's all very well saying well you can buy the stuff you need on the internet and that's right up to a point, but when it comes to live good quality bait, maggots/casters, it's a different matter.
I'm not aware of anybody on the net being able to supply the quality of bait that my local tackle shop has supplied for 50 years.

And here is the crux of the oncoming problem as I see it - How with a tackle shop closing down on at least a monthly basis are we going to obtain it?

I see only one of two options here, you travel many miles to source it in a fast diminishing market, or you breed your own.

Travelling for it is if you have your own transport and the motivation to do it fine, but will stop the young, none car owners and older people from obtaining it, perhaps making it more likely the impromptu spur of the moment fishing trip down the canal, stillwater or river for a bag of silvers less likely. Perhaps another nail in the coffin of people going fishing or taking it up?

Breeding your own has it's problems, not least how many know how to do it? I have some idea from friends that have done it in the past but wouldn't claim to any sort of expert in it.
So with this in mind, it might well within a decade be something we all need to learn if we want to continue using maggots and casters as bait for silver fish.

So I start the debate here for those that know how to, to share their knowledge!

Lets be having it!

heya Mr bad one
this is a good idea for a thread and something that imo needs to be addressed, in my area we are now down to three tackle shops within a 50mile radius, two of which know they have a captive audience and charge accordingly (damned robbers) and one old family pet shop with a corner put over to small items of tackle and bait, fortunately this includes maggots. i have chatted to the old girl on many occasions and every time she starts off with "i don't know how long i can keep doing this". don't bode well do it.
as for breeding your own, i understand that it is a simple process but damned smelly so you need to be away from built up areas. i did once try it by the simple expedience of hanging a rabbit carcass up in my green house and checking it daily till it was 'blown' (full of fly eggs) then placing a riddle full of bran over a washing up bowl underneath and waiting for the maggots to drop, they work their way thru the bran into the bowl, as they wriggle around in the bran they clean themselves of any meat residue and drop into the bowl taking some with them, check daily and using a fine riddle you remove them from the bowl and store in fresh bran ready for the next trip to the bank. this will give you about a pint and a half per carcass but beware the stench of rotting meat, it clings

quick edit to say, your thread intrigued me so i did a quick google, guess what mg:
only about 100 vids on youtube on how to breed and dye the little wrigglies, pluss one on how to build your own maggot farm. i will put up the link when i have vetted it lol

I believe the best medium for blowing flies onto is heart, then they need something else to feed on which cannot be too fresh.

Years ago (might still be the case), the maggots would be fed on using fish, chicken or a mixture of the two; fish gave bigger maggots but they tended to float hence the mixing in with chicken.

Having been to a couple of maggot farms, I can assure you ciprinus has only scratched the surface of the smell - if you've been to a tackle shop just after they have taken delivery of maggots you will have some idea - it does follow you for a while, and the heat as well of all those wriggling maggots.

I'm lucky where I live as the tackle shop nearest me is not going anywhere soon as they also sell other things as well as owning a couple of lakes. Their maggots are good.

interesting lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNJK_t35iFg

I am lucky to have an old (1978, I think) book called Encyclopedia of Coarse Fishing Baits, which gives a long chapter over to breeding maggots (including squatts). Other books I have read imply that it is something which takes a bit of practice to get right. Something I have always thought about trying, but never got around to...

Quite what yoy do in winter, I'm not sure, though!

I did once visit a maggot farm in Newark, which was an experience. The lasting memory was the smell of ammonia and the heat.

I used to breed maggots in a biscuit tin when I was a youngster at the bottom off the garden its not difficult really

Now, breeding your own gozzas - that separates the men from the boys.........

ravey said:

I did once visit a maggot farm in Newark, which was an experience. The lasting memory was the smell of ammonia and the heat.

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Was it the one at the end of Tolney Lane beyond the gypsy camp ravey?

If it was then my old man used to run the slaughterhouse that you would have passed and he also supplied the offal in return for a limitless supply of maggots, part of which I used and part of which I sold in the school playground on a Friday morning

No way would I want to get involved with doing this, as it's all pretty disgusting. I would rather use alternative baits. My wife would definitely have something to say if I had a mini maggot farm.
Big lobworms, maybe. They are hard to get hold of and I might consider breeding them.
However I don't think we should panic. Some of the small tackle shops may be disappearing but I think we will still be able to get maggots somehow - from the tackle shops that do survive or by mail order or available soon from Amazon. I'm lucky, I reckon there might be 10 sources of supply within a 25 mile radius of where I live.

barbelboi said:

Now, breeding your own gozzas - that separates the men from the boys.........

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Use heart the same to breed these, the secret is to get your blow in the dark then after the first blow cover the meat to prevent further blows.
Take the maggots off the meat before full grown then put them on bread soaked in milk in a similar fashion to squat maggots to soften them.
This is the way I was taught in the 60s, I have no inclination to do it now though it could be detrimental to my safety.
If it's the waters I fish or baits more to the fishes taste or just experience I certainly catch more Bream these days than I did back then.

Back when I was a teenager my mate's uncle used to breed them on fish offal and they floated! They also stank pretty bad if you were unlucky enough to burst one but their size and vigour more than made up for the drawbacks. A cadged handful for the hook went a long way, using shop-bought as feed (when we could afford them.)

I cant see breeding your own to be practical for most - if you live with near neighbours, have a small garden etc it would be a recipe for disaster.

Out in the sticks those lucky enough to have a bit of space could more easily do it. Maybe we will see little signs "Fresh Bait" where we are used to seeing "Fresh Eggs" on our country roads. Its something I would consider doing myself as a small source of income in retirement - if there was still a demand for it.

When i think how crowded tackle shops used to get - especially for the opening weekend or early weeks in a season - it is incredible how the retail landscape has changed with online. Seen it before with record shops - but they at least are making a comeback!

Yes, Binka, that's the one. My matchfishing companion showed me, and we went halves on a gallon or so. There were still a few 'big bits' in the container which needed to be riddled off, and a few blackfly maggots, but the saving was worth any inconvenience.

I remember one day we visited that there was a huge bloated sow in a skip outside. It was huge, and looked ready to 'blow' in the hot weather!

Robert not being funny here, but I hope you never get a Narcotic skin ulcer, as the most efficient way medicine has found to heal these unhealable ulcers, is to plant about a dozen newly hatched maggots into the wound and feed on the dead rotting tissue. Eating it back to health tissue where it then starts to heal after the maggots have come off the feed and left the wound.

Gross it maybe, but it's saved many a person leg, arm, etc from going gangrenous.

When you have decided the best way to breed maggots lads, can anyone help me grow a boilie tree, save us a fortune, hee, hee.

So what you are saying, Bad One, is that we should be able to get our maggots on the NHS, as long as we have a suitably narcotic skin ulcer.
This makes me feel a lot better, knowing there is such a neat solution.
As I am an OAP I would get my maggot prescription free of charge.

We are pretty fortunate down here inasmuch as we have several tackle shops that are still thriving so the problem is not readily apparent.

Many, many years ago we would breed our own Gozzers and that was not exactly a difficult thing to do, so I reckon should it ever be necessary then breeding maggot wouldn't be too big a problem.

Locally we still have shops in Amesbury, another in Salisbury and two in Ringwood plus Reid's tackle at Witherington Farm Lakes all who sell reasonable quality maggots but Reid's being the best of the lot.

Peter Jacobs said:

We are pretty fortunate down here inasmuch as we have several tackle shops that are still thriving so the problem is not readily apparent.

Many, many years ago we would breed our own Gozzers and that was not exactly a difficult thing to do, so I reckon should it ever be necessary then breeding maggot wouldn't be too big a problem.

Locally we still have shops in Amesbury, another in Salisbury and two in Ringwood plus Reid's tackle at Witherington Farm Lakes all who sell reasonable quality maggots but Reid's being the best of the lot.

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Breeding gozzers is simple so long as you get the correct fly to blow your meat (keep it clean)
The fly lays it's eggs in the dark, too many eggs = too small a maggot. The soft skin makes them irresistible to Bream and Roach

Does anybody know which species of fly is used to provide the blow for Gozzers? I have often wondered, and I assume it isn't the common bluebottle?

David Dalton said:

Does anybody know which species of fly is used to provide the blow for Gozzers?

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Having googled "gozzer" and "gozzer flys" numerous times the nearest I've found is " The gozzer fly?"

There are plenty of descriptions ( and some extremely scientific ) regarding how to breed them but no explanation re their parentage?

I'm certain someone knows but he's been a bit quiet of late?:wh

Just found this gem...
Quote...

The larvae (or maggot stage) of each of these different fly types are as distinctly different as the flies are themselves and each type of maggot will be readily available at your local tackle shop. In fishing parlance the housefly maggots are referred to as ‘squats’, greenbottle maggots are called ‘pinkies’, and the bluebottle maggots are known as ‘gozzers’. Unless you specify squats or pinkies you will be given maggots that came from eggs laid by bluebottles if you go to a tackle shop and simply ask for a pint of maggots.