Bloodworm and Joker fishing.

supersquirrel · Aug 2, 2009

After reading about the Veterans World championships, and how they came second fiddle to France( Even though England were fishing on home soil) due to them being so much better at bloodworm fishing. It got me thinking about how there are so few venues where you can actually go and fish blood worm and Joker.

Its something I have never had the oppotunity to do. And until recently I didnt know why it was banned on my local drain. However my Grandfather explained to me that it was to let the fish have a chance to grow before they are caught. I mean with this being their natural food resource they obviously dont associate it with danger like they maybe do maggots etc. However I have caught some very small fry on maggots,pinkies and squatts.

With so many artificial baits being piled in by the kilo, I dont see how this can be bad thing. Offering the fish its natural food source. And why allow it on some places/venues and not others?? Like At the Evesham festivals they allow it for one day. Isnt that a bit hypacritical??? Top match fisherman get to have a good day of sport and bag up. But the rest of us must struggle for a bite the rest of the time. We are obviously falling behind other countries on the world circuit because of these bait bans.

Just wondering what your guys opinions are about this?? Always someone who knows something on this site

Rodney Wrestt · Aug 2, 2009

Bigives said:
After reading about the Veterans World championships, and how they came second fiddle to France( Even though England were fishing on home soil) due to them being so much better at bloodworm fishing. It got me thinking about how there are so few venues where you can actually go and fish blood worm and Joker.

Its something I have never had the oppotunity to do. And until recently I didnt know why it was banned on my local drain. However my Grandfather explained to me that it was to let the fish have a chance to grow before they are caught. I mean with this being their natural food resource they obviously dont associate it with danger like they maybe do maggots etc. However I have caught some very small fry on maggots,pinkies and squatts.

With so many artificial baits being piled in by the kilo, I dont see how this can be bad thing. Offering the fish its natural food source. And why allow it on some places/venues and not others?? Like At the Evesham festivals they allow it for one day. Isnt that a bit hypacritical??? Top match fisherman get to have a good day of sport and bag up. But the rest of us must struggle for a bite the rest of the time. We are obviously falling behind other countries on the world circuit because of these bait bans.

Just wondering what your guys opinions are about this?? Always someone who knows something on this site

I'm not sure why venues choose to ban certain baits when others allow but the managers always claim fish welfare as the reasons. Hemp was banned on many places and for the life of me I can't think why? but where it's allowed it's loved by most species, non cyprinids excluded. I would rather see bait limits rather than bans, if everyone was limited to say half a kilo of pellets, half a pint of hemp, a pint of mags etc. then skill would see the winner through, not being able to buy more bait than the next peg. Some guys will chop £20 of worm and caster to feed whilst others will throw in pints of pellets, I can see the fishery manager worry about oxygen levels when nitrate and nitrite levels are raised following this amount of bait going in regularly. Algae will love this environment but again it strips more oxygen.

As for Bloodworm and Joker, I think the big worry was transferring parasites, pathogens or single cell organisms to a venue when using a live bait (especially aquatic ones) not from the venue being fished. People used to collect their ow BW&J so the threat was there.

slime monster · Aug 2, 2009

Valid point about parasites Rodney,It is a bait that was and still is not widely available some matches banned it on that basis.

Chris Season32 · Aug 2, 2009

It never occured to me it might be due to parasites Rodney, I'd always assumed it was banned to stop people dredging the lake bed while trying to collect it. Thanks Rodney, another gap plugged

klik2change · Aug 2, 2009

When I was a kid, back in the 60s, [if I remember rightly] a French match team came over here and defeated the world champion team, including Billy Lane, when they used bloodworm and joker, fished on what where then called "roach poles" which were about 20 feet long, with a long hooklength, so all the unspeakable frogs had to do was lift the pole and swing the tiny fish in. It was a great shock at the time. This was the beginning of the period when matchmen focused on bagging up with loads of tiddlers.

I may have got the events wrong, however somebody else may be able to remember it all better than I can.

Bloodworm and Joker fishing.

supersquirrel

Well-known member

Rodney Wrestt

Well-known member

slime monster

Senior Member

Chris Season32

Well-known member

klik2change

Well-known member