Bloodworm and Joker

[Guest Mally]

Ive been out using bloodworm and joker for the first time, after reading so much about it i had to give it a try!! I found it was resonably well priced at £7 for a match pack which did me for two sessions, i took it to my local pond and managed 6 pound of nice roach on the first day and on the second day on a shorter session manged four pound in cluding a nice crucian!! i tried maggot over the top when i was getting a bite a chuck and they wouldn't toutch it!! The only problem i had with it was a lot of the joker died overnight, i kept it in the newspaper i got it in on a cold floor as instructed but around three quaters of it was dead when i came to use it, dose anybody know what i did wrong? It still proved efective though :-) and i would recomend anybody to try it!!

 

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Mally

[Guest Dave Hill]

Don't worry about the joker being dead... some people acrually prefer it that way! Doesn't disperse or swim away when dead!

 

I personally prefer a mix of live to dead of about 50/50.

 

I find the best way to keep joker is to put it into a shallow tray and add just enough fresh water to turn the whole mixture into a quivering jelly like mass. This would then be kept in a fridge.

 

If the joker needs to be kept for longer periods. Riddling the joker through a fine mesh into clean water helps prolong their life expectancy.

 

Also, have you tried single or double joker on the hook yet?... Fiddly but deadly after theinitial surge of bites start to dry up

[Guest Partridge]

I've just been reading an article in Match Angling Plus where Alan Scotthorne says that dead joker is useless. I wouldn't have thought that the joker crawling away would be a problem as I thought the idea was to lay a 'bed' of groundbait/river soil which the joker would stay in when balled in.

[Guest phonebush]

What in tarnation is joker?

Phone

[Guest bikenut]

I'm with Phone on this one. I've heard of it but never found out what it is. Is it anything like Tubifex or bloodworm?

Enlighten us if you please, anything if it will catch a fishy.

Bikenut

[Guest Cranfield]

I believe that a joker is the larvae of the mosquito.

Bloodworm is a grown up joker and the final stage prior to hatching as a mozzie.

You Yanks don,t use small enough hooks.

 

This could all be wrong,of course.

[Guest Dave Hill]

Joker is very much like bloodworm... just a lot smaller, about 1/3rd of the size.

 

Partridge

 

I can't speak for Alan Scotthorne, only for myself. I have used fresh(Alive) joker, dead and mixes in between... In my experience I cannot agree that dead joker is useless.

 

Its not so much that joker crawls away... more that they swim just above the bottom and can be carried away by water currents either natural(rivers, undertow etc.) or unnatural(eg. Boats )

 

Have you ever seen how joker 'expand' to fill whatever container they happen to be in when in water? I do not believe they simply stay put, whenever I have riddled my joker, the live joker swim very aggressively and I believe would naturally 'expand' outwards from wherever they are fed!

 

Containing them in a stiff mix of leam or low salt groundbait may help by causing a steady gradual release of joker into the swim but fed neat... only dead joker would stay put... IMHO

[Guest Partridge]

Dave, I'll defer to your greater knowledge of joker - i'm relatively new to the thing myself and don't use it much, as most of the clubs round here don't allow it (wish they did)

 

Cheers

 

Steve Armstrong

[Guest davidP]

Found here with lots of good info : http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~bpoole/b.../bloodjoke.html

 

Both bloodworm and joker are the larvae of closely related two-winged flies. Bloodworms become non-biting midges (buzzers) and jokers turn into gnats. They are both aquatic and live in the bottom sludge. Bloodworms only live in still, sometimes stagnant water, lightly polluted by, for example, farm run-off. Jokers, on the other hand, are only found in running water lightly polluted with sewage.

 

Both are worm-like and usually red, though you may come across other colours from time to time. Bloodworms tend to be sluggish and grow up to 2cm (3/4in) long- Jokers are smaller, only reaching 8mm (1/3in), but they are much livelier. It is these variations that make their uses in fishing so different and so complementary. Bloodworm, being bigger, are an excellent hookbait, whereas Jokers, which dart around in water, are an unbeatable fish attractor, holding fish in a swim like magic.

[Guest TheDacer]

Phone

 

You're missing out on what is possibly the best of all baits. Or so I hear.

 

Many commercial stillwaters ban it - because it is so effective.

 

Either that or they don't fancy having flying nasties hatching out from the bait sometime in the spring.