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Why not maggots for trout?


bingo

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The main reason for not allowing maggots, is as was stated earlier, it causes the fish to become bottom feeders. Another reason is many waters are not catch and release, so fish will be caught too quickly and easily by loosefeeding maggots. Also the maggots tend to create artificial feeding areas thus ruining the fishing for many fly anglers who would look for natural food to immitate.

 

Corydoras, it is not a 'snobbery thing' Trout fly-anglers often fish with bait for other fish species, however game fishing with fly is an art-form and is often more difficult than 'drowning maggots' the fact that some fisheries ban maggots is because the use of maggots would have the same effect that the use of boilies have on carp fisheries, the fish turn off other food forms with an abundance of a higher value/easier found foodstuff, plain and simple. A fishery owner doesn't want his fish stocks uncatchable to the fly anglers, they are his bread & butter, thats why maggots are banned. We had a problem on a local river a few years ago, some anglers were loose feeding maggots and catching many large trout, but the fish over large stretches of the river stopped rising to natural fly hatches for a whole season. The BIG problem is not the use of a single maggot, it is the loose feeding/groundbaiting that is associated with it.

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That rings true to a point, however I fish a free stretch of the river wear in Durham and feed alot of maggots when targetting barbel.

 

Despite my actions and those of other anglers doing similar, the trout can still be seen and taken, from the top. This is a shallow clean run stretch of river, which may be part of the reason.

phil,

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I think historically it goes back to the days before stocking became common. In those days, and still on some of my local rivers, the trout ran out of the feeder streams at the beginning of the year to feed in the main river and that was it as far as re-stocking went. Once those fish had gone there were no more until the next year. The trout season would start in March but it might be late April to mid May before the fish started feeding off the top. If maggot fishing was allowed, there would be hardly any fish left in the river before anyone even had a chance to catch one on a fly so the whole season would be wrecked.

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The main reason for not allowing maggots, is as was stated earlier, it causes the fish to become bottom feeders.

This is just not true. How come on rivers that allow coarse and fly fishing on the same river, or who do allow bait fishing for trout (like say my own river leven), the trout don't turn into bottom feeders? A lot of the 'fly only" venues in Scotland won't let you drag a MEPPS spoon through the water either? Is this to stop the trout developing a taste for brass, or to dissuade them for developing a taste for smaller fish? Trout feed on what is available at the time, just like most fish. What do you think trout eat when there are no flies hatching?

 

If it is not snobbery then it is just downright ignorance. When I was a young lad of about 13 I was fishing on the River Leven, close to Alexandria. It was a really hot day and we had already had a long hot spell. I was fishing with worms or maggots and catching trout, perch and small flounders. About 100 yds downstream from me was a guy fly fishing for trout. He came over to see what I was doing and I showed him my catch ( I had kept one or two of the bigger trout). He complained that the water was too warm, and the level too low to fish the fly. I naively offered him some of my maggots and worms. I felt sorry for him not catching bugger all when I was. He told me that he would rather go home than dirty his hands with worms or maggots. If that is not snobbery Greg what is it?

 

A really GOOD bait for trout is caddis fly larvae. When we were nippers we used to collect these from the bottom of the wee burn that ran past our house. These were deadly when the local burns and rivers were in spate (and therefore had way too much water in them to fish a fly). Another is pinkies. These are the dead baby mice that that are fed to pet snakes and lizards. A good sea-trout bait are the grubs that can be found inside the roots of common ragwort. I am not sure what these grubs are but if you dig up some nice big ragwort with a fork and cut the roots open you will often find a big white grub eating away inside the roots. Sea trout cannot resest these.

 

BTW salmon will also take a nice big bunch of earthworms. I have seen salmon taken this way on the river leven when they would not look at flies or a devon minnow.

Edited by corydoras

The problem isn't what people don't know, it's what they know that just ain't so.
Vaut mieux ne rien dire et passer pour un con que de parler et prouver que t'en est un!
Mi, ch’fais toudis à m’mote

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Don't they get called "Early Bluebottles" any more?? :rolleyes:

:lol::lol::lol:

 

Well that made me laugh any way.

 

Snobbery! I dont know about that ... But a fly fishery is just what it says on the wrapper I asked once if I could fish a day ticket carp water on on the fly and was politley declined A green weed fly aimed at the grass carp obviosly makes a bigger splash than a 1lb spod :P I just accepted that that was the rules of that particular water and got over it. Are dry fly only waters predudice against lure and wet fly anglers Having said that fish a Minky at some waters and see what the bloke fishing next to you has to say about your chioce of fly as he is stripping a booby back on a leadcore sinking line . We all have an opinion But as Clint Eastwood said Opinions are Like Ar5e holes weve all got one :rolleyes:

Edited by five bellies

Someone once said to me "Dont worry It could be worse." So I didn't, and It was!

 

 

 

 

انا آكل كل الفطائر

 

I made a vow today, to never again argue with an Idiot they have more expieriance at it than I so I always seem to lose!

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By all means fish for trout on the maggot, at £25 for 2 fish, turn up, cast out, catch 2, go home, 5 minutes fishing. Bargain :)

 

I love all aspects of fishing, but I chose the difficulty of my fishing. I fish hard carp waters, low stocked pits for bit tench, I chose to fish for grayling and trout on the fly. It's my choice to make my fishing as challenging as I require. And to me, that is the whole point. It's the challenge. Catching a trout on a well presented and well cast fly is much more satisfying (to me) than spraying a load of maggots around a waggler.

 

My record of trout taken on the maggot is somewhere near 200 fish in a days fishing up at Ullswater, but the few wild browns taken on the evening hatch off the top lives with me longer.

 

He told me that he would rather go home than dirty his hands with worms or maggots. If that is not snobbery Greg what is it?

 

Catching on his own terms maybe?

 

Snobby moi? Probably. I'm very snobby about my angling. :)

Paul Singleton

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corydoras,

Ref Alexandria, if you would like to check out the following web site, it might bring back some memories.

:yeah:

 

www.robbieredball.net

Thanks for that and the PM too. Site is now in my bookmarks. I was brought up in the Vale, btw.

The problem isn't what people don't know, it's what they know that just ain't so.
Vaut mieux ne rien dire et passer pour un con que de parler et prouver que t'en est un!
Mi, ch’fais toudis à m’mote

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