Maggots

[Guest Rabbit]

Im with steve on this, dead maggots can and often do produce a better stamp of fish, and in some situations such as silty bottoms, dead maggots can be a killer method for many species not just tench.

Ive also found that lively maggots can be left untouched and a switch to a stretched dead maggot has produced instant bites.

 

Ive also found chewed maggots, where small fish have nibbled at the bait are effective.

 

Quite the opposite to what I have experienced, to leave a sucked maggot on a hook is asking for nothing. I can understand the dead maggots as loose feed as the fish would consider them safe, also the cannot bury into silt and therefore become lost. Sorry dont buy dead maggots out fish live ones no way. I will concede their may be occassions this MAY happen but as a norm no!!

[Guest Rabbit]

Rabbit - I have been told that in some parts of the US they are popular enough to be available at bait shops. The is not the case anywhere I've ever lived and after watching how they are used in the UK and trying them under the expert guidance of Vagabond and Steve Burke, I really wish they were.

Great bait Newt, why dont you do your own? Pidgeon or chicken carcass would do it. Just place the carcass in a dark box with enough space for flies to 'blow' the meat and hey presto you will be the talk if not the smell of the town

Edited May 6, 2007 by Rabbit

[Guest tigger]

Quite the opposite to what I have experienced, to leave a sucked maggot on a hook is asking for nothing. I can understand the dead maggots as loose feed as the fish would consider them safe, also the cannot bury into silt and therefore become lost. Sorry dont buy dead maggots out fish live ones no way. I will concede their may be occassions this MAY happen but as a norm no!!

 

 

I have to say I'm with Rabbit on this one. I check my maggots every time I reel in and even if they look ok I usually change them. I would discard dead maggots. I don't even use dead maggots for groundbait or loose feed.

It's like saying dead baits are as good as livebaits, they may work but no way as good.

[Steve Burke]

It's like saying dead baits are as good as livebaits, they may work but no way as good.

 

Again I can't agree with such a sweeping statement. There are days when livebaits outscore deadbaits. But it can often be the other way round - even when you've got 1 livebait and 1 deadbait just a few yards apart!

 

Again to be fair it depends on the venue. On many rivers livebaits usually (but not always) outfish deadbaits. The same is true to an even greater extent on trout reservoirs. But even here there are days when all the fish come to deadbaits.

 

However on many other waters there's little difference between lives and deads, and on some deadbaits comfortably outscore livebaits.

[Steve Burke]

Sorry dont buy dead maggots out fish live ones no way. I will concede their may be occassions this MAY happen but as a norm no!!

I'm not saying it's the norm, but I am saying it's far from unusual. Try Googling "dead maggots" and see what I mean.

 

I too thought it unlikely at first and for ages refused to give dead maggots a try. But then I did so and got a series of nice surprises. You may too!

[Dick Dastardly]

When general fishing I prefer live maggots for both hook and groundbait/loose feed.I also have found that a sucked maggot will get far less attention/not so quick a response.

 

Wnen fishing for big fish ie specimen bream,tench or carp I prefer to bait up with dead maggots (so they dont all burrow and hide away) but use live maggots in both the feeder and on the hook.

 

Never felt the need to compare the two really! suppose I should some time.

[Anderoo]

There's a difference between a dead maggot and a sucked maggot. A dead maggot is still food - a sucked maggot is more skin than anything else. Also, when using maggots you're no doubt feeding regularly, so any fish will have a choice between nice fresh lively maggots or one that's had the goodness chewed out of it - no content! Dead maggots do catch fish and (as has been mentioned) are great over soft bottoms as they don't hide away, but I wouldn't feed live ones and use dead ones on the hook.

 

They're also good for groundbait as they don't wriggle and break it up as it's flying through the air.

 

Flavoured maggots isn't something I've used since I was a kid (remember those little plastic vials of liquid flavour you could get?). It's something I keep meaning to try but haven't got round to. I bet dead red maggots flavoured with tutti fruity or pineapple would be a great (and unused) tench bait...

 

Hmmm! [edges towards door and runs to tackle shop]

[ShaunW]

Dead maggots offer the angler a bait with a totally different texture than a live maggot, being a lot softer, I'm sure this maybe the reason some fish are attracted to them.

[Steve Burke]

I bet dead red maggots flavoured with tutti fruity or pineapple would be a great (and unused) tench bait...

 

Dead red maggots flavoured with pineapple work a treat for the Wingham tench.....

 

 

Dead maggots offer the angler a bait with a totally different texture than a live maggot, being a lot softer, I'm sure this maybe the reason some fish are attracted to them.

 

A very good point!

[Jesse168]

Great bait Newt, why dont you do your own? Pidgeon or chicken carcass would do it. Just place the carcass in a dark box with enough space for flies to 'blow' the meat and hey presto you will be the talk if not the smell of the town

 

Newt has already been the talk of several sites here in the States. We try to keep Newt hidden as much as possable over here.

 

Ok Newt it's been a while since we've been in here together.

 

Newt have you put them on to wasp larva yet? Wasp larva is a lot easier and cleaner.

 

Jesse