May Bugs

[james17]

Just wondering if anyone has ever tried them or read anything about them being used for bait?

[Newt]

No direct experience with that particular insect (don't have them where I live) but any natural of that sort be it at the grub stage or the adult stage is good as bait.

[DavyR]

About 40 years ago, I remember seeing an ad in one of the angling papers for a specially-designed "dapping hook" for use with live insects. It had a spring clip attached for holding a live insect without actually impaling it. I think this may have been an evolutionary dead end as I haven't seen them since, but May bugs (aka June bugs or doodlebugs) have such a tough carapace that you'd probably need something like that in order to present them as a bait (or I suppose you could superglue them to the hook). They don't usually end up in the water in large enough quantities to preoccupy fish into feeding on them avidly, but I've no doubt that plopping one down near a chub would prove successful.

[Vagabond]

They don't usually end up in the water in large enough quantities to preoccupy fish into feeding on them avidly,

 

Ah, but sometimes they DO, DavyR

 

Some years ago, camping on the banks of the Wye, I was spinning for salmon early one morning, using a Gold Mepps size 1

 

I hooked a fat trout, just under a couple of pounds. "You are breakfast" I said.

 

Trimmed out the trout, noticed the stomach was lumpy, so investigated. Washed out the contents, put them on a plate.

 

If you examine the photo, you will see the remains of at least three maybugs (plus a couple of caddis cases)

 

 

There is more.... I reassembled enough bits to make a whole maybug, and placed the Mepps beside them

 

 

As you can see, the match is good. The commotion made by the spinner resembles a struggling maybug being swept downstream with the current (I cast my spinners upstream and retrieve faster than the flow - it is more effective than the traditional down-and-across of the sea-trout and salmon fisher) The gold spinner blade mimics the wing cases, the "bodies" of spinner and bug are about the same size, and even the treble hook mimics the legs.

 

So I can argue that I caught the trout on an "exact imitation"

 

Purist Maybug

 

...or if you are a cynic, "Purest Humbug" - like the reservoir "fly" fishers that use Missionaries and the like on fry-feeding rainbows.

Edited May 9, 2007 by Vagabond

[kleinboet]

When I fished overseas the main baits we used were Maize (sweetcorn), Crickets,Worms and slugs (yes, you can catch Carp on slugs!), so I don't see why they wouldn't work over here.

 

Oh - we also used a live aquatic frog called a "Platanna"

Edited May 9, 2007 by kleinboet

[DavyR]

Oh - we also used a live aquatic frog called a "Platanna"

 

I think Geoff Bucknall once wrote about using frogs as bait (or was it Negley Farson?). It put him off a bit when the fish were striking short at the bait and he was getting the frogs back still alive but "minus trousers".

 

Dick Walker in "No Need to Lie" writes about catching two huge "uncatchable" chub on big (dead) frogs.

[Andy Macfarlane]

I posted this before and I thought it was fairly relevant to your question. I've caught on.....

 

Cigarette ends, presented in various ways (useful bit of fluff).

Foil (use your imagination)

Walkers Crisp Packet (Coloured on one side, foil on the other...great for feathers)

Feathers (for flies or as is)

Tinsel (Where do I start?)

Zip tag and fluoro beads (primitive spinner caught me a competition winning brown trout)

All manner of rockpool fish (Blennies, gobys etc.)

Slugs of varying colours (often curl up in mucus and mask the hook but effective).

Freshwater Snails (smashed up and simply used as is. V Good).

Caddis Larvae, Damsel Larvae, etc. (Hmmm....seasonal perhaps).

Freshwater Shrimp. (Rarely fails in clean water).

Spiders, Daddy Long Legs, Cranefly etc. (Made for dapping).

Moths, Butterflies, Caterpillars (trout just suck them up)

Wasp Grubs (Killer baits)

Mealworms (fine but not remarkable)

Crickets (good but difficult to find and catch)

Bees and Wasps (trout will come up for them too)

Leeches (Not as good as expected)

Ladybirds (great for Whitewater)

Beetles (Spot on for float fishing and touch legering)

 

I've tried just about everything and it's been trout that have been the main targets but I reckon most fish will find many of the above baits just as appealing.

[Newt]

but May bugs (aka June bugs or doodlebugs) have such a tough carapace that you'd probably need something like that in order to present them as a bait (or I suppose you could superglue them to the hook).

 

I use this and it works really well. I always keep a bottle in my tackle box.

 

http://www.baitstick.com/

[DavyR]

I use this and it works really well. I always keep a bottle in my tackle box.

 

http://www.baitstick.com/

 

Interesting, Newt! I've never tried superglue on soft-bodied baits like grubs or worms, so I don't know what effect it might have on those (particularly especially wriggly specimens). I wonder if/how baitstick differs from superglue (Cyanoacrylate)?

[Newt]

Baitstick is not a glue. It is a very thick & sticky gel. A small blob of it will cling to the hook and will hold an insect.