Recently I have been using and having a lot of success with dead red maggots as hook baits and also feeding the same. How many anglers buy maggots every week and simply discard left over ones at the end of every match, wasting perfectly good bait for Carp and Skimmers with little or no work to do to save them for the coming weeks or months?
Take them home and simply riddle of the excess maize and place them in a small freezer bag and put in the freezer, very quickly if you fish regularly you can build up a stock of dead maggots saving money and without wasting time. When you want to use them simply take out of the freezer on the morning of the match place in the bait bag and go to the match you intend to fish. Once you have drawn, at the peg take the maggots out of the bag into a Drennan Maggibox and cover in lake water and leave to thaw out. I then strain of the water and cover again with some more lake water; they are then ready to use! Keep them covered with water during the match as then they will not discolour.
For Skimmers a little tip is to leave the maggots in the bag a couple of hours before freezing and they will stretch and soften a little, then place them in freezer. When you take them out you will have softer dead maggots, which are better for skimmers, the carp will just hoover anything up!
Now the weather is improving dead maggots are a great bait for fishing in the margins as once you have fed them they stay put and create a good bed to fish over. Once the fish arrive topping up with a large pot will keep the fish in the swim, and three or four soft dead maggots on the hook is irresistible for the Carp. I have also been doing well using them with casters and chopped worms in groundbait at Thorne on the Stainy Canal for for the Skimmers. Single dead red maggot on the hook has caught skimmers as fast as bloodworm at times, and I must say I have really enjoyed this type of fishing this year.
So simply freeze your left over maggot and pinkies – it’s a great bait so why waste them?
Alan uses the Drennan Maggiboxes – which are available in three useful sizes. For further details click here.