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Dave Gladwell's Fishing TipsBreeding a few juicy white maggots for hook baits (GOZZERS)
I stumbled into much of this from the very earliest of my fishing days. The Old Man next door, who was my hero and much-adored tutor, used to get me to take a rather battered, round, zinc bait tin off to the local Tannery. At that time (1950's) there was some sort of a cattle farming grant which meant keeping the ears of beasts that had been slaughtered, each of which had a hole nipped in them, to qualify. Very conveniently these were stored reeking, for collection in great open four foot high metal drums and fairly seethed with large lively maggots. If there were none that day, my journey would have to be to the Glue Factory further on, where hoofs and horns were melted down, and an equally evilly smelling array of bins guaranteed success. There, with a filthy tablespoon, I would scoop off the maggots for our outing depositing them in the bran in the tin. Mr Allington called these "Gentles". Now in those days, I in my ignorance, and as a result of perpetual Christian harassment from a Strict-Baptist upbringing, referred to them mistakenly as "gentiles". This much amused my long-suffering parents for some time, but, my Mum was absolutely furious over "gentiles" one day. Yours truly in all the enthusiasm of my fourteenth year, had placed the treasured tin, full of marvelous maggots, on the third from bottom step of the hall stairs to the bedrooms of the tiny terraced house. My Father came running downstairs late for his shift on the buses; knocked it down the stairs, and the lid came off. Out came the beloved bait in legions, and soon buried themselves behind the stair-carpet rails and in between cracks on the floorboards, not to mention becoming embedded in the carpet fibre itself. In loud tones the Dear Lord was called upon and Satan cited for his work by my enraged parents. Much grief and little meditation pertained as my cuffed ears stung all day! For weeks hatches of great blue-bottles buzzed and bombed my Baptist parents in prayer, and in purity, as they done everything from baking bacon to bible-reading . There was much anguish to say the least and poor old Mr Allington was almost as unpopular as myself! The Old Man caught loads though as he always seemed to do, and I delighted myself in perpetual pursuit of a "personal best" fish no doubt. Ahh - magic days eh! Materials
required for four attempts: LOCATION
IMPORTANT: BEST BET
FOR QUANTITY BREEDING: Warning: wash hands, scrub fingers, throughout or you will get the runs! 1. You need to be a good 9 days in front of the event for perfection. 7 days at least. During hot weather a shorter period may occur for the cycle. June July and August are ideal but from Mid September fly-blows hard to get. 2. Obtain
a small amount of meat or separate some from body of a corpse intended
for stage 7. 3. Place on bed of bran about two inches deep. Leave out for one, two days best, to take away freshness in the small sealed container. Ensure here that inquisitive dogs and cats cannot get hold of your carton. 4. Prop open lid of container, and beak or moth of corpse, with a piece of matchstick so that fly can blow inside is best. This is easily checked. You are looking for a light yellow/cream batch. There are about 160 eggs in a batch. Five blows are fine. Any more and you risk having too many small under fed maggots which will float. 5. This is a crucial stage. Keep the meat away from direct light in a shaded area. Slightly darkened even better. Direct light will just bring small bright blue-green coloured pinkie fly! You want the big buzzy dark blue one. Check for sufficient blows. Remove excess blows with matchstick. These can be put in fridge in damp newspaper to keep for a week. 6. After two days in hot, three days mild, eggs will have changed to maggots a quarter of an inch long and now moving in a clot as they feed. 7. This is time to transfer into the inside of, or place on top of, main corpse or rest of meat.Two options or methods then: (a) Place again on bed of bran, in a tin or roomy container. Two foot high bucket or drum with at least twelve inches diameter. Then completely cover with two inches of sawdust to keep smell down and prevent further blows. (b) Wrap the corpse in a thick paper bag or newspaper at this stage adding more bran before doing so. It doesn't it makes them sweat so much and progress is checked easily. Slightly soften maggot this way. Both of these prevent other additional blows being laid on the meat, and cuts down the smell potential as they make an ammonia release in their progression. 8. After three days un-interrupted, check daily carefully by turning with a dinner fork gently, for growth development. Add extra meat if frothing or too many in a heaving mass in sawdust. May need to add more bran or sawdust. After a few days they will appear mainly dark red or black and are actually chock full of flesh. They have got to get this through their system. When ready they will just have a moving blob or spot left. 9. Morning
of match or outing, best, or night before; either tip whole lot on to
sieve and let crawl through into fresh bran, or spoon some off with
desert spoon into bait box WASH HANDS Why are
they so good?
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CAUTION
- This can be Mother's (or the Wife's) next to worse nightmare - the
smell and potential mess can be a little off-putting. Never mind though,
this is nothing to compare with breeding half a bucket full of bait
in your bedroom, which would be guaranteed to send the good Lady absolutely
bananas!