gentles

[Gateleaner]

Of course maggots don't have eyes!


It's an expression we used as boys.

[Snape]

Of course maggots don't have eyes!


It's an expression we used as boys.

If they were eyes they would have eyes in their ar*e.

[Gateleaner]

Nick'm between the eyes without popping them.

Why not pop 'em and let the juices flow?

Always thought that kept intact they would wriggle for longer?

[J.T]

Of course maggots don't have eyes!


It's an expression we used as boys.

If they were eyes they would have eyes in their ar*e.

[Snape]

Nick'm between the eyes without popping them.

Why not pop 'em and let the juices flow?

Always thought that kept intact they would wriggle for longer?

I think an experiment is needed (anyone done it?) with unpopped maggots on a hook and popped maggots on another hook both underwater and time how long the wriggle lasts. If there is little difference surely the juices would be beneficial and maybe it just means change the maggots more frequently.
Are wriggly maggots appreciably more attractive to fish? As I first asked what about dead maggots? They are surely better as freebies (esp. in still water) as they don't wriggle away .

[Davyr]

It always used to be accepted as a matter of faith that no self-respecting roach would take a maggot that had been rejected by one of its shoal mates. I don't use maggots often enough these days to form an opinion, but do those who do routinely change the bait following a missed bite, for example (assuming the maggot remains "unsucked")?

[Weyfarer]

I very rarely use or buy maggots. I do, however, take any that my mates would otherwise chuck away. These I freeze and take a few when I want to snitch some small livebaits or to use mixed with groundbait when tench fishing. For 90% of my fishing I use bread in various forms. I notice that the popular angling press now refers to gentles/maggots as grubs.

[J.T]

It always used to be accepted as a matter of faith that no self-respecting roach would take a maggot that had been rejected by one of its shoal mates. I don't use maggots often enough these days to form an opinion, but do those who do routinely change the bait following a missed bite, for example (assuming the maggot remains "unsucked")?

I tend to change after every bite or take but I have from time to time left a "Chewed" Maggot on the hook and then caught another fish.

[MGs]

It always used to be accepted as a matter of faith that no self-respecting roach would take a maggot that had been rejected by one of its shoal mates. I don't use maggots often enough these days to form an opinion, but do those who do routinely change the bait following a missed bite, for example (assuming the maggot remains "unsucked")?

I spend most of my time roach fishing these days, with a variety of baits. Much depends on the size of roach in the water. Smaller fish, when the swim has been fed frequently (trickle feeding) will often take any maggot, even one which has been sucked by one or more other fish. However, the better stamp of fish tend, as you would expect, to avoid these sucked baits.
In the summer, my usual roach bait is sweetcorn, as it avoids the small roach battering the bait before the bigger fish get to it. This isn't so much of a problem in the winter (after a frost or two) as the smaller fish seem to feed less readily

[The VFC]

I too am far too tight to throw away old gentles (I only ever use red - no idea why!)- preferring to freeze them and mix them into ground bait for bream (being a Norfolk based angler, bream are de rigeur, even if they do have all the fight of an old sock and slime your net, hands, clothes, mat, bank, seat.......)

The advantage of using frozen gentles is that they won't ferret themselves away in the muck at the bottom of the river or lake. I also sometimes drown the blighters deliberately and use for eel fishing - but only once in a blue moon (before remembering why I don't like catching eels that much!)

Jim