Casters

[Bob Brookes]

Mal,
So it just took a while for us Warwickians to cotton on then.

[AshbyCut]

Bob, Sir ... I remember being told as a teenager by my local tackle shop in Ashby de la Zouch Leicestershire) how to leave maggots in their tub for some days to produce casters (by that name) ... and that was in the early 1960's. It may just have taken time for the name to spread slowly south.

I have no recollection of actually buying casters ... it was simply something I did in one of the 'out-houses' in the garden where I lived ... where there were old 'copper' washing tubs built over fireplaces for laundry.

[AshbyCut]

Interestingly ... in "Coarse Fishing" by J. H. R. Bazley and N. L. Weatherall (H. F. and G. Witherby Ltd. 1st edition 1933 ... the edition I have being the 5th in 1947) ... casters are only referred to as :-

"Maggots still have their uses even when they have reached the chrysalid stage, for fish will sometimes take them as a hook bait, or they may be mixed with ground bait."

... and as Mr. Bazley was from Leeds he was definitely 'northern,' ... though originating from Northumberland I always believe that The Midlands started around Durham !!!

[Bob Brookes]

Bob, Sir ... I remember being told as a teenager by my local tackle shop in Ashby de la Zouch Leicestershire) how to leave maggots in their tub for some days to produce casters (by that name) ... and that was in the early 1960's. It may just have taken time for the name to spread slowly south.

I have no recollection of actually buying casters ... it was simply something I did in one of the 'out-houses' in the garden where I lived ... where there were old 'copper' washing tubs built over fireplaces for laundry.

So it could tie in with when I moved away from Bill Norris in 1961?

[DaceAce]

Bob, Benny Ashurst and Kevin to my knowledge,in the early seventies were the first to take casters down to the Trent and won countless matches there and across the north west using them.

It was at least a decade before the early 70s (possibly very early 60s or late 50s? Certainly in widespread use by 65.) that Benny and Kevin took casters to the Trent. They'd been using casters with stick floats before this on the canals.

[Kevin]

Thanks Daceace,do you think Benny could have been a member of the Bury club Ashby posted?

[DaceAce]

I don't know but I know that Ken and Harry Booth of Bury were travelling with Benny and Kevin to the Trent and swapping ideas.

[JerryC]

Anyone produce their own gozzers - and if so did they have any neighbours?.............................

[Kevin]

Thanks again Dace,that is interesting,were you match fishing then ?
Who began the bronze maggot revolution anyone?

[DaceAce]

Thanks again Dace,that is interesting,were you match fishing then ?
Who began the bronze maggot revolution anyone?

I'm nothing like that old! But I do have a lot of historical stuff on match and roach fishing. Bernard Donovan mentions the use of casters in his 1965 Match Fishing book.

Although the use of maggot dyes obviously goes back a long way the 'bronze maggot revolution' seems to date back to around 1974 or 75 with Dave Thomas.