Maggots – The perfect fishing bait

Talk about fishing with a non-angler and they will immediately think maggots. They are synonymous with fishing and fish bait, and have been for many many years.

These small, wriggling little creatures are ideal for use as bait because they are cheap, in plentiful supply, they are easy to hook and the fish absolutely love them. Why? Because they are packed to the brim with protein.

They are suitable for year round use and suitable for all venues, from the most powerful rivers through to the most idyllic farm ponds.

What is a maggot?

Basically maggots are the larval stage of a fly – that stage between the egg and the chrysalis – also known as a caster.

There are three types of maggot that we, as anglers, are the most interested in. These three maggots are differently sized and are as follows:- squatt, pinkie and maggot.

Squatts are the larvae of the small House Fly, pinkies are the larvae of the Greenfly, and maggots are the larval stage of the European Bluebottle fly.

Maggots

Squatts

Pinkies

They don’t survive as maggots for very long. Once the egg hatches the maggot emerges and searches for food. That’s why flies try to lay their eggs upon decaying matter as their baby maggots will be surrounded by a plentiful supply of food right at their feet, if they had any feet.

They will gorge themselves upon the meat until they have stored enough fat and food reserves within their body to see them through the next stage – the chrysalis, or caster stage. If you buy really fresh maggots you can actually see the food reserve within its body – that’s the dark spot that seems to move back and forth inside its body as they wriggle.

When the maggot has finished feeding it will either drop off or wriggle away from the food supply and bury itself in any nook or cranny it can find so it can safely begin the metamorphosis into a chrysalis, or caster.

Maggot farming

Maggot farmers take good use of the principle above to produce gallons upon gallons of fresh maggots every day.

They have sealed, warm rooms full of flies and hanging meat that happily carry on breeding and laying their eggs as they would in the wild. The eggs hatch upon the flesh, the maggots feed for a short while and eventually drop off to be collected by the maggot farmer to be sold to the likes of you and me.

Coloured maggots

The usual colour of a maggot is a creamy white, but you can buy bronze, red, green, fluoro pink and even blue maggots nowadays.

To achieve this colouration the maggots are fed upon meat that has been dyed a certain colour. Whatever colour the meat has been dyed, that’s the colour that the maggot will become. Simple really!

What fish like maggots?

The answer to this is basically anything that swims! From tiny little minnows to record-breaking carp – they will all feast upon maggots at some point in their lives.

The only British coarse fish that aren’t really commonly associated with the maggot are pike and zander – they prefer to eat other fish, or our perfectly presented deadbaits or livebaits.

Buying maggots

Maggots are sold by the pint in most tackle shops. You can by half-pints if you so wish. Prices vary across the country, but the average for a pint of normal maggots will be around the £2.75 mark.

It’s far from ideal just turning up at a tackle shop and expecting to take a pint of maggots home – you need something to carry them in so they don’t spill all over your car, the road or in your pocket. The perfect item is a bait box. These have lids that are sealed tight enough to keep the baits where they ought to be, but the lids do have holes to allow a constant stream of fresh air reaching the maggots to not only keep them alive, but to help disperse any condensation. Bait boxes are available in different sizes and it’s always best to only half-fill a bait box to prevent the maggots from sweating as they wriggle amongst each other.

Always ask for a little maize dust or sawdust to be added to the maggots. This helps to keep the baits clean and also helps to absorb any moisture from the baits.

Storing maggots

The perfect place to keep maggots is in a fridge. Here they will remain happy for up to a fortnight (if you have bought them fresh). The cold slows their metabolism down enough to prevent them from changing into casters. Always keep the lid on though, to prevent any damp maggots from escaping inside the fridge.

The next best thing, if you cannot store your maggots in a fridge, is to keep them in a cold and dark place. A garage floor is perfect, or even float the bait box in a bucket of cold water – again remembering to keep the lid on.

Looking after your maggots

If you are keeping the maggots for a while between sessions it’s best to riddle them once a day to remove any dead maggots (also known as skins) and any maggots that have turned to casters.

Find a clean and dry tray, pour your maggots onto the riddle and allow them to wriggle through of their own accord. All the debris and dead baits will be left on the riddle – just feed those to your garden birds – they love ‘em!

How to fish with bloodworm and joker

Fishing with bloodworm and joker isn’t as difficult nor as mysterious as many anglers think. You don’t need masses of specialist fishing tackle to use these baits – if you’ve got a pole, a riddle and a good tackle shop nearby that sells a wide variety of groundbaits you’re on to a winner.

In this short but informative feature we’ll show you how to prepare bloodworm and joker, how to hook it, the best groundbaits for the job and the ideal pole rigs for fishing with these blood-red baits…

If there’s one angler who knows how to get the best from bloodworm and joker it has to be triple world champion, Alan Scotthorne. The canals he regularly fishes in his home county of South Yorkshire allow bloodworm and joker to be used, so therefore he maximises his catch potential by utilising these deadly, blood-red baits as often as he can.

There cannot be a more natural bait than bloodworm or joker as both these larvae can be found buried in the silt of slow moving waterways.

And although Alan, and many more experienced match anglers, collect their own bloodworm and joker (often referred to as ‘scraping’) it is far easier and much safer to buy them. They are available to order from most good tackle shops and come supplied in what’s called a Match Pack. For between £8.50 and £12, depending upon the shop, you will receive plenty of joker for feeding and a good quantity of bloodworm hook baits. They will be supplied separately, wrapped in damp newspaper.

“I always riddle my baits first, just as I would with maggots, to remove any dead or dying bait and store them separately in buckets of water,” explains Alan. “I simply place a maggot riddle over a tray of water and tip the baits on top. Soon all the active worms wriggle through to the bottom tray to leave dead bait and debris on the riddle. That is discarded and the live baits tipped into the bucket. As I might need to keep my bloodworm and joker for some time I also pump air into the water using an ordinary aquarium pump and change the water once a week.”

This all sounds a little time consuming and expensive, but Alan has to look after his baits if he wants to remain at the very top of the match fishing league, but if you intend using your baits within a couple of days you will not require the pump.

“On the morning of the match I will tip the water and bait into a fine, soft fish net - the kind available from any pet store - and tip the baits over a few sheets of newspaper and neatly fold them up. The newspaper helps retain moisture and keeps the bait alive,” adds Alan.

PREPARING BLOODWORM AND JOKER

1 – Your bloodworm and joker will be supplied within damp newspaper. They will survive like this for a couple of days.

2 – When it’s time to use the baits pour them onto a riddle and allow the live baits to wriggle through the mesh. Discard the dead baits.

3 – If you’re intending to keep the baits for some time, use an aquarium net to transfer them between buckets when changing the water.

4 – When it comes to separating the joker use a sprinkling of damp leam. Make sure the leam is riddled first to remove any lumps.

5 – Gently spread the damp leam through the joker using your fingertips. You will coat the joker with leam and separate them from the clump.

6 – Once the joker is separated it can now be added to your groundbait, formed into balls and introduced to the swim.

“Preparation is key when bloodworm and joker fishing. Your rigs need to be right, your groundbait needs to be right and you need a clear view of how you intend using your bait,” says Alan.

On the banks of the New Junction Canal, in the shadow of an impressive, disused power station at Barnby Dun, near Doncaster, Alan explains how best to introduce joker to a deep swim.

“I will fish two lines today; a close-in line for perch and a far-line for roach. Because the canal here is some 11ft deep I’m going to have to mix the joker with something that will force the feed down to the bottom quickly and keep it there for the fish to feed over. Perch aren’t too keen on groundbait so therefore I intend mixing some joker with a little damp leam for the inside line.

Damp leam is nothing more than a finely ground clay mud – there’s nothing more to is than that. As you would expect it’s heavy and unscented, therefore it’s perfect for holding masses of bloodworm together to introduce in a ball that will drop to the bottom where perch can happily feed without the scent of groundbait putting them off.

Roach do have a liking for groundbait, but I have to be careful as I don’t want to introduce a groundbait which feeds the roach,” explains Alan.

He decides upon a groundbait mix of two bags of Van den Eynde Secret (roach love Secret) and one bag of Van den Eynde Superblack. He mixes them together thoroughly, adds a little water and mixes again. More water is added until the groundbait just holds together with a squeeze. He riddles the groundbait thoroughly to remove any lumps that the roach could find and eat. The lumps remaining on the riddle are just tipped onto the grass for the robins to find the next day.

Alan's roach groundbait consists of Van den Eynde Secret and Superblack, while his perch 'groundbait' was simply balls of damp leam. Both were laced with plenty of joker.

“My next job is to separate the joker so that it does not stick together in a tight ball on the bottom. A little sprinking of damp leam over the top of the neat joker does the trick,” explains Alan.

He spreads the leam over the joker, rubbing the fine powder into the baits. Within seconds the writhing mass of red separates and every single joker is covered in dust.

Next he tips around a kilo of damp leam into a spare groundbait bowl, scoops up a small amount of joker and mixes it into the leam - this will be his perch ‘groundbait’. Alan squeezes five orange sized balls and places them in the bowl, on top of his bait tray.

A really good helping of joker is mixed into the groundbait and 12 balls are made, of a similar size. Again, the balls are placed on his bait tray, alongside his seatbox.

You’ve got to be quick when introducing groundbait containing joker. Most groundbait nowadays contains salt and salt kills joker, so the sooner you throw the balls into the swim the better,” advises Alan.

He had already plumbed the swim before we actually arrived, so he shipped out the close-in rig, placed the pole in a pair of rests and picked up the first ball of damp leam.

“Jokers are great as you can give them a really good squeeze when forming a ball of groundbait holding them and they don’t burst, plus they haven’t the strength to wriggle and break up the balls, so you can form all the balls first before balling in,” explains Alan.

He threw the five balls of leam right on top of his pole tip. Two hit the water just to the right, two just to the left, and the remaining one just passed the tip.

“We’ve got a strong back wind today that is sure to drag the rig away from the tip of my pole, that’s the reason why I’ve introduced one ball just out from the pole tip,” adds Alan.

He shipped back and switched rigs. After shipping out and placing the pole in the rests he quickly threw in the 12 groundbait balls. If you watched from overhead the splashes would form a diamond pattern around his pole tip. Some landed to the right, some to the left and some in front of the pole tip. But this time a couple landed just short of the pole tip.

Alan made up his balls of groundbait first, placed them on his side tray, then shipped out and placed his pole in rests to provide a target to throw the groundbait towards.

TAKE CARE WHEN TOPPING UP

“I doubt that the groundbaited swim will need any further feed, but the perch swim might. You’ve got to be very careful when topping up a swim when using any form of groundbait. Sometimes the fish respond, sometimes they don’t. So with this in mind I’ll make up a mix which contains a huge amount of joker but very little leam. This should not scare the fish too much, and at the same time give them plenty of feed to come back to,” explains Alan.

He scooped up a good handful of leamed joker and spread it over a little damp leam placed in a plastic tray. He also added a little Kryptonite binder which helps hold the balls together. Joker, as they are an aquatic larvae, will quickly die if they are given the chance to dry out. Alan prevents this by placing a damp towel over the tray.

“It’s great! Anglers see your covered up tray and think you’ve some secret bait hidden away!” he says.

After adding damp leam to his joker - for the perch - Alan sprinkles a good helping of Kryptonite binder over the leam and joker mix to help create balls that hold together as they fall through the depths.

With both swims fed Alan is anxious to bait the hook and see what effect the groundbait and leam has upon the fish, but before doing so he sets out his stall ready for the session. He tips a good helping of bloodworm into a clean bait box and half fills it with water. He does the same with a handful of joker, as joker can also be used as hook baits if the going’s hard. With the close-in rig in hand he reaches down to his bait tray and scoops up a few bloodworm hook baits.

“Some anglers struggle to hook bloodworm. It’s easy really; just scoop up a mass of the bait and thumb through it to find a healthy, wriggling bait. Once you’ve found one simply hold it between finger and thumb and work the hook into the bait. Aim for the dark end of the bloodworm and pass the hook through the third segment,” advises Alan.

“It’s important to use a very fine wire hook when fishing with bloodworm as the baits are prone to bursting. I use Mustad size 22 Wide Gape Canal/Seed. They’ve never let me down,” states Alan.

Three different ways of hooking bloodworm. From left: double bloodworm, single bloodworm hooked in the third segment, and single bloodworm hooked in the centre. Experimentation with the three different styles will indicate which is best on any given day.

He ships the rig out to 9m and lifts the pole high. Then, in a controlled manner, it is dropped vertically into the swim. This allows the olivette to fall naturally and the float to cock almost instantaneously.

“Lowering the bloodworm bait into the swim in this manner ensures it drops vertically; the dropper shot fall straight below the olivette and the bait follows. It makes the bait drop more naturally than if you were to swing the olivette in,” advises Alan.

It’s hardly surprising that the triple-world champion’s float goes under first chuck. A five-ounce perch is swung to hand.

“I’m fishing with a slack number four elastic, a 0.08mm mainline and a 0.06mm hooklength and I can still swing the fish to hand. If the fish is flapping when you lift it from the water you’re more likely to break the fine hooklength, so I always wait until the fish stops moving and then lift it straight out of the water,” states Alan.

He continues to catch perch after perch from the inside line. His float is dropped in right over the five balls of damp leam and joker, and the float continues to duck under.

“It’s easy to read bites when using fibre-tipped floats, especially when they are dotted right down. You can easily see lift bites as well as ordinary bites. But the main reason why I like these highly sensitive, fibre-tipped pole floats is that the light penetrates right through the sight tips making them really easy to see against the water,” adds Alan.

Alan much prefers to use wire stemmed pole floats having plastic or fibre bristles for his bloodworm and joker fishing.

FISH BLOODWORM OVERDEPTH

He has his bait set some two inches overdepth, and much prefers fishing bloodworm on the bottom.

“Some anglers think that bloodworm and joker dance around off the bottom. That’s a myth. They just lie there in the groundbait or leam. Occasionally one may wriggle off the bottom, but that’s pretty rare. So it makes sense to present the bait on the bottom where it will look natural. I’ve found that you catch larger fish when fishing in this way,” explains Alan.

“There’s also no real need to use red hooks when fishing with bloodworm and joker. I’ve found that ordinary chrome hooks are just as good, if not better than red versions as the shiny hook sparkles a little in the clear water and this draws attention to the bait.”

His float goes under again and another perch is added to the net. In fact it goes under regularly! Alan has at least 2lb in his net within the first hour.

He decides to switch over to the far line and try for a few roach. Bites were a little harder to come by, but the roach were larger and definitely worth waiting for.

Alan soon finds that the roach were holding back from the groundbait. The majority of bites came when he presented the hook bait around two feet away from the groundbait.

More roach and the occasional perch follow. Alan tinkers around with his rig, moving the dropper shot around to see if the roach want the bait presented in any other way.

“When the going’s tough it certainly pays to try different presentations and different sizes of hook bait. Sometimes large bloodworm work, sometimes small baits work. Occasionally jokers on the hook are best,” advises Alan.

A decent stamp of roach can quite easily be caught on bloodworm, but skimmer bream, bronze bream and perch will all show if they are in your swim.

TIME TO TOP-UP

Some three hours later Alan decides to top-up the perch swim with a single ball of leam laced with joker via a pole cup. It did the trick too, with more perch coming to the net.

“Once the swims are fed at the start of the session there’s very little to do other than catch fish!” says Alan. “You may need to top-up a swim later in the day, so judge how fast you are catching and only feed again if you find it extremely difficult to get bites.”

Alan amassed a double figure catch quite easily during his five-hour session and was more than pleased with the weight considering the conditions; strong back winds can make presenting a delicate pole rig awkward.

As the session progressed it became clearly obvious that bloodworm and joker fishing is easy! There’s no need to concentrate on loosefeeding - you simply feed the swims at the start and wait until the fish arrive. So long as your bait is presented overdepth and your float is set to detect the slightest bites you should catch a good weight. Try it and see!

A fine double-figure bag all taken on single and double bloodworm.

How to look after your lobworms and redworms

Get more from your worms by following our 10-point guide to looking after them properly

1 Give them plenty of room

Store your worms in a large bucket, or better still, in a hessian sack. That way plenty of air will get to them and they will remain in tip-top condition. Ideally, hang up the bucket or the sack so that air can circulate all around it.

2 Control the temperature

The quickest way to kill worms is to make sudden changes in the temperature of the air around them. A temperature between 10 and 20 degrees Centigrade is best to keep them healthy.

3 Float them in water

On warm days, keep worms out of the sun while fishing. The best way is to float your worms in water, in the mouth of your keepnet.

4 Keep them well fed

Your worms will need feeding to keep them in tip-top condition. Cold, cooked mashed potato, broken into small pieces, will do nicely. You can even use Smash if you want! You’ll be amazed how much they can eat. Fruit is another good food.

5 Maggot death

Fresh maggots spell disaster for your worms. The ammonia in a maggot with a large feed spot – one that has recently come off the meat – will soon kill any worms near it.

6 Try newspaper for lobworms

Lobworms can be kept in dampened moss or even shredded newspaper but if you manage to keep them for more than a couple of months, you’re doing well. They can also be fed.

7 Find a friendly farmer for reds

The hardest worms to keep are redworms – found in compost heaps. Buy them only when you need them… or find a friendly farmer!

8 Store them in plenty of peat

Make sure that there is plenty of peat with them. As they age, the peat will become damp and you will need to feed them more.

9 Wormeries can be a disappointment

Creating your own wormery is difficult because it is the natural instinct of worms to vacate an area after breeding in order to let the immature worms grow.

10 Invest in a Worm Bank

Buying a product called a Worm Bank is a good investment. This is produced by British Worm Breeders and is a bucket containing food used by them to grow the worms that they supply to anglers and tackle shops. The 71⁄2-litre container is specially designed to self-feed the worms for up to six months depending on the time of year. You can buy a Worm Bank for £15 or £21 including 1,000 small worms which will double and treble in weight. Lobworms and dendrobaena will live together in one.

Catching big fish with lobworms as bait

I DIDN’T know whether to laugh or cry. We’d already cancelled this feature once because the lake was frozen over but, as I was setting up my tackle, conditions could hardly be said to have got much better.

As I was battered by gale force northerly winds that cut to the bone, squalls of heavy rain were ripping across the lake the like of which you see in television news reports about hurricanes.

Ah well, these things are sent to try us.

I was fishing at Messingham Sands, near Scunthorpe, a popular day ticket complex that offers far more than the usual match-sized carp.

Messingham’s North Lake has a track record of producing big perch, decent sized chub, bream and quality roach, too.

My challenge was to catch some better-than-average fish using techniques that would normally be used by specialist anglers.

It’s very easy to complicate matters in winter to the point where you will spend all day chopping and changing while struggling to get bites.

Sometimes it is better to stick with a simple plan – and there are few better winter baits than worms.

Everything from a minnow to a catfish will eat worms, but if catching quality fish is your goal, then there’s nothing better than a lobworm. And, collecting them is nearly as much fun as fishing with them.

COLLECTING LOBWORMS

You can collect lobworms from any decent sized area of mown grass – public parks and football fields are ideal.

I collect mine from the local cricket pitch on mild, damp nights. Calm nights are best because worms don’t like wind, nor do they like the cold.

I’ll go out with a head torch and a bucket, about two hours after dark, making sure I tread carefully.

The worms will usually be laid on the grass, half exposed, but their tails are still in their burrows and it only takes a single heavy footfall or bright light for them to shoot back into their underground hides.

The skill is in spotting a worm, bending down and grabbing it firmly between finger and thumb and simply hanging on tight.

You can’t afford to go tugging at the worm or it will break and, contary to folklore, will die. Just apply a steady amount of gentle pressure and wait.

You’ll be amazed at how strong a worm is – you will feel it pulling back – but it will relax and you should be able to draw it out of the ground unharmed.

On a good evening I can collect enough cricket pitch specials to last a full session in around half an hour.

1. On a mild, damp night walk softly across a football pitch or cricket field and study the ground looking for the end of a lobworm sticking out

2. When you spy a worm illuminate it with a torch and immediately grip it between your thumb and first finger

3. Don’t pull the worm. Instead, keep a firm grip on it and wait for it to loosen its hold in the ground

4. This is what you are looking for – a handful of fat, juicy lobworms which virtually all fish will respond to

TARGETING FEATURES WITH BITS OF LOBWORM

Most commercial and club-run day ticket lakes contain good quality fish of various species, especially if the water has existed for several years.

The older the lake the more likely it is there will also be a ready supply of fish-holding features to cast to.

Overhanging trees, bushes, islands, weedbeds and dead rushes are the best holding areas for fish of all species.

When I’m targeting a water with lobworms for larger sized fish, I like to use two rods, each cast to a different feature. It increases my chances of a bite.

The right-hand rod was cast parallel to the bank towards an overhanging bush. This was my banker for a decent perch or a chub.

The other rod was cast to an aerator in the middle of the lake. In the weedfree open water that is the norm on commercial fisheries, surface objects like an aerator are prime fish holding features.

I always stress the importance of correct feeding, especially in winter.

Feeding is much easier when you are using small baits like maggots or casters but if you offer a fish a big, juicy lobworm in winter, it might be the only thing it eats all day. Consequently, you can’t throw in lobworms by the dozen.

Instead, I chop lobworms into small pieces and introduce them through a swimfeeder. Unless the fish are going mad, which is rare in winter conditions, I’ll only introduce one, or very occasionally two, chopped lobworms in the feeder each cast.

Chopped worms leak off blood and amino acids which stimulates a fish’s hunger.

In tough conditions it is best to target one fish at a time and a fast leak-off of wormy juices provides instant stimulation.

A cage feeder is my favoured carrier for chopped worms because its open sides allow the bait to leak. But I prefer not to use groundbait to plug the ends as this soaks up the juices I’m staking my approach on.

Instead, I mix a bit of peat with bankside soil to plug the ends of the feeder and it hardly takes a genius to work out that the soil at a place called Messingham Sands is actually sand. This is great because sand won’t soak up the juices.

Peat will soak up the worm liquids so I only use enough to bind the sand. Leam is even better if you can lay your hands on some.

Whatever you choose, use as little as you can and test it in the water to make sure it breaks down quickly to release the feed.

When bites are hard to come by you should cut right down on the amount of feed introduced and this is where the option to switch between a feeder and a straight lead scores. You should also chop the worms into much smaller pieces.

Winter fishing is about making the most of limited opportunities. When fish are reluctant to feed you need to stimulate them, hit every bite and land every fish.

PUTTING YOUR WORMS TO WORK

...now you’ve got the bait you need and prepared it correctly, here’s the rig...

BOB’S LOW RESISTANCE LIFTING LINK RIG

I’ve outlined why lobworms produce great fish in winter, how you collect them and the best way to chop them up and stuff them in a feeder.

Now I’ll move on to describe my favourite rig and bite indication set-up that I use with this bait – they complement each other well.

At Messingham, I used one of my favourite tactics. In this age of near mandatory bolt-rigs and hair-rigs it’s a throwback to a bygone age.

My low resistance lifting rig works for most species and can be employed on ponds, lakes, reservoirs, canals, drains and slow moving rivers.

In basic terms it enables you to present baits that fish can pick up while feeling minimal resistance, something that’s vital with ‘canny’ species like perch and stillwater chub.

It is normally referred to as a ‘running rig’ as the mainline runs smoothly through the swimfeeder/leger weight.

Bites are normally positive and you have plenty of time to hit them.

First, let’s reel back because it’s not a rig you can buy off the shelf. You’ll need to spend a bit of time making one but, if I can do it, anyone can.

Most anglers using running rigs simply thread a leger weight on their mainline. This means the line has to pass through a narrow diameter swivel to show a bite.

However, this swivel can drop into silt, weed or any other kind of rubbish on the lake bed, jamming the mainline.

By contrast, my rig lifts the line clear of the bottom thanks to the home-made buoyant boom I’ve illustrated.

This simple device really does make a difference. The line slips through the ring, with the minimum resistance, to produce the very best bite indication at the rod end.

Another important part of the boom is the clip on the end, this allows me to switch between a feeder and leger.

In many circumstances I use the lightest leger weight I can get away with, but I don’t with this rig.

It is vital that when you get a bite the leger weight doesn’t move. If it does, resistance will be applied to the running line.

To avoid this, use at least 1oz of lead/feeder that will stay anchored on the bottom as the line slides through the boom.

A static weight with line passing through it also means it doesn’t matter which way a fish swims off with your bait. The bite is registered as a positive pull at the rod.

This brings me nicely to the next important piece of kit, the bite indicator.

Forget advanced carp indicators. What you need is a simple lightweight bobbin – the lighter the better.

On windy days or on large waters where there might be an undertow, you may need to add split shot to the cord below the bobbin to prevent it rising in the wind and giving false bites. I generally use a bite alarm, in case my attention wanders, but you don’t have to.

Any rodrest head that doesn’t trap the line will do but you’ll need to concentrate on the bobbin.

Make sure the rod is pointed directly at the leger to reduce friction and the dampening effect of the rod tip.

If you are going to use two rods, as I like to, it pays to set them up on separate rodrests rather than a rod pod.

One last thing to know is that for tench, perch or chub, it pays to set the bobbins on a long drop because the bites can vary from tentative jerks to a complete flier, where the bobbin shoots straight up to the rod. You can easily miss bites on a short drop.

RIG CONSTRUCTION

To make my boom I take a Fox run ring, a cork ball, a length of stiff rig tubing, a 2cm- 3cm piece of soft 2mm-3mm silicone tubing, a few inches of braid, a clip swivel and a little epoxy resin.

1. Take a cork ball and very carefully cut a slot in the top using a craft knife. This is where the run ring goes. I make a small hole in the opposite side using a sharp drill bit and that’s the hard work done

2. Take a section of stiff rig tubing. The length depends upon how high you want the mainline to sit above the bottom. In weedy swims this might be 15cm, at Messingham it was 4cm. Cut the top at an angle and push it inside the cork ball

3. Thread the braid through the run ring and the stiff tubing. It is better to use fairly thick braid, rather than really fine stuff, as this will thread through the tubing far easier

4. Push the silicone tube over the braid, and on to the stiff tubing. Knot and glue the braid to the clip

5. Slide the soft silicone tubing over one half of the clip swivel, then Araldite the cork ball, stiff tubing and run ring. Job done

6. Here’s the finished boom with the feeder attached. Thanks to the clip swivel, it is easy to swap to a leger to give you more tactical options on the bank

THE PERFECT WORM HOOKBAIT

How you present a lobworm on the hook makes a big difference to the number of bites you hit.

A lobworm is a big bait that easily masks the hookpoint so make sure you use a large hook. I’m using size 8 Gamakatsu GP 203 and I’ll not hesitate to step up to a size 6 or even a 4 if circumstances demand.

Being a barbless hook the worm can easily mask the point, but I overcome this by slipping a section of elastic band over the point. This has two main advantages.

First, the worm is pushed back on to the hook shank so the gape and point stand proud of the worm, increasing the chances of a hook-up.

Second, you’ll also note I’m using red elastic – just stop for a second and think how often we use red as an attractor.

Corn tipped off with a red maggot, worms likewise, bloodworms, red corn, red boilies and pastes, red groundbaits, spinners with red wool on the hook, plugs and spinners with red flashes, pike baits with red polyballs attached – the list goes on.

When bites are proving hard to come by I’ll try a couple of edges to increase my chances of a take.

Firstly, I’ll inject air into the already hooked worm using a hypodermic needle. Don’t overdo it and test the worm in the margins before casting.

The aim is to make your bait semi-buoyant and not to have it popped-up above the feeder.

You must be extremely careful if you try this. Should you accidentally inject air into your body it can have fatal consequences. I get round the risks by laying my hooked worm on a bait box lid to inject the air and then I immediately replace the needle point cap.

My next tactical dodge is to twitch the hookbait. If you think about what has happened under water after you cast, the hookbait probably landed beyond the feeder by the approximate length of the hooklink.

When you feel sure the feeder has emptied you can slowly twitch the hookbait back towards you by this distance and that way it should now lie among the free offerings.

Finally, and this pays off most in really cold weather, watch the rod tip like a hawk.

It doesn’t matter if you have the most sensitive set-up imaginable, if there is the slightest deflection in the direction of your line leaving the rod tip very tentative bites might not register on the bobbin. I’ve caught some very big fish over the years when the only indication has been a slight movement of the rod tip.

BEATEN BUT NOT DEFEATED

It’s at this point I describe how I fished brilliantly and took Messingham Sands apart.

Unfortunately, I had a right old ‘mare’ and I think it’s only right and proper that I tell you this because it’s easy to believe that top anglers catch fish all the time and never make mistakes.

Well, we do and anyone who pretends otherwise is only fooling themselves.

My first bite on the rod cast towards the overhanging bush produced a sail-away lift that was unmissable.

Clunk went the strike, round went the rod tip and I found myself attached to a fair old weight at the other end.

In cold water big fish rarely scream off like they do in summer. For a moment it hung there, nodding it’s head quite savagely.

Applying steady pressure I guided the fish towards me only for it to kite into the tree and snag me up.

The air was blue, I can tell you, as I’d probably lost a big old chub.

The next fish to fall off came from my only bite up against the aerator and that was almost certainly a bream. I couldn’t see how I lost that fish and a simple hook-pull is just one of those things, I guess.

After that, the roach moved in and I was plagued with bites from over-enthusiastic silvers. It was clear I was not managing to build the swim with chopped lobs because they were being mopped up.

I stuck this out for a fair while, but with a dwindling supply of lobs I decided to try a swim move. Again, the silvers homed in on my bait as I caught some good quality roach, skimmers, a cracking golden rudd and a small but beautifully scaled carp. Where had the better fish gone?

Sometimes, you have to accept they are not feeding and switch tactics to catch the obviously eager silverfish species. But I stuck it out and late in the day the wind eased enough for me to see a couple of decent sized fish roll on the surface.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I put a bait out right where the fish had shown and within a couple of minutes the bobbin rose to the rod and stopped there.

The strike hit into a very solid creature.

At first, I thought it might have been a snag but, no, a gentle nod told me all I needed to know. I had hooked into a ‘lump’.

Slowly I steered the fish towards me, anticipating that it would probably wake up under the rod tip and that I’d need to back the drag off before the fireworks began.

And then disaster struck. My hooklength parted for no apparent reason.

The fish was calm, I was calm, I was being very gentle with it – but there you go.

Perhaps I need to start checking my hooklink more often during a session – a lesson we can all learn.

So there you have it. Bob isn’t perfect but don’t let that put you off trying what is a cracking method.

Lobworms, redworms and dendrobaena worms

Good old garden lobworms, compost-loving redworms and the Dutch dendrobaena worms all make great fishing baits in certain circumstances. Their juicy protein-packed bodies are packed with goodness that gives the fish all the nourishment it needs, so it’s no wonder why the fish love them so much.

Lobworms

These giant worms are found in the soil of your garden. They are brilliant baits to use on rivers, when the rivers are high, flooded and coloured. The reason why they are so good in those conditions is because of the size of the bait – the fish can find it easily in the murky water.

But more importantly, the size and the wriggling action of lobworms makes them also impossible for perch and tench to resist. A carefully presented lobworm, either floatfished over depth or legered tight to a marginal shelf or weed bed is sure to be taken by either of those species.

The great thing about lobworms is that they are free for those anglers prepared to put in a little effort. A little time spent digging the garden borders will provide you with a handful of worms, but if you want a mass of them wait until there’s a very damp evening and head out to any park, cricket pitch or well-mown garden, armed with a torch, when it’s pitch black.

By carefully creeping along the grass you’ll find that the worms have come out of their burrows and will be wriggling across the grass to find a mate. You will be able to pick them off the grass and place them into your bait bucket.

But it’s not always that easy – some of the worms may only be protruding slightly from their burrows. You’ll have to get hold of them and gently prize then from the burrows by pulling gently. It’s difficult to explain the amount of force that you need to use and the best method, but with practice you’ll master it really quickly.

If any of the worms that you collect is damaged in any way, you MUST not keep it. It’s unknown why this happens, but if you do store a damaged or broken worm with any other pristine conditioned worms, they will all die within hours, and you will have wasted all your time and effort.

Hooking lobworms

Firstly, you’ll need to match the size of your hook to the size of the bait, so you’ll need quite a substantial hook for lobbies. A size eight, six, four or even a size two will be required. Use a size eight or a six for lobworm tails (the last inch or so of a broken lobworm), or a size four or two for a whole lobworm (hooked cleanly through the thicker and darker coloured saddle of the worm).

Redworms

These little worms are a favourite among tench, bream and roach – they absolutely adore redworms. What’s more, redworms are the perfect size bait for these species too.

The best place to find a readily available supply of redworms is a well-established compost heap. The warm, rotting vegetation provides a healthy home for the worms which will soon breed and thrive in that sort of environment.

Redworms can be bought from good tackle dealers, but if you do have your own compost heap, or you have a friendly neighbour who will let you turn his or her compost heap over to collect the redworms, you’re onto a winner!

They can be fished whole, or halved, on their own or in conjunction with another bait to create a cocktail (a great technique to trick bream and tench).

A fully-grown whole redworm would be best fished upon a size 14 or better still a size 16 hook, while small sections of redworm are better upon a size 18 or even a size 20 hook when the going gets a little tough.

A great bait for roach and bream is to use half a redworm. The best way to hook this is to thread the hook through the broken end of the worm as this is the part of the worm that the fish will suck up first – that’s because of the scent that the broken section is releasing into the water.

Dendrobaena worms

These worm originate from Holland. They are a large redworm – twice the size of our native redworm, and therefore they can make a much better bait. They can be bought from all good tackle shops throughout the year. Expect to pay around £12 for a kilo – more than enough for a full day’s fishing.

Bream, roach, tench, carp, chub and barbel will all accept a dendrobaea or a piece of dendrobaena worm.

If you read about anyone having a good catch using chopped worms they will more than likely have used dendrobaena worms for their ‘choppie’ mix – the mush of chopped-up worms that are used as a groundbait to attract fish such as perch, tench, bream, roach and carp.

Chopped worm is one of the very best ways to put together a good bag of quality fish, especially during the colder months. Introducing a pole cup of chopped up dendrobaena worms will attract fish on lakes, canals and on slower flowing rivers, but it’s not a great technique to use on fast and powerful rivers as the worms will simply be washed away.

Chopped up worms also make a superb fish-attracting additive for your groundbait mix. Bream especially will be attracted to a pile of groundbait laced with many small worm pieces, with their juices escaping into the water.

Fishing with chopped worms

This method is best fished using a pole for the simple reason that the chopped up worms are almost impossible to catapult as they spray all over the place, so you need to use a pole cup to introduce the chopped-up worm pieces into a single area with accuracy.

Firstly, you will need a decent pair of scissors. Any old scissors will do, but many anglers use purpose-made chopped worm scissors, available from all good tackle shops. These have either two or three blades – a bit like two or three scissors stuck side to side. They make chopping up the worms a whole lot easier.

The worms need cleaning first as they are stored in compost that can blunt the scissors. To do this you need to act quickly – grab a handful of worms, place them in a fine mesh landing net head and swish them in the margins quickly. Don’t let too many escape! Now place the cleaned worms into a clean bait box and use your scissors to cut them up into small pieces. They are now ready to use.

Once you have plumbed the depth and have found your spot, cup a small amount of chopped worms and fish a piece of worm on your hook, right over the top. You’ll be quite amazed just how quickly chopped worms can attract fish, particularly those perch! But the carp, tench and bream will arrive soon after.

Chopped worms in a feeder

This method of fishing chopped-up worms is deadly for bream – perhaps the No1 technique to use to amass a good bag of bream.

You simply follow the steps above to clean and chop your worms, then mix your groundbait as you would normally, and add a small amount of chopped worms to your groundbait as you scoop it into your feeder

A small helping of casters or even squats will add extra attraction to your groundbait, and the best bait to use on the hook will either be a worm section or a worm and caster cocktail.

If you keep casting your groundbait and worm pieces to exactly the same spot throughout the session you’ll soon have those bream queuing up to be caught!