Maggots > Reviews > Wigggly Minus A G

Author's product rating:   

Ease of Use
Value for Money

Advantages:	Best allround bait available .   All fish love em' .   Pretty cheap too  -  about £2 a pint
Disadvantages:	Climb all over the place if you let them get wet .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Its one in the morning (not anymore but it was when I started), but I thought I’d just better get writing before all this stuff leaves my head. So many things to write about, none of which will be at all interesting to any of you, but they are things that I use or do, and for some reason, also seem to interest my poor insignificant alien brain.

There is actually no way I can think of at the moment to make this at all interesting or useful to a non-angler, but I will try my best. For the anglers out there though, I’ve been using them for years, so I’m sure I can offer some decent advice. I openly admit to murdering (yes….MURDERING….well, maggotslaughter really) probably millions of the wriggley little things over about the past 10 years, so if anyone out there has any pet maggots, I’d recommend not reading any further.

For anyone who is of the attitude that they must finish what they’ve started, you’re gonna be here a while (moan snort grunt fart…….I’m goin’ home….oh bugger, I am home!! Darn that boy for knowing so much about such a stupid thing!!), cos there really is a lot to be said about a maggot.

There are 3 common types used by anglers today (bet not many of you knew that!!), and they’ve all got very cool names.
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Squatts (be funnier if they were called Squits I think!!)

These are the littlens, so being so small, they’re best used for small fish. That’s generally the case anyway. In colder months when there is perhaps 2000 feet of ice on your local lake or canal, the fish will perhaps be feeling a little chilly. Being so cold, their metabolism will be greatly slowed so they see these smaller morsels as a nice snack, just to keep them going. The fish will actually just refuse to take anything bigger on some days, so the squatt is sometimes the only thing you’ll catch on.

As with all maggots, its important to keep feeding whilst fishing. Concentrating your feed in to as small an area as possible to keep the local fish population around your bait, and not at the other end of the lake. Squatts, being so small are very light weight, and in anything more than a slight breeze, they will easily be blown off track, and away from your target area. Therefore, spreading the feeding fish over a wider area. Obviously not a good thing if you want them right next to your bait.

To solve your problem, I recommend feeding your squatts in conjunction with a groundbait (cereal feed mixed with water to form powdery balls which break up in the water). This will make it possible to feed the squatts in a very tight area, and you’ve also then got the added fish pulling powers of the nice smelly groundbait.

If you’re going to feed them through a catapult, make sure it has a very soft elastic, and possibly a small pouch too. Then at least they won’t be dispersed over too wide an area. From using them myself I’d say that about 20 squatts every couple of minutes is about right in the winter (you won’t normally need them in the summer unless you’re after small fish).

When you buy squatts, they’re given to you in a reddish sandy thing that keeps them dry. They don’t move around quite as much as the other two types, but that’s kind of a good thing really. For those of you that don’t know, maggots when they get wet, can climb literally vertical surfaces, but the squatts, as they move less, are easier to control if they get exposed to the rain (or your dribble problem). Having a bag or car full of maggots is not a nice thing, but can happen (yuk you say – so do I!!). The only problem with the squatts is that you have to be careful not to turn the bait tubs they’re in upside down. The ventilation holes in them are often big enough for the squatts to escape through (I see another carload comin’ on).

Oh yeah, they’re very small so best used in conjunction with a tiny 24 (or smaller) hook.
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Pinkies

What a name!! These are the next ones up in the size ladder. They’re the most insane of the maggots, crawling all over the place if they get too hot. So keep em cool and out of the sun if possible.

Like the squatts, they’re still quite small so they’re suitable for smaller fish. Feeding squatts, but fishing a pinkie on the hook can sometimes be really good because the fish see this bigger one in amongst all the small ones, and then eat it. Nice of them huh!! You’ve got yourself a fishy :)

They come in all sorts of colours, even fluorescent which is quite crazy really. Its worth trying all different colours on some days because the fish sometimes prefer a certain colour (they’re totally thick so I really don’t know how they manage it!!)

Unlike squatts, pinkies are just about big enough to be fed by themselves in a catapult, but they are also ideal for adding to groundbait. They sink very slowly (like squatts), so are good to feed even in the summer when you’re after roach or other smaller species. Attracting them in to the upper layers of the water where they become VERY easy to catch. Last summer I fished for 4 hours one day and caught about 400 roach and rudd which weighed a total of just over 100lb, just by feeding about ½ a pint of pinkies whilst using bigger maggots on the hook. You can even get away with quite thick lines when they’re feeding well.

Bennys recommendation on hook size would be a 22, and nothing bigger really.
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Big Maggots (haven’t got a clue about a real name, they’re just referred to as ‘maggots’)

These are the most common ones, sold by nearly all tackle shops. Despite most things going metric, I’ve normally found that maggots are still sold in pints. 1 pint contains around 3000 maggots (yep, I counted them.....NOT. Just a useless fact). They’re suitable for catching nearly all species of fish, from the biggest of carp to the smallest of piddley things.

A normal session would see you needing perhaps 1 pint which you will normally use if you’re feeding regularly enough. 1 pint is about right if you don’t mind what you catch. Sometimes it may be necessary to target carp though for example. On warmer days, it can be very effective to draw the carp to the surface (like the roach with the pinkies). To do this you’ll need perhaps 4 pints, and to keep spraying them out over your target area with the use of a catapult (perhaps 20 every 30 seconds). Being bigger than the other 2, they can be fired some distance, especially with a friendly wind.

To hook them, a mistake many beginners make, which can often result in them catching relatively few fishies, is to just shove em’ on any old way. Presentation is the all important thing so your maggot has got to look and behave as much like the other ones you’ve been firing in, so the fish will suspect nothing iffy about it. THE HORRIBLE BIT (look away all pet owners)..................pass the hook just through the skin at the fat end of the maggot. By using as fine a hook as possible, you can just nick the skin and leave the poor little wigggly dangling freely, and looking natural. It’ll obviously survive in the water for longer too if it hasn’t had a big fat hook jabbed through its side.

Hook size for these can range from about an 18 down to a 22.

These bigger maggots are the best all round bait available. For anyone starting up on this old fishing thing, get some of these babies. If you follow some of my advice, I can’t really see you failing, as long as the rest of your tackle compliments my hook sizes etc. Lines should be on average around 1kg breaking strain, that’s a good starter anyway.

There is actually loads more I could have said, but I think most (ALL) of you are happy for me to leave it there. Sorry to have just ruined your day with the most boring thing ever, but if I can at least have helped one person I’ll be happy :)