Artificial maggots.

[alan whittington]

Ive got hold of some sinking rubber maggots(i just dont like the idea of floating ones),and having not used rubber baits much,i would appreciate some help,1/ can they be used on the float successfully and 2/ are they better on the hair-rig or can they be just as good hooked on.

 

[quickcedo]

Hi Alan, I've been trying these myself just recently and found them very good on the float.Personally I don't bother with hair rigs with them, just straight on the hook, (float or ledger). I do however like the floating ones as you can achieve a perfectly balanced hook with them which allows the use of stronger hooks when targetting larger fish. Perhaps a combination of floating and sinking?
My best result on them so far is a little over 100lb at my local commercial. Loose feeding lives, mag and wag style.

 

[alan whittington]

Hi Alan, I've been trying these myself just recently and found them very good on the float.Personally I don't bother with hair rigs with them, just straight on the hook, (float or ledger). I do however like the floating ones as you can achieve a perfectly balanced hook with them which allows the use of stronger hooks when targetting larger fish. Perhaps a combination of floating and sinking?
My best result on them so far is a little over 100lb at my local commercial. Loose feeding lives, mag and wag style.

I also wonder Mark if trotting them would work,because for the life of me i cant see them having a choice,when they are flying past.

 

[George387]

I have used artificial maggots and casters whilst trotting rivers for most of last season off & on and did not see any drop rate in my catches from when I was using reel ones.

 

[preston96]

I also wonder Mark if trotting them would work,because for the life of me i cant see them having a choice,when they are flying past.

They do have a choice mate, the ones that are all sinlking and traveling at the same rate or the one that is being dragged down by a lump of metal

I

 

[peter crabtree]

Rubber casters are the best artificials to my mind, and the packs often have a variety of colours . The rubber maggots I bought seemed too big so I cut them down a bit . You can hook them or hair rig , I superglue them to the hair and put a live on on the hook. Their slight bouyancy also allows a heavier hook to be used.

 

[Tee-Cee]

Question....which supplier's artificial maggots/casters are the best??

.........maybe one of those cases where the most expensive are not necessarily the best.....

Seen them in the tackle shops but never tried them so comments welcome!

 

[quickcedo]

I use the ones from enterprise tackle.
Re trotting, I personally think they are actually better than the reel thing because they do negate the weight of the hook and therefor behave as naturally as possible (they are still attatched to line) but at least you can get them to fall through the water at the same speed as the rest. When i use them on the river I use no lives on the hook but, on stillwaters I add an equal number of each.

 

[alan whittington]

I wondered why no match anglers own up to using them,then remembered(from the dark ages,when i match fished),that its against the rules,surely its similar to dead maggot.

 

[Ray Daywalker Clarke]

Hi Alan,

As you know I have used rubber baits for a few seasons now, and with good results.

I have had fish on all methods i have used with rubber baits, I use the Enterprise Baits.

I do sometimes use a bit of real sweetcorn on the hook along with a rubber bit now and then, but most times it's just rubber baits, with no added flavour, something I know some do.

As for trotting, well you can't go wrong IMO, on the plus side you don't have to keep putting bait on the hook.............

 

[Stick_Float]

I would definitely give the floating variety a chance, not only does the hooks weight be negated it wafts up and down naturally on the bottom when legering in running water, or in still water. I could imagine whilst trotting the sinking variety could be helpful as you would never need to rebait, although I feel more confident with the real mccoy on the hook.

I caught my biggest roach on 1 rubber floating and 1 genuine. I was wading through plenty of smaller roach and decided to put the one fake one I'd got free with a magazine and, coincidence or not, the next time the float dipped it was a lot bigger than the rest.

I then promptly caught the tree whilst re-casting and lost my single fake maggot and it was back to the tiddlers.

 

[alan whittington]

I feel thats why i and many others dont try these artificials,confidence,if i had tried them and caught some fish on them,i would treat them as another option,but.......

 

[Ray Roberts]

I gave them a try last year with a good success rate.

I fished an in line block end feeder with a short hook length and another short hook length rigged helicopter style about 6 inches up the mainline. This enabled me to fish real maggots on one hook and artificials on the other. With the artificials you can have confidence that the hook is still baited up.

My best results came when using the artificials on a short hair and just balancing the weight of the hook.

I tried the same thing with sweetcorn and a open ended groundbait feeder with similar results.

 

[Sean Meeghan]

I've used artificial baits a lot and they certainly work well for carp. I prefer the rubber casters, but I suspect that that's my preference rather than the fish. One thing I have found (read it somewhere) is that it's best to hook rubber maggots through the pointy end when fishing more than one on the hook.

The Drennan ones look the best (to me) but I haven't noticed any real difference in catch rates.

 

[Graham Whatmore]

I have used them on and off for three or four years now and though I wouldn't say they caught bigger fish I have found that fish certainly aren't put off by them. I have caught roach and dace, perch, carp and barbel when using them sometimes singly sometimes two or three and sometimes with real ones all combinations work.

 

[Neneman Nick]

Who produces the sinking rubber maggots ??? The only ones i have ever come across are the floating/pop up variety.

Panic over.....just found them on the enterprise tackle site

 

[ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)]

It's a bit expensive loose feeding with them ......... :wh

 

[Stick_Float]

Do they turn into rubber bluebottles if left in your tackle box too long?

 

[alan whittington]

Bound to,the bu**ers richochete off your car windows after a couple of weeks as well.:wh

 

[quickcedo]

What's the difference between using fake maggots/ sweetcorn etc and using an artificial fly? Esp. a static dry fly on a lake.