My suspicion is that both Ian and I are fishing relatively shallow and fast paced rivers. The fish have no time to be fussy. They either grab it while they can or they give it a miss. There's little chance for them to inspect a bait carefully. Those that struggle for bites when trotting multiple maggots are probably fishing more sedate paced water (ask John Step about my haunts). It may be that they are also more pressured, certainly than my usual stretches, which I largely have to myself. There are so few barbel and decent chub these days, most can't be bothered. They get sick of legering for the bigger specimens and catching nowt. I just fish for what is there, not what isn't.