The cooled larvae are dried, placed in a linen bag and sprinkled with flour. Now all that remains is to put the bag in a cool place.
- Peculiarities
- Storage methods
- Giving bait additional properties
- Expert advice
Maggot is one of the most favorite delicacies for fish. These little white worms, which cause irresistible disgust in people, are snapped up by fish like hot cakes. An additional advantage of bait is the ability to prepare it in advance and save it until a convenient occasion. We will discuss below how to store such animals.
Thanks to such actions, the bait lives for a long time. Before going fishing, just open the container and take out the required amount of bait, and then simply return the cap to its place.
Home storage rules
The maggot is a rather finicky creature that is highly dependent on temperature and weather conditions. Store maggots at a temperature close to 0°C. If the temperature exceeds this indicator, then over time the larvae will begin to die and simply deteriorate. This also works in the opposite direction - in very cold conditions the bait will simply freeze and will not cause any reaction in the fish.
When purchasing larvae, you should remember that they do not live in the best conditions, so be sure to wash them thoroughly and leave them in a dry place for 30–40 minutes so that they can dry.
Advice for novice fishermen - hatching larvae in the spring takes a long period of time, on average about 60–90 days. Therefore, you should take care of this in advance.
Bait for winter fishing needs to be grown at home starting in the fall. It is believed that larvae grown in such conditions are the most hardened for fishing. This is due to disruptions in the natural regime, so when they appear in the fall, their immunity becomes stronger.
It has been noticed: the closer to winter maggots are harvested, the longer they last and the less hassle they are. Therefore, harvesting should begin in the fall.
How to properly store maggots at home
Maggot is a fairly common type of groundbait and bait for fish. However, it is not always possible to find it freely available; especially big problems can arise before fishing. In the modern world, not even all experienced fishermen know how to properly store maggots at home so that they remain alive and suitable for use. Therefore, knowledge in this area will be useful for fishermen with any experience.
Storing maggots on the balcony in winter
It has been noticed: the closer to winter maggots are harvested, the longer they last and the less hassle they are. Therefore, harvesting should begin in the fall.
We pour the selected larvae (there should be no infected or pupated ones among them) into a glass container (bottle), always with dark, rather thick walls and a wide neck, then sprinkle it with sand and sawdust (perhaps someone will find another filler). The ratio is approximately this: maggots - 40 percent, filler - the entire remaining volume.
If you did everything I wrote correctly, then for the next half a year the maggot will be in a kind of suspended animation.
Storing maggots in winter
Preserving maggots in the cold season is much easier: the larvae are kept in the open air if the temperature does not drop below 0° C. If there is a persistent minus outside and it is not possible to use a refrigerator, they build a heated house. This is a kind of container. To make it, you need a pipe with a diameter of 10 cm, sealed at one end. It is driven into the ground with a sealed end, below the freezing line, 1.5 m. A tin cylinder with a bottom is placed in the pipe, closed with a foam plug, its diameter is slightly smaller than the pipe. Maggots are poured into the cylinder and lowered into the pipe. A cord is attached to it in advance so that it can be removed if necessary. The resulting container is sealed with a lid - the hot tub is ready. During the fishing season, just take out a cylinder with maggots, place them in a warm place for a while, they will come out of suspended animation - the bait is ready.
At temperatures above zero, maggots can be stored in the fresh air
How to properly store maggots for fishing in summer
To put it in the simplest possible terms, put the jar of maggots in the refrigerator. Not in the freezer. If you want them to retain their “freshness” longer, then it is important to follow some rules:
If you did everything I wrote correctly, then for the next half a year the maggot will be in a kind of suspended animation.
You can clean maggots by placing them either in clean sawdust, straw, or medium-sized sand. To store maggots at home for a long time, it is enough to place them in the same jar in which you store and transport them, on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. They will remain in this state for a week, a month, or more. As soon as you get the maggots, place the box in your bosom, for example, the maggots will “come to life”, restoring their mobility.
Storing maggots in the warm season
In the warm season, the solution to how to store it is simple - in the refrigerator. Pre-washed and dried larvae are placed in a clean container and covered with a lid. A plastic container is ideal.
The maggots are covered with flour, bran or sawdust from deciduous trees - proportion 1:3. The container is placed in the refrigerator on the bottom shelf, ensuring a temperature range of +3° C to +5° C, most importantly - not lower than 0° C.
At this temperature they will go into suspended animation and will be stored for 2-3 months.
When it's time to catch, you need:
- remove maggots from the refrigerator;
- place the container in the sun.
These simple actions are enough to quickly awaken them.
How to store maggots
You can clean maggots by placing them either in clean sawdust, straw, or medium-sized sand. To store maggots at home for a long time, it is enough to place them in the same jar in which you store and transport them, on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. They will remain in this state for a week, a month, or more. As soon as you get the maggots, place the box in your bosom, for example, the maggots will “come to life”, restoring their mobility.
When fishing, you need to carefully ensure that the jar with maggots is tightly closed. The larvae are very agile and flexible, and in the event of even a small loophole, they will certainly crawl away. In winter, when fishing, maggots are kept in the bosom, in summer, simply in the shade, stored in the refrigerator.
If the larva is exposed to heat, under the sun's rays, it can harden very quickly: literally in 30 minutes. In conditions of elevated temperature, the process of its transformation into a fly sometimes takes only 3 days. Therefore, it is very important to know at what temperature to store maggots.
Long-term storage of maggots
Recommendations for long-term storage of maggots at home.
Maggot is one of the most popular baits all year round. It is actively added to bait in feeder fishing. For bait, use both live and drowned in water, or cut maggots. To keep the fish at the point, maggots are added to the feeders in their pure form. Often a weak bite is activated after the addition of this living component. So, maggots are always needed. But not every fishing trip is planned in advance, and maggots can not be found in fishing stores in all cities all year round. And going to the river without “meat” is the same as deliberately reducing the effectiveness of fishing. Therefore, sometimes it is more advisable to buy a large portion of the animal component for the entire season. This move allows you not only to always have maggots on hand, but also to save on bulk purchases. However, storing maggots requires a little effort.
The Internet is filled with offers for purchasing animal components, but many fishermen hesitate to purchase in the summer because they are worried about the safety of the larvae during delivery in the heat. Serious sellers securely package live goods. The quality of the packaging needs to be discussed before purchasing. Typically this is a cardboard box with sheets of foam inserted inside.
Inside the bags are maggots and cold elements.
The latter use ordinary plastic bottles with ice.
The maggots in the bags remain alive for several days.
Upon receipt, it must be packaged in plastic containers. At least a third of the container should remain unfilled.
After this, the containers need to be placed in the refrigerator.
The temperature in the chamber should be 1-3 degrees.
At this temperature, larvae can be stored for two to three months. However, for this, the maggot must be “clean”; there should be no black dots with food inside it. This point also needs to be discussed with the seller. Otherwise, waste products will poison the larvae and they will not live long even in the cold. Periodically, containers with maggots need to be opened to add oxygen.
About once every three weeks it is advisable to sort through the larvae and remove the dead ones. When selecting maggots for fishing, you need to do this quickly so that the container does not heat up. Maggots that have warmed up after cooling begin to quickly pupate even in the refrigerator. Therefore, there is no need to bring oparium home after fishing. That's all the secrets. NHNCH.
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Boiled maggot bait
Some fishermen use boiled fly larvae as bait. They are poured with water, brought to a boil and lightly simmered over low heat until they become translucent. After this, the question of how to store maggots after heat treatment becomes relevant.
The boiled larvae are slightly dried and then placed in a canvas bag, which is taken to a cold place. It is possible to sprinkle the bait with flour, but this is not a requirement.
It is very important that boiled maggots are stored in the cold (balcony in winter, refrigerator shelf in summer). At elevated temperatures it will deteriorate very quickly.
Coloring the larvae
To give boiled maggots some color, you can use not only natural dyes, but also decoctions of various vegetables. For example, beet juice will give the worms a red tint, and a decoction of onion peels will give them a rich orange hue.
You can make sure that the larvae get a certain color even at the growth stage by feeding them food of a certain color. For example, using cottage cheese to feed them leads to a change in color to white, and boiled egg yolk in the diet of maggots will make their color golden.
Then I place the worms I dug up ahead of time and cover it again with a layer of moss.
How to store worms in winter
When storing worms throughout the winter, difficulties arise only with the need to choose bulk containers. It should be high to prevent the worm from escaping and have a sufficiently large area. But there is a dependence on the number of worms.
You can use plastic containers as containers, or put together a wooden box from non-coniferous wood.
I cover the bottom of the container with moss taken from the nearest forest. If it’s dry, I lightly spray it with water. Next comes a layer of soil from the garden bed. I don't have black soil. All beds are filled with leaf humus. The soil is quite fertile and loose.
A layer of soil for storing worms
On average, I pour 20 - 25 centimeters. With such a layer, the worms have enough space to crawl, and the substrate does not have the opportunity to sour.
Then I place the worms I dug up ahead of time and cover it again with a layer of moss.
I store it in the basement of the garage along with potatoes all winter. The humidity is constant, as is the temperature. The soil does not dry out. Periodically I add food in the form of collected tea leaves.
When I had to store it in an apartment, I placed the box by the balcony door, away from the radiator. The temperature is higher than in the basement, but not critical. More often I had to spray from a flower spray bottle.
When moisturizing, you need to be careful - excess moisture is destructive. You just need to maintain a little dampness. Moss perfectly retains soil moisture. Worms feel at ease all winter.
I know people who feed them with a small amount of grated raw potatoes a couple of times during the winter. I don’t try to feed the worm myself in winter. In my opinion, the animal is fine as it is. At least at the end of spring, when I pick out the last worms, I don’t notice any emaciation.
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In industrial production, manufacturers use special tricks. To add color, dyes are added directly to the feed. And to obtain the fattest and meatiest individuals, their “mothers” are fed with meat and cottage cheese.
