yellow door 1

Yeah before the sorting process I was congratulating my self on how well prepared I was

I had my rubber gloves on - I'd already dug a 2ft pit for the scraps - I had the hose ready to rinse the maggots in a sieve - I had the bran all ready in there storage container

My plans of a smooth operation flew out the window when the stench set it - from then on it was a mixture of panic and rash decisions😉

Trying to pry open the head, to get all the maggots out, unleashed a smell worse than Satan's bung hole and thats when I started to panic - after that I was cutting my losses and trying to get the stench underground - collecting the maggots became a secondary concern😉
 

These were stored purchased, but will still try them out on the hook just to try, although they wont present well.
But probably throw a few in the water occasionally as burley.

I can only imagine the heart break of the time invested - the stench endured - only to turn them into icypoles no fish wants to eat


But if I take a second to think about it - are frozen maggots an option as a bait

I know I wouldn't piss on a frozen mullet - if a live one was on offer

I wouldnt piss on a freshly caught and filleted mullet, if a live one was on offer

coz I tentatively believe Mullet are a shit dead bait and the only thing they have going for them is their ability to wriggle for hours on a live bait hook. (but thats based on insufficient science, contradictory results and insufficient data)
 
But Maybe baits can be frozen and still maintain appeal - Pilchards, pippies and squid can all survive the freezing process - admittedly they are quite pungent when they thaw - but who's to say a maggot doesnt stink in a proprotionate manner as he heats up under water.

WHile I'll be the first to admitt I havent heard alot about fresh water frozen baits (apart from bait fish) - It seems to be fairly common and effective for salt water species

Haha - Yeah I didnt throw anything but lures for 10 straight years - but a switch has flicked and now I'm stuck obsessing over baits,

Imagine giving the same level of thought, you have poured into lures, into your bait presentations - then going back and thinking about all the times you could have cleaned up, if you had known what you were doing as a baito.

I cringe at some of the opportunities I pissed away as a Young fella - alot of them dont even exist to a lure fisherman anymore

But a crafty lad with a punnet full of maggots - he might be able to rewind the clock 30 years - those big old bruisers are still there - but they are way too smart for a lure

 

Yeah I've bought maggots before but now I've started on this journey - I'm going to see it through till I perfect the art.

I caught my first decent bream on maggots in a spot where they were supposed to be hard to catch.

I had tried with other baits and they were very hard to catch -

but once the maggots got involved, they turned me into a bream catching machine - this started and evolution in my fishing which led to spending millions on lures and catching bugger all compared to my early catches on maggots.

So my obsession with these creepy units runs deeper than I am probably aware of - the fact, that I kept a recent batch and didnt use a single one for bait, should let you know my obsession with maggots isnt entirely healthy😉

Here's a big tip that should not be repeated also ....
When you have a supply of maggots/gents and have put the container of maggots/gents inside another container for a short period of time .........
Do not, I repeat, Do Not forget they are inside the other container and put that container in the freezer
The maggots/gents do not like it  

Well done Mate ... I reckon I might stick to buying them also however 😂

I was dry wreching just watching the video
think I will stick the buying them 😂😝🤮

Here's the last footage I got before harvest - at this stage there might have been a slight chance to separate them from the paper - but by the next day - it had turned to sludge
 
 

Hey just a thought , put all of your fish frames , in chicken wire , like in a roll , frames in chicken wire ,roll the chicken wire up , like a tube , when they have been blown , wrap in news paper  , and bury , take out and shake the maggots out …...EASY , most of the fish stays in the mesh , shake , shake and put the SH&t in the neighbours   bin . not Rocket science ……….…………. and you don't need a Vernier, to measure , fish don't go on size ……..of maggots …….? and the science that goes into …….. maybe catching F%^k all .  

Thanks for the tip Lofty - I like the way you think😉

I think I'll move away from anything a maggot can grip onto for my next batch - that means skinned carp fillet.

What I noticed with using a can of cat food was - separating the maggots was a piece of piss -  as you start adding heads and frames - it gives the maggots something to hang onto - this means you will be tempted to shake them out and splatter your legs with some of the foulest smelling bits known to man. It also adds time to the part of the process you definitely dont want to add time to

Theres alot to be said for the scientific approach if you are trying to achieve the ultimate results - I've tried 2 different approaches, and from those, I have a much clearer picture of how it should be done - a little from column A and a little from column B, should make future batches much easier.

But you are probably right about the calipers - I may have taken thing 11.28mm too far😉
 

Yeah before the sorting process I was congratulating my self on how well prepared I was

I had my rubber gloves on - I'd already dug a 2ft pit for the scraps - I had the hose ready to rinse the maggots in a sieve - I had the bran all ready in there storage container

My plans of a smooth operation flew out the window when the stench set it - from then on it was a mixture of panic and rash decisions😉

Trying to pry open the head, to get all the maggots out, unleashed a smell worse than Satan's bung hole and thats when I started to panic - after that I was cutting my losses and trying to get the stench underground - collecting the maggots became a secondary concern😉
 

Well that was a freaken night mare

Here's some stuff I learnt about using carp for maggots

There is a heap of moisture in a carp as it breaks down - so you would either need a bucket with a drain to let it out - or about 10 times the newspaper I used

If you dont use enough newspaper it will break down and turn into a sludge - a maggot infused sludge that is very difficult to pick maggots out of.

Also dont use the head - they just burrow in and hang on when you are trying to shake them out

End result was a hell of alot of mucking around and I lost 2/3rds of the maggots in the sorting process. The ones I salvaged are in a sea of newspaper, guts and scales - its almost enough to dampen a mans enthusiasm for breeding his own😉

At least I'll know what to do next time

wow, lesson learnt.  I know with even small fish heads it is a pain getting them out, so can just imagine what you just went through  
But gotta to try to see how things work out.

Well that was a freaken night mare

Here's some stuff I learnt about using carp for maggots

There is a heap of moisture in a carp as it breaks down - so you would either need a bucket with a drain to let it out - or about 10 times the newspaper I used

If you dont use enough newspaper it will break down and turn into a sludge - a maggot infused sludge that is very difficult to pick maggots out of.

Also dont use the head - they just burrow in and hang on when you are trying to shake them out

End result was a hell of alot of mucking around and I lost 2/3rds of the maggots in the sorting process. The ones I salvaged are in a sea of newspaper, guts and scales - its almost enough to dampen a mans enthusiasm for breeding his own😉

At least I'll know what to do next time

Just when you thought it was all over - It begins again - this time with fish.

Dont worry I'll spare you nearly all the details - but it will be interesting to see how many maggots come off one carp carcass

And the fillets will go towards feeding the local snapper population

Yeah I recently re-read this thread and all the advice you gave was spot on - I've put Newspaper under and on top since that photo was taken.

The flies were straight onto the fish just like you said they would be  - no more canned cat food for my maggots😉

Yes it begins
That is going to smell  
I'd be wrapping that in newspaper and then burying it under soil or sand  
Hope you get lots of fat ones though.

Just when you thought it was all over - It begins again - this time with fish.

Dont worry I'll spare you nearly all the details - but it will be interesting to see how many maggots come off one carp carcass

And the fillets will go towards feeding the local snapper population

Hi mate.
Marketing is a wonderful thing when it comes to fishing gear and we all get sucked in to it, and there's nothing wrong with that. If you are confident with the lures or SPs that's half the battle.
For me these days I've always got my nose in the bargain bucket looking for what I think might work in any fishing situation I might find myself in. Cheapskate.😉
So to answer your question I have a selection of go to's that I trust, and cheapies that I think and hope will work. I get a real buzz from catching fish on the bargain bucket lures.🐟👏😊
A few pics of bargain bucket catches.
$5 lure which I hoped would work up North.
First ever Barra!🐟👌

First Jack, same lure.🐟👍

Sooty, same lure.🐟👏

PB Barra, last year, same lure.🐟

$1 packet of SPs😊

Same SPs👌

Bargain bucket HB lure.🐟😊

Todays purchases 2 x $5 lures. One for up North and one for the local Bream etc...

Hopefully get a successful pic with one of these in the near future.🎣🐟😊
 

Oh Boy!! I feel I have way too many lures & a large variety of brands as well.. I'll let the photos tell the story...😉
And these are just the ones I've taken photos of... only use them on the trout..
cheers
Adrian
 

we've all been there.... I lost hundreds of dollars in single sessions to fish busting me on reef or structure. I remember fishing lower Yorkes flats one day and catching and releasing fish all day... Snook, Trevally, Flatties, Salmon full mix basket. Ended up losing $260 in lures in one session and that $260 were lures discounted when i was working in the tackle shop. So i'd hate to think how much I actually lost retail value wise.... Most of the Lures would of been around the $15-$25 mark.
Hence why I am looking for cheaper alternatives that i can get that are cheap enough but will do the job there suppose to and swim straight. If that means fine tuning and replacing terminal tackle or sharperning hooks then so be it .....

I used to fish everyday after work and throw hard body lures for bream on shallow rock banks. At the time I was using ecogear sx40's and if you lost 3 of those in a session - it would start to add up - and if you were doing it five days a week and twice on the weekend - it really added up.

So it was losing ecogears that made me search out cheaper alternatives.

When strikepro came out with an almost identical copy for half the price - I switched to those and didnt noticed a drop in catch rates. Thats started my search for even cheaper lures.

By the end of my serious "breaming on lures" I was using HB lures that cost 1/10th of the ecogears and still catching fish.

Sure some needed to be tuned out of the box and some needed treble upgrades - but in the lightweight catergory - you can spend much less and still catch fish.

These days my softplastics cost 5c each instead of $2 - My blades cost $2 instead of $20 - and my jigheads are between 10c and 50c.

The down side to the cheapest tackle can usually be over come with a hook sharpening file or some tuning with the pliers. I understand alot of people dont have time for that - but you can work miracles pretty quick on a lure that may not last the first cast let alone multiple sessions

 

I would be hesitant to buy any unbranded reel. Factories in China pump them out in the thousands.
However, if somebody got a decent sample size to retail here and thoroughly tested it, like flogged it to death, recorded it and was willing to stand by the product I would probably give it a go. But then, if it was cheap, there is no guarantee that QC will be consistent across every reel. And anybody who sells a reel like this needs to be upfront and not claim it was a stella or saltiga equivalent, just an unbranded reel from China that is landed here for $20 and sold for $80 (or whatever). eg like this humdinger for $11 to $12 US
https://winfaith.en.made-in-china.com/product/CXyxpbOJALre/China-Die-Cast-Aluminium-Spool-Front-Drag-Spinning-Reel.html?expoName=spoga-gafa-2019&source=expo_search_list
Rods would be a bit different. As long as they have quality components and good blanks why not? No bearings, seals, gears in rods to break, much less of a risk.
Line and terminal tackle no way. Been burn't before, even with good brands, that turned out to be counterfeit.