Dead maggots are a superb bait when fished in big bunches for carp in the margins. They’re also very good on the feeder as, unlike live maggots, they don’t cause your hooklength to spin up and twist when winding in.

Mussels and razorfish are the most common shellfish baits, with anglers able to collect their own or buy from a supermarket or fishmonger. Cockles, winkles, limpets and whelks can all also be used as a bait, although they are less effective as all-round sea fishing baits and are best used to bulk out cocktail baits.

The key, though, is to find ways to fish with maggots on gear strong enough to land powerful fish –carp, barbel, chub or even tench. Of course, you could just cram a big bunch of maggots on to the hook, maybe a dozen on a size 8.

For Skimmers a little tip is to leave the maggots in the bag a couple of hours before freezing and they will stretch and soften a little, then place them in freezer. When you take them out you will have softer dead maggots, which are better for skimmers, the carp will just hoover anything up!

The perfect place to keep maggots is in a fridge. Here they will remain happy for up to a fortnight (if you have bought them fresh). The cold slows their metabolism down enough to prevent them from changing into casters.

Doing things differently. If you are going to store maggots for some while in the fridge then fill the tub with flour. Stops the sweating and because it restricts the amount of air available it slows the maggot’s metabolic rate down.

Give Your Maggots a Boost A great booster flavour is to add krill meal to them, as well as turmeric powder and any other powder-based groundbait you can think of. TOP TIP: You can also try boosting fishing maggots with a bait spray or pouring liquid on them overnight.

If you decide on using PVA make sure your maggots are dry as possible using Maize flour or some sort of groundbait as this will stop the PVA melting on the cast. 7. With maggots being very small and easily digestible don’t be afraid of putting too much in.

If I have to keep maggots for a longer period, I riddle off all the dead, and rubbish, seal in an air tight bag and keep in a fridge, but you have to unseal every day or so to keep the air sweet. For keeping for shorter periods, as said a large bowl in a cool dark place suffices.

It is a good idea to suffocate maggots in a plastic bag by taking all of the air out of it a few hours before you use them. That sends them to sleep and stops them from wriggling into the silt or weed once introduced into the lake.

They stay dormant unless you let the air get to them. Ive left in fridge for quite a while but not sure what max time is. You can get up to two weeks doing that way, but once you cover them with water, then you will have to freeze them.

However, if it gets damp or you have already mixed it with liquid and brought it back home with you for example then it will last a day or two at most! If you’ve left it in a bucket for longer than a week then just throw the bucket away!

If you want to ensure the batter doesn’t spill in the freezer, then you can pop the container into a freezer bag for extra protection. Put the batter into the freezer. Just make sure you keep it flat and upright while it freezes.

Yep, as Slime says freeze it. A quick riddle once it’s thawed and it’s good to go, just dampen down if required.

A less active mix: If you want an inert mix – ideal for browsing species like bream and tench – mix your groundbait the night before the session. This extra time will give the particles time to full soak up the water.

Member. You should always riddle the groundbait when it’s been mixed. You want to make sure you don’t have any lumps of groundbait that could overfeed the fish. And it does act much better on the bottom.

Best Groundbait For Carp – A Total Fishing Review

• Sticky Baits Manilla Active Mix.
• Munch Baits Cream Seed Stick Mix.
• DNA Baits Cloudy Spod Mix Blizzard.
• CC Moore Krill Bag Mix.
• Dynamite Baits Krill Method Mix.
• Sonubaits Chunky Fish Groundbait.
• Mainline Activated High Impact Groundbait.

Simply mixing your current groundbait with White or Brown crumb used as per Leons advice will help bulk out your groundbaits. But if after Roach, Crucians etc in a water that holds bigger fish like carp, tench and bream then I would use my groundbait sparingly so as not to attract the bigger fish.