All Hooked Up
And you thought hooking maggots was straightforward! Here are eight options to help you put more fish on the bank.
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Hooked Normally
This is the correct way to hook a maggot under normal circumstances, with the hook point nicked at the thick end of the maggot ‘between the eyes’. The most important part of hooking maggot is to make sure it’s not damaged in the process. If it is, take it off and start again. |
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Double Maggot
When you hook two maggots together ‘normally’ they will push apart making a ‘v’ that creates line spin on the retrieve and makes it harder for a fish to get them both in its mouth. To overcome this, when fishing double maggot one of them should be hooked ‘upside down’ through the pointed end. |
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Double Dead Maggot
Dead red maggot is a highly popular and effective hook bait when used in conjunction with The Method. You can use single maggot, but if there are small fish around double maggot is better and because the dead maggots are limp you can hook them both normally. |
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In The Side
If you watch maggots sink through the water you’ll see that they do so side-on rather than one end going down first. So when fishing on-the-drop style, some anglers nick the hook through the side of the maggot to try and mimic this presentation. |
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Maggot Klip
If you fish bunches of live maggots, very often one of them will cover the point of the hook, causing you to miss bites and lose fish. This little device from Korda is a clever way of presenting a bunch of maggots while still keeping the whole of the hook point free to maximise hook-ups. |
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Threaded Single Maggot
If you are catching a lot of small fish quickly especially when using a whip, fishing a tough-skinned maggot or pinkie threaded onto a small hook can see you catch a lot of fish without having to change hook bait. You can toughen them by leaving in coarse sawdust for a week. Use a long-shanked hook. |
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Threaded Double Maggot
This method is used by some float anglers who target wily old chub. The idea is that you are masking quite a bit of the hook shank and also creating a large, long bait that can easily be seen as it races through the swim. Use a wide gape size 14 hook so there’s plenty of the point free. |
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Hair Rigged Maggot
Tie a two-inch length of low diameter line (about 1.5lb) to the bottom of the hook and then hold the maggot still and Superglue the line to the side if it. Then hold the glued maggot and glue a second maggot to this and so on. When finished, trim any line below the bait. It’s a messy business but because there no added weight in the bait itself (such as a hook or Maggot Klip) it will waft off the bottom naturally as fish pass and can be deadly. Because the hook lies flat on the bottom, there is also little chance of foul-hooking fish. |
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