One of the things about anticipating rejoining the angling world (which will very likely be the beginning of the 2011/12 season in June, although if the situation allows I could have a mini dry run at some point in late February or March) is that I am not going to be short of bait. This is because I have three sizable ‘dalek’ type compost bins, all of which are now full and they are constantly alive with worms so if I can’t be bothered, I need not stop off at fishing tackle shop to resupply before I go out to the waterside.
I cannot know how many worms there could be, but when I pull off the tops to empty the grass from the lawn mower or the bin in the kitchen, a multitude generally falls off the underside and the surface is absolutely crawling with them, so I must assume that they go all the way to the bottom. There are plenty of slugs too, but I have no intention of adding them to my bat and tackle to see if the fish fancy them as they are just too vile. And anyway, we know fish enjoy worms, so why experiment? That makes no sense.
When I was a lad I did wonder about breeding my own maggots, since I never had any because our village didn’t boast a fishing tackle shop, or anyone else that sold live-bait. To fetch some would require a lengthy round trip on a bus to Guildford and I would prefer to use bread, sweet corn or luncheon meat instead. But I would love to have had maggots, they always looked to me the ‘proper’ thing to use and the mark of a serious tackle dangler.
2 things barred my way about growing my own though. First was the effort which, as I recall (I am not going to remind myself it now) required getting a bit of meat, putting it in a warm location and then leaving it and having to repeat the process to get enough for a day’s maggot drowning. It was all too much of a fuss and I could not be sure that I could grow enough to coincide with my next trip. And if left too long they would smell which kicked off the second reason which was that my mum wouldn’t allow me.
The second one was something of a difficulty, so unless I could find someone who had made the trip to Guildford to visit the fishing tackle shop and who was feeling generous, it was a rare event that I could have any maggots with my bait and tackle. I may have been able to excavate some worms out of the flowerbed, but since ours was a heavy clay area they were often hard to come by, even when the ground was not bone hard which it normally was through the summer holidays when I wanted to go angling.
So now I have no such difficulties. When it comes to picking a fishing tackle shop close to here there is an embarrassment of riches when I need to restock bait and tackle, and as I have my composters I need never go short on worms again, in fact I might be able to make a small profit if I can bargain with the local shops to sell some of my worms to them, who knows? maybe swap for a pint or two of maggots or casters. And then I will set up my bait and tackle knowing I look like an authentic fisherman. Marvellous.
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