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maggots

I always use whites with a handful of reds mixed in as a change bait.

In my match fishing days I used bronze with Reds but I got fed up with having bronze hands, I recently tried bronze again and ended up with bronze hands, only the newer dyes are a bit easier to wash off.

To be fair I find whites with a few reds works as well as anything.

Out of interest in Holland where I fish quite a lot, red maggots can be bought but are very illegal, it is the police that come along and check your gear and they get very upset if you are caught with reds.
Not sure what happens these days as I only tend to fish for Pike and Zander when I am there and a few whites gets me all the live bait (also very illegal in Holland) that i ever need, but last time I was captured with reds they let me off as I was English, I think the Dutch get a hefty fine if caught with them.

Red maggot dye is very poisonous and stays in the food chain, they eat a lot of Zander in Holland so that is why there is a ban.

It would not surprise me if red maggots were banned over here soon as the EU seem to make all our laws nowadays, it also worries me that we feed a poison to our fish which is another reason that I don’t use too many reds.

Tight lines.
 
Informative post & thanks Keith for the expansion. Just out of interest, does any one know what red maggots are dyed with? Metal base or...?

Cheers, Jon
 
Casters will always beat maggots, hands down....... but a half pint of reds is always an option for the hook, when bites ease up a little.
 
Nice fresh whites for me but a small quantity of red and bronze as a change bait is always a good option.

What I absolutely will not buy is "mixed" maggots. Far from being white, red and bronze mixed together, as some seem to expect, they include discos, greens, blues and yellows with a few reds and mucky whites when bought from my local shops. Absolute rubbish as far as I'm concerned.
 
Keith Speer said:
I always use whites with a handful of reds mixed in as a change bait.

In my match fishing days I used bronze with Reds but I got fed up with having bronze hands, I recently tried bronze again and ended up with bronze hands, only the newer dyes are a bit easier to wash off.

To be fair I find whites with a few reds works as well as anything.

Out of interest in Holland where I fish quite a lot, red maggots can be bought but are very illegal, it is the police that come along and check your gear and they get very upset if you are caught with reds.
Not sure what happens these days as I only tend to fish for Pike and Zander when I am there and a few whites gets me all the live bait (also very illegal in Holland) that i ever need, but last time I was captured with reds they let me off as I was English, I think the Dutch get a hefty fine if caught with them.

Red maggot dye is very poisonous and stays in the food chain, they eat a lot of Zander in Holland so that is why there is a ban.

It would not surprise me if red maggots were banned over here soon as the EU seem to make all our laws nowadays, it also worries me that we feed a poison to our fish which is another reason that I don’t use too many reds.

Tight lines.
Click to expand...

Hi Keith,

You mention the fact that the red dye used on maggots is poisonous, yet did not mention the reason for the 'newer' type dye used on bronze maggots these days coming into use (on the ones you tried recently for instance) It is 'new' because the old version was carcinogenic, which was why it was banned in this country a good few years ago. As you know, Clive Smith died from cancer, reputedly induced by his days of being constantly covered in bronze maggot dye (crysoidine as I recall ?)

Cheers, Dave.
 
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Yes it quite put me off because of what happened to Clive.

The Red dye still most commonly used (I believe) is Rhodamine which is carcinogenic but it is introduced as a dye to the feed so is of little danger to anglers (unless you eat them), the other red dye is Sudan red which is not so dangerous but I understand it is not as good a dye.

Chrysoidine is also carcinogenic but it is used as a skin dye, this is no longer used (by responsible tackle shops and maggot breeders) as it does transfer to you hands and from there to whatever you touch.
The main problem is that Methic orange (the replacement) is nowhere near as good a dye as Chrysoidine, which is why Chrysoidine is still used.

Diso coloured maggots are dyed with Rhodamine in the feed and then with either Chrysoidine or Methic orange, Chrysoidine gives the best result and for sure the last time I bought these they had been skin dyed with Chrysoidine.
You can tell the difference between Chrysoidine and Methic orange because Methic orange washes off easily and Chrysoidine does not.

The dye used for yellow maggots is Auramine, which is introduced to the feed in the same way Rhodamine is, and although not carcinogenic is quite un-pleasant.

It has always seemed strange to me that Chrysoidine is still available, I should have thought it was banned years ago.
 
Interesting Chris.

I know those articles were in 2006 and 2007 but I bought Maggots last year that were Chrysoidine dyed.

It must be used for something else?

I will still keep to Whites with a few reds mixed in I think:)

Tight lines.
 
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