HOW TO RIG A PELLET FEEDER FOR BARBEL

Q What’s the difference between maggots and pinkies? ROSE ROBERTS, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE

A The use of some types of smaller grubs has fallen by the wayside to such an extent that many tackle shops no longer stock them. If you haven’t come across them before here’s a short guide to the world of natural grubs and what they offer the angler.

1. Maggots

The king of grubs and arguably angling’s greatest bait. Available in a range of colours, although red and white tend to be the most popular. Maggots are excellent because they take on flavours really well.

2. Squatts

These tiny, quite inactive, maggots are bred from houseflies. Rarely seen in tackle shops or on the bank, they were once ‘the’ bait for the discerning bream angler, with the belief that four red squatts on the hook would always earn bites from bonus fish. Kept in damp sand to stop them drying out and floating, their torpid nature makes them ideal for adding to groundbait because they don’t break up the balls.

3. Pinkies

Slightly larger, pinkies come from greenbottle flies. They get their name from the pale pink colour of their larvae. They are also extremely active, wriggling twice as much as maggots, particularly in warmer weather. Much loved by roach anglers, in larger bunches of five or six they are also excellent for targeting big skimmers, bream, tench and even carp.

4. Gozzers

Much softer and a little larger than standard maggots, they have to be bred at home because they are too difficult to breed commercially. Produced using fly-blown chicken/pigeon breast or pig’s heart, the fly lays its eggs on the meat.

1 2 3 Minimise rig tangles by using an antitangle sleeve to kick the hooklink well away from the feeder 4 Pass the hooklength’s free end back through the eye and pull tight to form a knotless knot Form a small overhand loop in one end of the...