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Doing Castersposted on 16 January 2006 | posted in Hints and TipsCasters are turned over maggots and here is how you can turn your own casters. Get the freshest and biggest possible maggots from your baitbreeder. You know that they are freshest possible if you see a black dot in their "back". That is their bellie full of food. Some maggots don`t turn to good casters so make sure that the specific baitbreeders maggots are of the right kind. Put the maggots and the sawdust in a container that is not too small for the amount that you intend to turn to casters. Then moisten the sawdust. This has to be done to prevent the maggots from shrinking by drying. I have even used almost wet sawdust without any bad effects. The rule of thumb with wetness is that it is too wet if you start finding maggots all over the place after a while ;) Place the container with the maggots and the moist sawdust in a warm, but not too warm place. I like to keep them in garage, mostly because of the smell that comes from them (biggest amount of casters that I have turned on one occasion is 40 liters!). A good tip is to alternate warm and cool temperature on them if you just have this opportunity, but this is not necessary.  Now if you got the freshest bait, then they will start to turn to casters in about 4-5 days time. This is the phase when you need to be the most active. When you notice that the maggots are turning stiff you need to put them through a maggot riddle, preferably every 2 hours, to get the turned maggots separated from the "live" ones. If you leave them unriddled too long they`ll go dark and won`t stay fresh for long times. When you have put the maggots through the riddle, the stiff ones will be left on the riddle while the "live" ones have gone through the riddle. Now put the casters to a bucket of water. This is done to separate any sawdust from the maggots. When you have clean casters put them in an airtight plastic bag and place them in a fridge, preferably in +2 - +3 C degrees. If you plan to keep the casters for longer than one day, then give them some air once a day. This way the maggots will stay fresh 3-4 days. When you are on the bankside and can`t keep the casters in a fridge, then put them in cool water and they`ll be ok. |
