The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

With a couple of pints of maggots in the bottom of my garage fridge I know that it would be a high-risk strategy to smuggle them into the caravan before we set off for France this weekend.
I have always restricted my holiday baits to things like hemp, tares and sweetcorn which have a sound behavioural track record.
So, these last few days I’ve been turning the bait into 100 gram bags of casters which will stay in the freezer until we are back in August. Before use I will drop them into a pail of water to skim off the floaters.
Point is that because the bait is now dead, sinkers should stay as sinkers on the river bank. So why don’t we always freeze casters to stop them turning during use?

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I didn't know you could freeze casters?
I have heard of frozen dead maggots for loose feed.

When defrosted do the casters remain their shape, and hook well?

Thing is Paul F that I have done this very often. Some of the Winter League boys see me wandering along the Wye after end match whistle. They say Timmy - do you want these casters or I'll throw them in the river? So I get home, freeze them all in 100 / 150 mg bags and then on defrost I sort out the floaters (ground bait Mix) and the sinkers. But the sinkers stay sunk!!

How do you stop them turning black when defrosted ?

They go off,their shells become soft and fragile and they darken quickly after defrosting.use only as free offerings and use fresh ones on the hook.

Meant to say the best way to prolong casters is to put them in a bag and get as much air out as possible and store just above freezing.

Ian wrote: ↑Thu Jun 28, 2018 9:17 pm They go off,their shells become soft and fragile and they darken quickly after defrosting.use only as free offerings and use fresh ones on the hook.

That's the experience I found ,suppose ok to use in groundbait on a commercial, but not something I would do.
Best way I found was in a pellet pump ,pump the air out and chill in the fridge. Keeps for up to two weeks. And still retain colour and crispness, most importantly still catch fish.

No I have not had any problem with casters turning black or soggy or soft shelled. My Beco garage freezer freezes very quickly and I freeze them dry. After freezing in small air tight bags they can be defrosted and kept dry. They fish just like fresh casters.

Troydog wrote: ↑Fri Jun 29, 2018 1:25 pm No I have not had any problem with casters turning black or soggy or soft shelled. My Beco garage freezer freezes very quickly and I freeze them dry. After freezing in small air tight bags they can be defrosted and kept dry. They fish just like fresh casters.

Can you run through the procedure troydog.
I would be willing to give it another go.
Thanks
Gary .