Fishermen have long been accustomed to the fact that one of the most popular nozzles - bloodworms - does not need to be extracted by yourself. You can just go to the fishing store and buy it as much as you need for the nearest fishing time. And few people think about the shape of which of the insects it is, how it lives and develops in the underwater world, and how, finally, it falls into the hands of a fisherman.
Recipe for success
Bloodworms are one of the best baits used by anglers for sport and recreational fishing. This small, 1-2 cm long red worm lives in the bottom silt of lakes, ponds, river rivers and bays. A bloodworm is the larva of a long-bred mosquito (either a belfry, or an insect of the families Chironomidae and Tendipedidae), harmless and not biting, which does not feed at all in the adult phase. It not only does not harm, but also brings tangible benefits! For what exactly this type of mosquito was even awarded a separate monument, which is located in the city of Berdyansk, Ukraine.
Bloodworm for fishing
You must have seen the long fellow. When the heat comes, these insects begin to swarm with a thin squeak in quiet places near the water. But fishermen are interested in this wonderful insect in every way as a fishing lure. Bloodworm is the key to success! He has no equal. His winter fishing enthusiasts especially respect him. There is no way without larvae. They are on the hook, they are around the hole. Feeding in winter is also carried out mainly by bloodworms. Fans of fishing in open water, along with other baits, also use such as bloodworms, maggots, and worms. And much more and more often than it seems at first glance. To improve the bite, for example, it is added in kilograms to industrial bait mixtures both in serious sporting events and in ordinary amateur fishing. The use of bloodworms is not limited to bait. In the warm season, bloodworms and worms are often used both as the main bait, and as replanting to other baits.
Some features and specifications
From the tropics to the Arctic lakes, numerous species of mosquito bells settled .
The adult form of the insect at this stage can be pale yellow, lettuce, less often dark. The limbs are very elongated. The males are decorated with cirrus antennae. With their help, the male hears the beating of the wings of sexually mature females, which oscillate at a speed of 500 strokes per second. One of the life cycles of the bell is the bloodworm familiar to us. This is its larval stage, the longest. It takes 3 to 9 months to turn into a flying insect, depending on temperature and water depth. Almost all the larvae build houses, the designs of which depend on which substrate they develop on.
Way to adulthood
Located in the lower part of this structure, the larva makes wave-like breathing movements, thanks to which a stream of water arises inside the house, delivering food and oxygen necessary for life of bloodworms. Larvae migrate actively. Throughout the year, in the spring they rise to smaller places with warmed water, and in the fall they go deeper. Before turning into a flying insect, the larva passes the stage of pupation. There is a restructuring of the internal organs. In this period of up to two weeks, the bloodworm no longer resembles a larva, but it is far from an adult insect, although it already has the beginnings of wings and legs.
How to get bloodworm yourself?
Live bloodworm washes in the winter. To do this, use a dredge, a special device on a sliding stick. Typically, average fishermen use smaller dredges, because they do not harvest bloodworms in industrial volumes. But, whatever the dredge itself - small, large, deep, shallow - the principle of obtaining bloodworms remains unchanged. The device sinks to the bottom, after which you need to scoop up as much bottom sludge as possible. The more it is scooped up, the greater the number of bloodworms obtained at the exit. After that, the structure rises to the surface. If the bucket volume is very large, then a small hand winch is used to lift the sludge.
Flushing
When the stage of extraction of bloodworm is completed, the second step is washing it. To do this, take a special slotted spoon and begin to rinse through the bucket net. Ground sludge usually consists of very small particles, so it is washed out without much difficulty.
When the action is almost over, to wash the remains from the bucket, you need to sharply lower and remove the bucket several times from the water. Then - for a few seconds, keep the bucket in the air and slowly immerse it back in water. You can reap the benefits of your labor.
How is bloodworm stored at home
Here are some simple recipes for keeping bloodworms for a long time at home. The easiest way to do this is with plastic cassettes, which are sold at pet stores or markets for anglers. The main disadvantage of this design: it is designed for small bloodworms, feed. Therefore, it can be modernized using conventional scissors: with a narrow end we dig out a little holes, we make such a chamfer so that a larger bloodworm can penetrate through this net. The principle of operation is very simple: we put the larvae on a grid and fill the cassette with water. And so that the water closed everything completely. Living larvae penetrate through the net to the bottom of the cassette, while the dead and various debris remain on the net. This cassette is put in the refrigerator away from the freezer, and every two days we just take out the net, dead larvae and wash the garbage under the tap. Filter the living larvae through the net. They stay there. Again, fill the grid with water and put down the refrigerator. Thus, the larvae can be stored for about a month, or even more, although bloodworms are a rather perishable product.
In the newspaper
Plastic cassettes are good for storing small portions of bait mainly for the bait. And if it comes to large numbers of larvae for bait, for example, for bream fishing, then it makes sense to act in a slightly different way. Well, firstly, bloodworms bought at the store can be very wet. First you need to dry it on a newspaper. The newspaper should not be taken fresh from the mailbox, but the one that has lain for some time, since the printing ink is still toxic - it needs to be properly dried. We scatter bloodworms on the surface of the newspaper, dry it, and then its packaging begins.
Packaging
After we dried the bloodworm on dry media, we transfer it to the next sheet and fold it in small portions, no more than 100 grams. Remember that bloodworms are brittle, so we’re not pushing hard. Next, take a wet newspaper, and wrap a bundle in it. And again - in the dry - in the third layer. The bottom line is that now the bloodworm is in the first convolution in a dry newspaper, then it is enveloped by a wet shell of absolutely wet, and all this is again blocked by a dry newspaper. That is, the moisture does not evaporate too intensively, at the same time it enters in sufficient quantities to the mosquito larvae. This package is placed in the refrigerator away from the freezer (in the lower compartments, to vegetables, despite the protests of the wife). In this form, this popular and sought-after bait, in principle, can persist for a week. There are other ways to preserve bloodworms, for example, by freezing it.