Post by Metal Angler on Apr 29, 2005 11:26:41 GMT -5
Maggots or as they are sometimes called 'gentles,' are as everyone knows the larvae of flies. The word gentle implies amiable, mild, aristocratic, courteous, or tame; making the name 'gentle' a very odd choice to call a maggot. Actually throughout history, maggots have been extremely beneficial in medicine. Throughout the wars of our human history, maggots were medically useful because they only eat dead flesh, not living flesh. A suitable number of maggots placed on a wound and then bandaged, apparently actually helps in the healing process by eating and therefore removing unwanted infectious material. One could say, maggot's have their role in nature, that being consuming only dead flesh.
Old poachers would hang a dead rabbit or hare over a stream and leave it there. Over time the carcass would become fly-blown. As the maggot larvae grow, they crowd the liveable surface, but there is only so much space and in due time, a saturation point is reached. Growth after this point can only result in some maggots falling out, so to speak. Growth of the maggot clump thereby results in a constant drip of individual maggots falling on the water. This continues until the larvae finally hatch and fly away.
Trout soon become aware of this constant food supply and some good fish actually take up residence under, or just downstream from the hanging maggot infested corpse. It was a simple matter for the poacher to catch those fish using a small hook baited with few maggots, or even boiled rice. Clever but hardly sporting!