The medusa maggot rig

This rig gets its name from the visual aspect which looks similar to the hair of the mythical medusa. Medusa's hair was made up of snakes however and not maggots! This rig once assembled looks the business and it is immediately obvious why it is so effective.

This is basically just a pop up rig with the bait being maggots. A cork ball is threaded on to the hair to which you affix as many maggots as you can. Using superglue to fix the maggots to the cork ball will insure that they stay alive for the longest possible period. Be careful not to over do it with the glue because covering the maggots in glue will kill them quickly as maggots breath through their skin.

By using this method of applying the maggots is preferable to the commercially available maggot clips which can make the whole job very messy. Hook length is of course your choice, however, a semi supple hooklink material such as kryston mantis with the last couple of inches of the outer skin removed is always a good option. As most anglers know all fish love maggots and all fish will show an interest in your wriggling mass. Small fish such as roach and rudd will not be capable of taking the bait whole but they will suck and pick at the maggots leaving them stretched and lifeless.

The silver fish population in the lake you are fishing will have an influence as to how often you need to check the bait. For this reason this rig works best where the silver fish population is low.

While using the medusa rig you can expect any takes to be violent in nature.

In the winter when the carp are less active and not eating much this rig really comes into its own producing curiosity takes when most baits will not. An interesting fact about maggots is that you can freeze them. Once thawed the maggot will come back to life and be as good as new. This is really useful for storing large quantities. Spodding a bed of maggots into the area you intend to fish or even better, fishing over them in the margins can be extremely effective.

Assembling the Madusa rig

Rig assembly couldn't be simpler. This is just the pop-up rig with the addition of a 12mm cork ball added to a hair from the back of the hook to which maggots are glued. Add a weight an inch or 2 to insure the maggots sit of the bottom at your desired height.

Enterprise Tackle well as a few other manufactorors now produce plastic maggots in a variety of colours and the presentations these now offer us are only limited by our imaginations.