|
Joker
Keeping and Preparation
By
Gary Plant
A lot
of anglers are wary about fishing matches where bloodworm and joker is allowed
and I personally think this is for two reasons. The first being a lot of anglers
are unsure about how to use the bait and secondly the cost. It has been said by
many that joker is an expensive bait and to those who don't know how to keep it
alive and fresh, it probably is. But the truth is a half kilo of the
little red men may well suffice for up to 4 matches, (two weekends worth)
depending upon the venue(s). So when we look at things like that, it's probably
no more expensive than the next bait. How often do we take 3,4 pints of caster
to a venue and never use them? Quite often, I know I have, and casters can and
will degenerate quicker than joker.
The first part of how to get the best from
joker has already been covered by our Norman 'stormin' Carpenter in his article
on how to fish with it. The second I am going to look at here.
Generally
when you buy joker it will arrive in a newspaper wrap. Open it up and you will
see that the little red men are in their natural form, being neat. No peat or
anything else covering them, unlike bloodworm. So what do we do with it once we
get it? Well my advice is to get the joker a day or so before your match. That
way you can prepare it ready for your day out. There's nothing worse than
turning up at your peg, opening up the newspaper to find the joker in a very
poor condition.
This picture shows what I use to look after
my joker. The only thing that is missing is the aerator pump, but I will talk
about that later. As you can see I use a groundbait bucket, but any large deep
container will do, a joker riddle and tray, an aquarium net, a clear plastic
aquarium and last but not least some paper towels, which are used to clean up
afterwards! The net, tank and aerator are available from any pet store and will
cost about £10-£12. The joker riddle is a sensas one and with the tray will set
you back about £10. So the complete set up around £20. You may feel that the
only items you need are the riddle and tray along with the pump and net. Fine
but remember you will be limiting how much joker you will be able to keep.
The first step is to get the joker into a
container with some water. I use the aquarium and part fill it with water. No
need to go mad, generally a few inches to cover the joker will do, but remember
put the water into the tank first and not the other way round! Give the water
and joker some oxygen by use of the aerator and leave it for about an hour or
so. This will liven them up because you don't know how long they have been
in the paper before they got to you.
By using a clear tank, you can see how the
joker behaves in a water environment. If you haven't looked after them before,
this will give you an insight into how they behave and you can see their natural
movement giving you an idea how they may well react in your swim. As you can see
from these pictures they wriggle about at all depths and this is what as termed
as 'dancing'. After a while they will settle to the bottom but will
occasionally decide to go for a swim and another boogie, as can be seen from the
picture on the right.
Once you are happy with their recovery, and
it will be obvious when they are looking well, the next step is to riddle of the
dead or the ones that are not so healthy. Leave dead joker in with healthy stuff
and they will all deteriorate very quickly and die. So how do we do that? Place
the riddle over the tray and fill with water. Now this is where, in my opinion,
many go wrong. You only need enough water to touch the bottom of the riddle, as
can be seen from this photo. The idea is to encourage the little red men to swim
through the fine mesh to the deeper water. To much water and the joker will be
happy to stay where they are and it will take an eternity for them to go
through, if at all.
The next step is to drain off the joker from
the aquarium. This is where the groundbait bucket comes into play along with the
fine aquarium net.
Place the net onto the bucket and carefully
pour the contents of the aquarium into the net. However if you have a large
amount of joker don't tip it all in at once, little amounts up to 1/8th of
a kilo are best.
Next Page
Return to top
|
