General question

[vincema]

 

On the rocks next to the beach one finds a grey marine insect which crawls very fast, and a lot of amateur fishermen use them as bait. They aggregate in hundreds and fish love them! You usually find people gathering them with a brush and dropping them in a bucket. I would be interested to know what they are called in Maltese and in English too.

Thanks for your help 

[The_Gaffer]

in Maltese they are commonly referred to as dud. They were my favorite bait in my childhood fishing days, fishing from land or boat. The best time to go for dud is during the night, where they all huddle together on the rocks. During the day search for them in the shade, or under stones. I still think its one of the best baits to fish with, especially during the day when bottom fishing. However at night, for some reason, they are useless. The very mention of the word dud brings back fond memories of my childhood, fishing off the rocks and on my small boat in Xaghjra.

[fisheye]

As gaffer well said they are called dud tal-blat and are very good bait both for bottom and surface fishing. we used to collect them with a brush. Sometimes we used to put a piece of wet rag with a small piece of stone on it and small pieces of sliced wet bread from a day before we go fishing than the next morning we used to pick it up fast preferably before sunrise and put it in the bucket you have to be very fast or else they will vanish. The rag will be filled with these crawlers. We used to hook 2 on each hook in a way that they stay alive best to hook them from the back. I don't recommend to use on big hooks.  ;DHaha memories from my childhood.

[placebo]

best of the best bait ...... we use it to fish kahlija

also very good for vopi!

[vincema]

Thanks guys; I used them too when I was a kid and they are an excellent bait. I will try to find out what they
are called in English because they work wonders!

Thanks once again. 

[Arti2]

Unfortunately these insect like crawlers are disappearing from some areas that used to be kind of infested by them.
We used to see great numbers of these at Delimara and rocky places but today they became less frequent.
Pollution maybe one of the causes, but some irresponsible persons today use miniture vacuum cleaner which are battery operated to collect this 'bait'.
So they are not letting them produce, as some of them carry eggs.

[mellieha]

Arti,

You made me laugh and cry in the same moment.  What vacum cleaners??

They must be bastards.

Guys what I use to do is mix them with bead for bait.  I found them marvellous especially in the rima

[placebo]

good idea mellieha .... thumbs up

[SPITEC]

They are great bait even for imsell.