On arrival home from fishing my first trip is generally to the shed to return unused bait to the freezer. I take my bait to the shore in a freezer bag so if its not too mild some of it can be placed back in a semi frozen state. I had carried out this ritual after last week’s competition.

The freezer bag and a couple of old traces lay on the floor when I prepared for my next session close to a week later. It seemed slightly iffy as I picked up last weeks trace and went to lift last week’s bait wrappers. I winced as my fingers felt a soft and slimy week old bluey! Its pungent aroma was certainly far from pleasing.

This isn’t my first bait disaster and probably won’t be the last. Smelly old mackerel, squid and peeler crabs have all caused offence in the past.

Amongst my worsts disasters came a few years ago whilst fishing the Hampshire Avon. My good friend Rupert and I returned from the river after a long day with rain beating down. It was good to be heading back for a good meal. Several pints of maggots sat in a bucket in the back of the car but they would be fine until morning!

We had overlooked the fact that the bucket had got wet. Next morning upon opening the boot we found maggots everywhere! We mopped up what we could the following day and went fishing. On arriving back home I removed the spare tyre to find hundreds of maggots in the well. A good old hoover and I hoped all was good; bloody maggots infiltrated the entire car burying into the carpets and every nook and cranny. For weeks after every warm day saw a hatch of flies within the car! Pauline was far from amused!