Historian Keith recalls the misguided media storm over a supposedly new ‘superbait’
NEW ‘SUPER GRUB’ INTRODUCED, 1980
IN THE winter of 1980 we were introduced to the latest in a long line of ‘magic baits’ – the bee wax moth grub and, to a lesser extent, mealworms. Both these baits were offered to the angling trade, I believe, through the pet industry. They were pretty heavily marketed… even I bought some to sell in the tackle shop I was managing.
This was at a time when wasp grub was proving to be extremely potent on many rivers, certainly in the Midlands, and the bee wax moth grub didn’t look that disimilar, so it had to work – right?
Nope, wrong. I didn’t try them at all. As a canny match angler at the time who had enjoyed zero success with the wasp variety, I let my customers provide feedback, and not one of them had a positive thing to say.
Perhaps they were unlucky, because Bob Church no less, one of the greatest all-round anglers ever to have lived, had caught fabulous trout and grayling on them.
Now, think about it – if we were allowed to use any bait on most trout streams that also contained grayling they’d soon be empty. Both species are magnificently omnivorous: in fact, the reason we are forced to catch trout on artificial flies virtually everywhere is because they are so daft.
Brownies may be more awkward, but even compared to commercial carp today they are glu
