Every aquarist knows that various crustaceans are used to feed fish, which can be purchased at any pet store for a small price. Many of these crustaceans inhabit freshwater bodies and seas, and you can catch most of them yourself. Today we will take a closer look at gammarus: we will tell you what it is, how it is used, what it eats and how it develops. Let's talk about catching and storing crustaceans.

What is it

Gammarus is a small arthropod that belongs to the genus of higher crayfish. It is also called the amphipod crustacean, as it belongs to the order Amphipods. The name "gammarus" is nothing more than a transcription from the English name of the species "Gammarus pulex".

The crustacean is not only used for feeding, but is also a good bait. Arthropods are also widely used for industrial fish farming.

Description and appearance

Before us is a smaller version of the shrimp, which is up to 1 cm long. Everyone who has been to the sea has seen small shrimp that jump out of the sand onto their feet. They are called "fleas", but they are nothing more than gammarus.

Like many arthropods, the body of Gammarus is divided into a large number of segments (14 pieces), which form a chitinous shell, which is the external skeleton. The amphipod has 9 pairs of legs, which it uses to make leaping movements.

Important! The crustacean got its name “amphipod” for the reason that it jumps not forward, but sideways.

Although “sea fleas” can be seen outside the aquatic environment, crustaceans, like fish, have gills, and therefore cannot breathe oxygen not dissolved in water.

As for nutrition, to capture prey, as well as for mating, crustaceans use simple claws, which are located on the front legs. Gammarus feed on plant and animal food, as well as rotten remains, playing the role of orderlies.

Life cycle features

Gammarus lives in the coastal zone, where it feeds on various marine vegetation, as well as the remains of animal food. This location of the crustacean is due to the fact that in shallow waters it has a better chance of survival, since large fish do not often approach the shore.

The average lifespan of individuals is 12 months. During this time, Gammarus can molt several dozen times. Shedding occurs twice a month in the cold season, and once a week in the warm season.

After the 7th change of shell, the female develops special growths on her abdomen, which form a kind of chamber for eggs. And already at 9-10 moults, the female can give birth to offspring.

Females can give birth several times over a short life, but the number of litters is determined by the habitat (in warm water the female gives birth several times a year, in cold water - 1-2 times).

During mating, the male attaches himself to the female's back, where he waits for the next molt. As soon as the female begins to shed chitin, the male diligently helps the female, after which he lubricates the walls of the formed “bag” with seed.

This completes the mating process. After successful fertilization, up to 30 “eggs” appear in the female’s pouch, which are dark-colored.

Offspring can be expected in a month. Young crustaceans appear fully formed, so they can immediately begin to eat vegetation.

Nutritional value

Gammarus is used as fish food for a reason. This crustacean breaks records for the amount of protein, as well as for total calorie content.

100 g of gammarus provides 300 kcal, which can be compared to lean pork or bread. As for nutritional value, 100 g of “shrimp” contains 40 g of protein, 11 g of fat and 12 g of carbohydrates.

In addition to a large amount of protein and high calorie content, amphipods have another “trump card” - carotene. It is carotene that makes the color of fish bright and colorful.

It turns out that gammarus is an excellent food for fish, as it provides a large amount of protein, which is necessary for organs, and serves as a building material for muscles, of which there is quite a lot in the body of fish.

Did you know? Gammarus, like most arthropods, is able to detect even faint odors of substances under water, thanks to which it can navigate in space. Moreover, not a single chemical device can detect such weak concentrations of a substance in water or air as are noticeable to arthropods.

How to get gammarus

To catch amphipods, we need to visit a reservoir. There are several fishing methods, which we will discuss below. The first option is straw or hay.

First, build something like a shell. We make a round or square frame from wire, and then attach a fine mesh to it. The result is something similar to a large net.

We tie a rope to the four sides of the frame to make it convenient to raise and lower our product. Next, we put straw or hay on the net, after which we go to the water and lower it to a shallow depth.

The bottom line is that crustaceans willingly gather in hay or straw, occupying all the empty spaces. After a short amount of time, the device is pulled out, and the straw is quickly moved into a bucket of water so that the gammarus does not have time to “jump.”

The second option is to use a net. In this way, you can only catch large concentrations of crustaceans that can be seen through clear water. It is enough to hold a net in the water and quickly pull the caught gammarus to the shore.

Important! There are both marine and freshwater crustaceans, so you can catch them both in the river and in the sea.

On an industrial scale, amphipods are caught using fine-mesh nets. They pass the net along the bottom, after which they take out not only crustaceans, but also other “residents” of the bottom along with the silt.

Storage rules

Next, we’ll talk about how to store mormysh (another name for crustacean). There are 3 storage methods: drying, freezing, live. We'll look at all the options so you have a choice. Let us remind you that gammarus is sold exclusively in dry form, since the shelf life of such a product is very long.

Alive

It’s worth saying right away that river gammarus is stored exclusively in fresh water, and sea gammarus is stored in salt water. Although this is obvious, you can accidentally make such a mistake and waste a large amount of food.

The easiest way to keep freshwater amphipods alive is because you can replace the water with tap water. Immediately after catching jigs, we need to take soil and water from the same reservoir so that serious differences in the habitat do not arise.
Next, take a container, pour soil into it, pour in water and place the gammarus. After this, you need to move the container to a dark, cool place and install an aerator, since arthropods are highly dependent on the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water.

Important! Despite the fact that the crustacean can be stored alive, it must be treated before feeding it to fish, since it is a carrier of helminths and various pathogenic bacteria.

Every day we need to replace a third of the water. You can bring it fresh from a pond, or take tap water if it does not differ radically in acidity. At the same time, you should understand that a living gammarus has nothing to eat in your improvised aquarium, so you can’t store it in this form for long.

Of course, you can spend time catching and placing in a vessel, but it is not worth it. It should be stored alive for a short period of time.

Dried

Before putting crustaceans under the scorching sun, you need to remember the following: you can only dry live gammarus. If it begins to deteriorate, then drying cannot be done, otherwise you will poison your fish.
Many people recommend rinsing with hot water to destroy pathogenic microorganisms, but do not forget that under the influence of boiling water, protein coagulates and vitamins are also destroyed.

For this reason, it is not advisable to use boiling water; one can wash the “catch” in hot water, which does not burn your hands.

Amphipods need to be dried hanging to ensure the best air circulation. The structure on which we will dry is reminiscent of the above-described “shell trap”.

We take a large piece of wire, make a rectangular frame, stretch gauze and lay out the gammarus. Then we hang it in a draft, or in a place that is well ventilated.

Important! Do not use an oven for drying. The same goes for special fruit dryers.

Dried gammarus can be stored for about 3 months. Such a short shelf life is due to the fact that after this time the amount of nutrients is sharply reduced.
Yes, the food will not turn into poison, but it will not be as useful. To increase shelf life, sealed bags are used that retain nutritional value and vitamins.

Frozen

As with drying, only live crustaceans are suitable for freezing. It is impossible to use arthropods of “second freshness”, since even low temperatures will not remove potential poison from the amphipod.

We recommend freezing not in one large piece, but in several portions, so that you don’t have to take a hammer the next time you feed the fish. For freezing, it is better to use small bags in which seasonings are sold in mass markets.

The optimal temperature for freezing is 18-25°C below zero. According to some data, frozen food retains its value for about 24 months from the moment of freezing.

Important! It is forbidden to store amphipods in the refrigerator (not freezer) for more than 1 week.

How to feed fish

It’s worth saying right away that the live and frozen version should not be given to fish without prior preparation. The fact is that the chitin of gammarus is quite strong, and most fish do not have teeth, so such food will take a very long time to digest; Accordingly, you need to somehow soften the shell in order to reduce the digestion time. And for this we use hot water (not boiling water).

We take the required amount of frozen or live amphipods, immerse them in a container and fill them with warm water. We wait a little more than half an hour, after which we check. If the chitin has become soft, it means it can be given to the fish; if not, we wait further.

Did you know? A large concentration of gammarus can chew through a fishing net if it contains the desired food.

As for feeding fish dry, it does not need to be pre-cooked, however, in most cases, fish have problems with “mini shrimp” due to their size.

For this reason, food is not consumed in the required quantity, and the fish remain hungry. This problem can be solved by grinding the crustaceans to the required size. If desired, even fry can be fed with gammarus dust.
Separately, it is worth mentioning that it is not worth feeding exclusively gammarus. It is important to alternate it with daphnia, cyclops, dry algae, bloodworms, and tubifex.

There are "standard" store-bought kits that are a mixture of Daphnia, Gammarus and Cyclops. This menu is complete, so it is often used to feed non-capricious fish.

This concludes our discussion of the arthropod crustacean, which is used not only for feeding aquarium fish, but also for catching them. Remember that any live food that you catch from a reservoir must be processed.

In those areas where fishermen are lucky enough to have mormysh at their disposal for bait and bait, it is difficult to imagine a fisherman going fishing without a certain supply of this crustacean.

Mormysh is used as bait when fishing for perch, roach and pike perch. Adding mormysh (live or boiled) to vegetable bait for bream, roach and placing the bait with mormysh (can be slightly crushed) on the bottom gives good results in fishing.

Baiting perch with jigs for winter fishing

We catch and feed with mormysh. Tackle and fishing methods

The second half of winter is the time when Siberian fishermen begin to feed the fish with mormysh. This is due to the fact that it is at this time that jigs appear on the market. Why in winter and in the second half? Naturally, mormysh does not go anywhere in the summer, but the fact is that mormysh loves cold and dark places.

And it rises to the lower edge of the ice (where it is collected on an industrial scale) for a completely banal reason: when the ice becomes thick, then by the middle of winter there is also a minimum of oxygen in the water, and behind the bubble of this very oxygen the jig rises up.

Of course, mormysh can be obtained in the summer, but doing so is much more difficult. In addition, in the summer, fishing with a worm or maggot is no worse, and climbing with a stick or pitchfork in the water, getting grass from there and choosing jigs from it is not the most pleasant experience.

Not many people know or have paid attention, but there are different types of mormysh. There are thousands of subspecies of this amphipod. Baikal alone is home to 250 species. Mormysh feeds mainly on all kinds of underwater rot: plants, remains of insects, fish and animals. And in turn, fish feed on this reservoir orderly and this bait is well known to fish, since jigs live in varying quantities in almost all reservoirs.

The most popular winter tackle, the mormyshka, got its name precisely from the mormysh, and this crustacean began to be called the mormysh because of the characteristic small jerks, which in the old days were called similar to the current word mormysh.

Many “penguins” take jigs with them on fishing trips, but not all of them know how to feed fish with them. Meanwhile, there are regions where they don’t go fishing at all without jigs. I have been to areas where they feed mormysh everywhere, they also get it there and, accordingly, people know where and how to feed it.

For example, I visited Baikal three times, twice in Khakassia. I tested the feeding skills I observed on lowland reservoirs, rivers and lakes, and I must say that almost all the techniques work the same in our area, since, I repeat, jigs are well known to almost all fish in Siberia.

You can buy mormysh in a store, or you can get it yourself, which is what village fishermen most often do. The simplest and most commonly used way to extract jigs is to lower a bunch of dry straw into the hole. The next day, the hole is broken up with a pick, straw is taken out and a jig is selected from it.

There are other options for collecting crustaceans, not counting the industrial method of collecting crustaceans directly from the lower surface of the ice. I will not describe these methods and devices, since there are many varieties of them and you can find out if you want. Although a city fisherman is unlikely to have such a desire, it is much easier and not so expensive to buy jigs.

However, I can suggest one more method especially for rural fishermen. We wrap the pieces of bread in a fine mesh or tulle and lower them to the bottom. Mormysh climbs into this bag to eat bread. All that remains is to remove the bag from the hole the next day and select this crustacean. The best places for catching mormysh are small rivers with fairly clean water and moderate currents.

I can’t give you more specific recommendations for other places, since I myself twice caught mormysh in precisely such rivers. By the way, if you come fishing for a few days and you don’t have a jig, ask the locals where the jig lives, and the very next day you can have excellent and, most importantly, local bait.

Mormysh should be stored in a cool, dark place, wrapped in a wet cloth. Ideally, it is best to use wet moss or river grass taken when extracting jigs. It is better to transport jigs for fishing in children's felt boots. The top of the felt boots is closed tightly either with a rag or with a special carved wooden stopper. In such a “vessel” the jig does not freeze for a long time. Frozen jig, unlike bloodworms, loses its working qualities.

I know that for long-term storage, jigs are frozen in ice or dried. I myself tried to dry it once, and the first time nothing good came of it, the jig took too long to dry and became rotten. Later I learned that it is best to boil the jig before drying it. Before fishing, dried jigs need to be steamed in hot water. As soon as the jig fills with water and takes its original form, we throw the jig onto the net and dry it slightly.

Fishing for mormysh

Mormysh are not often used as bait. But sometimes it happens that the fish only bites on the jig. It’s worth trying to fish with mormysh even if you feed fish with it. Try it, and if the fish bites on the jig, then this is good luck for the fisherman, since the jig stays on the hook very well.

To attach a mormysh you need sharp hooks, since with dull hooks you will damage it more than you will attach it normally. Well, accordingly, for jig fishing, medium and large jigs with fairly large hooks are used.

Mormysh are baited in different ways. I know of two: like a worm through the head and across through the back. With this method, the crustacean remains alive and additionally attracts fish. But there is also a minus - this makes it easier for fish to knock it off the hook.

By the way, in some regions of Siberia they fish only with live jigs, and in some with boiled ones. The beauty of boiled mormysh lies in its aroma and bright appearance. Although it’s difficult to call this process cooking. The jig is doused with boiled water for a few seconds.

This is done in some kind of sieve, or a gauze bag with jig is lowered into the pan for a short time. Ideally, it is better to do this directly while fishing, or an hour before fishing. After such a bath, jig becomes yellow-orange in color and has a very specific and even tasty smell (do not forget that jig is a distant relative of shrimp).

Feeding with mormysh

Most often, mormysh is, of course, used for feeding. If the depth is shallow, up to 3 meters, then a live jig is taken into a handful with one hand, slapped with the free hand on the palm with the jig, and the “stunned” jig is poured into the hole. If the jig is not stunned, it will not sink to the bottom, but will rise and attach to the lower edge of the ice.

If the depth at the fishing spot is more than 3 meters, then it is better to lower the jig in the feeder. But there are a number of nuances here too. It is better not to pour bait with mormysh directly onto the bottom. There are several reasons for this. If there is a large layer of silt at the bottom, then a strong specific turbidity rises and gases are released, which, on the contrary, scare away the fish.

Also, feeding with a feeder is not effective if the bottom is cluttered or there is a lot of underwater vegetation on it. Well, the most important thing is that if we pour out a “dump truck” with jig at a distance of 1.5-2 meters from the bottom, the jig sinking down and moving at the same time additionally attracts fish.

In order to better understand why mormysh is so attractive to fish, let’s try to think about how fish generally react to bait. Obviously, there are several factors: the fish sees the bait, the fish feels the bait by smell and taste, and can also find it by vibrations caught by the lateral line.

Naturally, most standard dry bait mixtures, devoid of bloodworms or jigs, cannot create any fluctuations in the aquatic environment. Of course, bloodworms are seriously inferior to mormysh in terms of movement activity, but if there is no mormysh, then in winter I always add bloodworms to the bait, since in winter, in most cases, live bait works better.

It’s hard to say which option works better: boiled jig with a unique smell or live jig. Each has its own advantages: live jigs move more actively, and boiled jigs smell appetizing and look bright. The most reliable way: try both options in one place, but of course in different holes. But before you begin these tests, you need to find a fish site. And this must be done without bait, otherwise you will waste the bait.

We found a place, the fish bit and stopped. That's when it's worth feeding. If there is no improvement in the bite, then you can return to this hole in an hour and try again. If even after an hour there is no bite, it means either you have caught all the fish from under the hole, or the fish is inactive and after feeding a little, it immediately falls into apathy. About half the time, my fishing goes like this: I find 3-4 working holes, periodically feed them, and fish all day, moving from one hole to another.

It often happened like this: I fed him, frequent and confident bites began, and literally after 10 minutes, the bite stopped. Is the bait to blame for this? Is it possible to overfeed fish? It’s difficult to say for sure, but I very much doubt that this is possible. Of course, if you feed with a reasonable amount, and do not pour kilograms of jig into the hole.

But if the reservoir is fishy, then it is difficult to overfeed a large number of fish. On the contrary, many experts recommend that if there is an active bite and a large concentration of fish, feed it more abundantly so that most of the fish remain at your hole.

So, the reasons for stopping the bite should rather be sought in the fact that in winter the life processes in the fish’s bodies proceed more slowly, which means that the fish need less food than in the summer. Therefore, after eating even a couple of jigs, the perch can “get enough” and lose interest in food. Saturation is conditional, but for some reason this happens often. But such apathy should not confuse you, keep in mind that in different parts of the reservoir the fish may be different in activity. You need to look for active fish, which, however, is an absolute axiom in winter.

There is one more nuance. Sometimes after the formation of ice, sometimes in the middle of winter, and more often towards the end of winter (let's say - at the end of the deep winter), the fish rises and stands either at half-water or right under the ice. Most likely, this is due to the fact that due to a lack of oxygen, various crustaceans (including jigs) rise from the bottom, which is what the fish most likely feed on. At such moments, the fish ceases to be interested in bottom food.

The bait that has fallen to the bottom will not interest the fish; it does not see or feel it. Therefore, before feeding, you always need to check the presence of fish in the hole and always the horizon on which it rests. And live jig is just the kind of bait that can work in different water levels. Of course, jigs are less suitable for fishing in currents, but they can also be used there, although not as successfully.

As for perch (and this is the main fish when fishing with jigs), perch, since it is a predator, is attracted to moving food. My friend has an underwater video camera, and we filmed how the jig works underwater. Of course, we could not feel through the eyepiece of the video device how vibrations and smell spread in the water, but we noticed one thing for sure: a jig released from a feeder a meter above the bottom does not sink to the bottom in a common group, but begins to spread out in different directions. The jig does this very slowly and unorganized and looks from the outside like such an easy prey that, perhaps, not a single perch can resist here.

Useful and interesting video - How to get jigs in winter

Gammarus is a small amphipod crustacean. The Latin name for this species is Gammarus pulex, and it belongs to the order Amphipoda (amphipods), which has about 4,500 species. More often in everyday life, outside the aquarium theme, the word mormysh is used, which is a collective word, it means exactly those 4,500 species of the order Amphipoda. Mormysh used by fishermen as bait to catch fish on a hook. Aquarists often use Gammarus pulex to feed aquarium fish. Which was described by Linnaeus back in 1758. The same species is used to feed valuable commercial fish species on fish farms.

Synonyms: mormysh, sea flea, amphipod crustacean, Rivulogammarus, Sinogammarus.

Mormysh is widespread everywhere. Lives in fresh or brackish waters. The Gammarus species is a freshwater species.

Description:

This amphipod crustacean has a curved body consisting of 14 segments covered with a hard shell. Body length is about 1 centimeter. Mormysh- a collective name for all species among which there are

green-brown color is determined by the animal's diet

quite large. Some of them can reach a length of up to 3 centimeters. The described species has 14 pairs of limbs. The first two pairs are represented by antennae - a kind of tactile apparatus. The first two pairs of thoracic legs each bear a simple claw. These are grasping organs for capturing and also holding food. And with their help, the male clings to the female’s back during reproduction. The first three abdominal pairs of legs are swimming, the last three help the animal to make fairly rapid jumps. The hind legs are covered with a large number of bristles; they act as an effective rudder. Under the thin but fairly strong plates of the thoracic limbs there are delicate gills. These legs constantly make oscillatory movements. With their oscillatory movements they ensure a constant flow of water to the respiratory organs of the animal.

Lives for about 1 year. Withstands temperature fluctuations from 0 to 26 degrees Celsius. Prefers cool, oxygen-rich waters, shaded from direct sunlight. The color of the chitinous shell can vary from brown-green to light yellow. This is determined by the food base of a given population. The shell acquires a green color when the animal feeds on plant foods, and it is colored by plant pigments that contain plants. The Baikal gammarus, which feeds on small plankton, can be brown, colorless, or red in color. It feeds and grows constantly. As it grows, molting occurs, during which the animal gets rid of the old, tight chitinous shell. Molting occurs every 7 days in summer and 16–17 days in winter. After the seventh molt, the female develops peculiar outgrowths on her abdominal limbs, forming the so-called brood chamber. It is a kind of hollow tube. Reaches sexual maturity after the tenth molt. Mormysh can reproduce from one to several times a year. This is determined by the habitat. The colder it is, the less likely it is to reproduce. During spawning, the male clings to the female's shell. He can ride like this for up to 7 days, waiting for the next molting of the female. When her molting begins, the male will help her get rid of her old chitinous clothing. And then he will lubricate the walls of her brood pouch with his seed using his abdominal legs. Copulation lasts up to several

what is natural is not ugly...

seconds After this, the male leaves his girlfriend, and she lays up to thirty large dark eggs in the brood pouch. In warm weather, their development lasts from two to three weeks. Young gammarus emerge from the brood pouch already fully formed.

How to get

Mined gammarus food by using:

A bundle of straw or hay, which is placed at the bottom of the reservoir. Having discovered such a treat, the jig very quickly climbs between the straws and blades of grass, filling all the cracks. Now all that remains is to take your bait out of the water and select your prey from it.
Sometimes the amphipod crustacean can cling to burlap tied to a long stick with which the bag is slowly pulled above the bottom. For this, only a bag made of fabric woven from hemp is suitable. After a few minutes, the bag can be removed from the water and the animals collected by hand.
If the reservoir where you are going to catch Gammarus pulex contains a lot of algae, you can try catching it using a net made from a nylon stocking.

How to store

You can store your catch live, dried, or frozen.

It is advisable to use dried food within three months if it is stored in an airtight container with access to air. With longer use, the nutritional value of such food drops sharply. Therefore, you should not stock up on these raw materials for ten years in advance.

Gammarus can be frozen. In this case, it is necessary to follow the same recommendations as when preparing raw materials for drying. What can be added is the recommendation to divide the entire supply into small portions that can be eaten either at one time or several times over the course of one week. Now you can freeze these portions at a temperature of minus 18 -25 degrees Celsius. Most modern household freezers can handle this task. According to some data, frozen amphipod crustacean can retain its nutritional properties for up to two years.

Where to buy

Buy mormysh You can go to the market or in stores that sell pet products. If you want to buy a live Gammarus pulex, then most likely this is only possible at the nearest market where they sell our smaller brothers and food for them.

It is better to buy dry and frozen food in specialized stores or from a friend whom you have known for many years and you have no doubt about the quality of his product.

The most famous suppliers of dry food for aquarium fish today in Russian

Feast for the whole world

market are Tetra, Sera, Tropical, Nutrafin (Hagen), Otto, Wardley, Dajana Pet, Munster Aquarium, and others. When purchasing this product, pay attention to the production date and expiration date. It should also be remembered that after the packaging has been sealed, its contents must be used within three months.

Nota Bene! Allergy

It must be remembered that the chitinous shells of all crustaceans and insects contain strong allergens. Children should not be given boiled crayfish, crabs, or shrimp. Due to the unestablished mechanisms of their immune system, severe food allergic reactions to substances that contain chitinous shells can occur.

Of course, no one is going to give Gammarus pulex to children as food, but when this crustacean is dried, its chitinous shells become very brittle. Therefore, when feeding fish, tiny particles of dried chitinous shells can be formed, which can remain suspended in the air for quite a long time. Now particles containing these allergens will come into contact with the human body not through the digestive tract, but through the respiratory tract. For the same reason, it is strongly recommended not to cover the floors with carpets, which are so fashionable today. The crevices between carpet fibers are ideal breeding grounds for dust mites. These “domestic animals” can only be seen with a microscope, but they are also covered with a chitinous shell, which, after the death of the animal, is ground into the finest powder by our feet. As it rises into the air and enters the respiratory tract, it can also cause allergic reactions. Therefore, if after contact with dry food you notice skin itching, redness of the skin, watery eyes or difficulty breathing, you should immediately seek help from a doctor.

It’s not worth depriving your child of an aquarium or being left without a favorite hobby. Allergy not to aquarium!

From now on, you should stop using dry food and use live or frozen food.

Nutritional value

Gammarus food contains dry matter 12.8%. Of these, the share of protein is 56.2%, fat 5.8%, carbohydrates 3.2%. It is also rich in carotene, a provitamin of vitamin A. It is this component that is credited with the ability to make the color of fish and birds especially bright.

Pretty decent food.

Amphipod crustacean relatively large. Therefore, it can be given to medium and large fish. For small fish or fry, the jig can be chopped. Dry, you can simply rub it lightly between your fingers. Live or frozen Gammarus pulex can be pre-steamed for a few minutes with hot water to soften the chitinous shells, and then cut into pieces of suitable sizes.

Feed Gammarus is a valuable, nutritious food for your fish. If you follow the simple recommendations given in this article, all the unpleasant moments that may arise when using Rivulogammarus will be minimized. I hope you found the article interesting and at least somewhat useful.

Mormysh is one of the best baits for catching freshwater fish in lakes, rivers and other bodies of water. It is especially popular with fish, and therefore fishermen, in winter.

Fish that prefer mormysh as food: roach, perch, grayling, omul, whitefish, pike perch and trout. It is also possible that other freshwater fish will react to the jig.

Live (fresh) seafood is an attractive delicacy for freshwater fish

Mormysh as bait

Mormysh is simply ideal as complementary food. The larvae can be used live, boiled or dried.

Live jig should be lowered to the bottom, mixed with breadcrumbs. To prevent the larvae from floating to the ice edge due to lack of oxygen, they should be slightly stunned by pressing them with the palm of your hand. Then the jig will begin to sink.
Boiled jig It is much more attractive to fish than a live one, since it begins to emit a smell, to which the fish swim. In addition, it changes its color to bright orange, which also additionally attracts fish. Boiled jigs are fed to the holes in small portions so as not to saturate the fish.
IN dried mormysh contains concentrated nutritional properties in larger quantities. A significant advantage of dried larvae is that it helps preserve catchable crustaceans for a long time. If you crush dried jig and add it in this form to semolina, then the bite is guaranteed!

How to cook dried and boiled mormysh

How to cook mormysh correctly

The crustaceans should be placed in a strainer and placed in a pan of boiling water. As soon as all the crustaceans turn bright orange, they should be removed from the pan.

You can also simply pour boiling water over the jig until it changes color. After heat treatment of the crustaceans, you need to spread them on paper napkins, on which you place the jig so that it dries.

Boiled jig attracts fish with its aroma and bright orange color

All that remains is to remove boiled jig in the refrigerator. In this way, you can store mormysh for no more than a week. If you boil the crustaceans in salted water, then the jig can be stored for one and a half to two weeks.

But frozen fresh jig is not very attractive to fish (when defrosted, it loses all its catching qualities). And if there is a desire to freeze it, then the crustaceans must first be boiled, but again, the catching qualities of such a jig should be left to the best.

When fishing with jigs, it is impossible to remain without a catch!

How to dry jigs correctly

In order to dry mormysh, preserving all its catching qualities, it is not enough to simply spread live crustaceans on a paper sheet. There is such a great risk of simply ruining future bait.

The jig should be dried in the oven at a low temperature - no more than 80 o C.

Mormysh This is a green amphipod that can be found in most freshwater bodies of water. It is used by fishermen as bait, so it has other names, for example, slack, bormysh, hunchback.

Biologists have identified many species of amphipods. Most of these crustaceans are dark green or yellow, but sometimes brown, red and colorless individuals are found. Almost all freshwater fish feed on jigs. Fishermen took note of this and began to use it not only as a bait, but also as bait. This bait is usually caught in the cold season, but it also shows high efficiency in the summer season.

A little about buying and harvesting mormysh

The main places where amphipods are sold are pet stores. Here it is purchased not only by fishermen, but also by owners of aquarium fish, who call this crustacean creature gammarus.

In order to save money or if mormysh is not available for sale, you can start harvesting it yourself. To do this, you will have to go to the nearest river, lake or pond. In warm months, amphipods live in those parts of the reservoir where the water remains cool and at the same time rich in oxygen, so you need to look for it near snags and closer to the bottom. With the onset of frost, the mormysh changes its habitat, rushing closer to the surface. It requires oxygen, so it can cling to ice.

The basis of the crustacean's diet is rotting aquatic thickets. In this regard, as a tool for its extraction, use straw or spruce branches that need to be lowered into the pond. After a certain time, take them out and start collecting the caught amphipods. Coniferous branches or straw can be replaced with a bag. It should be tied to a stick and thus lowered into the water. After this, they need to be led several times in different directions. In a few minutes, a lot of crustaceans will have time to grab onto the burlap, so all you have to do is take the bag out and collect them.

If you are going to catch mormysh in the winter months, then you should take into account a number of features. The most important thing is that it is most convenient to catch amphipods in severe frosts, when it is possible to collect them from the ice. To solve this problem, you will need to saw through the hole. To make the process of collecting mormysh more convenient, use a special hoop with a mesh as a scraper or a device that many call a dredge or a combine.

How to store mormysh at home?

If you have obtained a large amount of mormysh and want to ensure its careful storage at home, then it can be frozen, dried or stored alive. The last case is considered the most difficult, because certain conditions will need to be met. The traditional method of storing live amphipods involves placing them in a container filled with water, after which it must be placed in a dark, cool place, for example, in a refrigerator. It would seem that there is nothing complicated about this, but there are several secrets. Firstly, if you want the jig to remain alive for a long time, then fill the bottom of the container in which it will be located with pebbles or soil. Secondly, if you caught the crustaceans yourself, then it is better not to fill the jar with tap water, but to pour into it a mixture of running water and water from the reservoir in which the jig was caught.

Features of attaching amphipods to a hook

If you choose mormysh as bait, you should choose the hook very carefully. In this situation, it should be small in size and made of thin wire. The amphipod has a hard shell, which is very convenient in the process of attaching the crayfish to the hook and prevents the fish from knocking it down. The most important thing is to place the jig in such a way that it attracts the attention of the victim. To do this, use the instructions below: