The grandmother is a mayfly (broomstick) larva, one-day butterflies. The mass flight of these butterflies takes place on a warm summer evening, at this time thousands of white butterflies flutter over the water. Falling into the water, they become prey for fish. Sometimes anglers catch butterflies with nets, and the largest individuals are used as bait for catching many fish. Most often, horse fish are caught. But the years of mayfly ends quickly, and they do not harvest it for future use.
On the larva of this butterfly (fishermen call her “grandmother”), fish can be caught all year round.
The grandma is a rather large whitish insect with six legs, two fleecy antennae and three of the same hairs on the tail. Mayfly larvae live in water – in silt, in dense weaves of plants, in the clay soil of the underwater shore. Small individuals often live in clay banks, settling almost at the very surface of the water in burrows. But large larvae (“uterus”), sometimes reaching more than three centimeters in length, live at depths in various places: under a steep bank in solid layers of clay, in a river bed, in silt deposits, etc.
Grubbing is not easy. Anglers often use an iron scoop mounted on a long pole. The silt scooped up from the bottom is washed or carefully handled on the shore. It is necessary to break the extracted clay along the holes that the larvae make. The presence of minks already suggests that there may be larvae in this soil.
The collected larvae should be stored in a cool place, in the shade, in a clean damp cloth or in a jar of water. The water should be changed as often as possible.
The larvae are planted on hook No. 4-6 with an elongated forend from the head, and the sting is hidden in the tail, while the breast is not pierced. On a large fish, you can put two larvae on the hook: one move on the forearm, and leave the other on the sting of the hook. In this case, the second larva will remain alive, will move, and this will attract the attention of the fish.