# Do you fish with worms?



## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

And if you do, where do you get them? I see articles here on HT about people keeping worm bins, and I see worm bins for sale. 

Shrek raises worms, and on the net I see pictures of a facility that windrows piles of worm bedding---a real worm factory. I also see places advertising worms by the pound, around $18 plus shipping. 

Worms are not pets; if you don't fish with them why have a five gallon worm bin?

If there are over a thousand worms in a pound, why do a dozen worms in a box cost $2.95?


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## MoTightwad (Sep 6, 2011)

We get our worms from the garden, from under old boards, under hay piles and in he barnyard. No shortage of worms here till it gets hot and dry in summer. Then they are gone.


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

Mo; they go down to water where it is cooler. Night before last it rained and dropped hail on us. Roof drainage comes down in a rock-filled part of a flower bed. At least 40 worms came crawling out onto the pavement and I picket them up for bait. 

Considering making a worm bin so that there will be some handy when I want them. It is apparently not too hard to do.


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## po boy (Jul 12, 2010)

All you need is soil, organic matter and water and you'll have worms.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

worm bins are a way to compost fast in a small area like under your kitchen sink 

we did the pound of worms in a 18gallon tote , the wife put the lid on tight once about 3 months after we started they try an get out then and I probably had 5 pounds of worms they stay small when there are that many but it is like moving spaghetti there are so many 

but they are eating machines and their poop is refereed to as black gold 

I have read some interesting research that you can maintain tens of thousands of small worms then take them out by the hand full and add more feed to that batch and have them grow to large worms they adapt to their environment , reproduce quickly and can be a good way to convert waste to protein to fee birds 

or fish


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

The easiest place to get worms is in your garden. Just use a garden fork and turn over the soil and then break it up. You can prepare your garden while you do this - this is how I get my whole spring supply of worms.

After a heavy rain, you might find nightcrawlers on the driveway or roads - you can quickly secure a dozen or two this way. 

You can find nightcrawlers after dark on lawns. Use a red filter on your flashlight so they do not see you coming. They are quick!

You can make your own worm area by burying your food compost scraps in an area - worms will be there in no time. I did this when we lived in the city and had no garden. 

Lastly, you can buy worms and nightcrawlers at baitshops or even many convenience stores. 

I like to store my worms in a 5 gal bucket in a cool dark shed. I use garden soil and place 4 inches of compost at the top, cover this with newspapers, and then a hunk of old carpet. Keep them cool, well fed, and with enough moisture and they keep all spring and into the summer. Most of the worms are in the compost and near the wet newspaper so they are easy to retrieve. No special system needed.


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## JJ Grandits (Nov 10, 2002)

My one landscape customer has a nice pond behind his house that is loaded with Bass and Bluegill. We put tons of compost in all the flower beds and in the regular coarse of weeding bring up tons of worms. We always have our fishing rods in the truck so we work for a couple of hours, fish for an hour, work a couple more, fish some more then go back to work and end up the day fishing. I really miss being self employed.


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

You guys are giving me all sorts of Ideas. I've a place where I know there are worms, so I'll bait it with worm groceries and see what happens. Gonna go do that now.
Ox


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

did you know worms are an invasive species 

deep in the Chequamegon national forest there are no worms , and leaf debries takes a very long time to decay more than a season this creates a special environment fot certain plants native to the area to live in 

worms came over in basalt dirt


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

Grandpa had a compost pile of leaves and grass clippings. It was full of worms. We would dig some up and put them in a can. Then Gramps would load us wee nippers, the worms, and our fishing poles on the city bus (he never learned how to drive) and we would go down to the lake in town and fish. We brought our catch back on the bus too. I expect that Homeland Security would have a conniption fit if we tried that now.

A neighbor kid would saturate the lawn with the garden hose and the night crawlers would come to the surface to avoid drowning. He would just pick them up.


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## michael ark (Dec 11, 2013)

Ox you can get a bail of hay and spread it out about 3 inches deep and they will come to it even quicker if you throw fruit and vegetable scraps under it.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I made a worm bin out of closed sell foam 4" thick. It is 24"x24"x24". It is full of crawlers that I pick up every spring off the road after a good hard warm rain. I tear up news papers and card board and wet it to keep the box full. I add kitchen scraps just like you do when composting and every so often during the summer throw in some corn meal.
I empty the box in the fall in one of my raised beds and allow a couple days for the crawlers to disperse then work in the composted papers in to the soil.

A friends wife does the red worm composting under the kitchen sink in one of those composting worm pails. She has a total of 3 and rotates then from under the sink to the basement. She removes the worms in the fall then uses the compost in her house plants she is repotting.

Her hubby and I fish with the red worms for small pan fish. We use my crawlers for bass, walleyes and other fish too.
A nice tough crawler on a jig is deadly on walleye from the bay. 
Yes they are tougher than the stuff you buy at a bait shop.

An old chest type freezer makes a big worm box, just keep in in a cool place. and check it to make sure the bedding Doesn't dry out.

 Al


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## SueMc (Jan 10, 2010)

I have a worm bin and fish with worms. I like using the red wrigglers better than night crawlers because they seem to last longer on the hook than the big worms and stay more active. We have plenty of worms from the garden and outdoor compost piles but I enjoy feeding and keeping the redworms, plus it's easy to scoop some out for the chickens as a treat.
Dirtiest jobs show had an episode once where the guys collecting worms to sell pounded a stake in the ground and then vibrated the stake with another stake and the worms came crawling out of the ground.
Interestingly, I once saw the lowest electric wire on my turkey pen fence arc to the wet ground with every pulse. Worms were just crawling to the top of the ground as fast as they could. I guess the electrical pulse stimulated the worms to exit in kind of the same manner as the vibrating post on TV. 
I just started raising mealworm for no particular reason other than maybe throw some to my spoiled birds once in a while.


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

Guys: I'm in a new place, my garden spot is not even tilled yet, no hay. I did the worm bin thing and tossed in some wrigglers that I dug up in a part of what will be my garden. Two months should show me what I've got.

One website said that if I'd bait a spot the worms would come to it; I'm going out now to bury some banana peels in a spot where I know there are some worms. Next week I'll see if they come. If they do, I'll add them to the worm bin.
Ox


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## Riverdale (Jan 20, 2008)

Yes I do. Red wigglers. I got the original ones from under the neighbors silage bunk, 6 years ago! :nanner:


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## moonwolf (Sep 20, 2004)

When I was a kid, I raised gobs of redworms in the
basement. I got them free and fresh from the pile of cow manure
at the local livesock markets. Took them home and put
them in a bin of mixed peat and composted manure. Adding
coffee grounds as much as I could get....they flourished like
crazy. Always the bin had eggs and bunches of newly born
Wigglers....excellent bait I used for catching lots and lots
of crappie, sunfish, and bass. Where I now live redworms 
are excellent bait for speckled and other trout.


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

Moonwolf; where I lived on the Gulf of Mexico the Speckled Trout was a salt water fish. Never thought of using worms for them--shrimp was the bait. I understand that on the E. coast my Specks are called Weakfish. No proof of that--just hearsay.

Where are your specks caught?


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## po boy (Jul 12, 2010)

*Do you fish with worms?* 

No. Medication got rid of them!


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## Declan (Jan 18, 2015)

Oxankle said:


> And if you do, where do you get them? I see articles here on HT about people keeping worm bins, and I see worm bins for sale.
> 
> Shrek raises worms, and on the net I see pictures of a facility that windrows piles of worm bedding---a real worm factory. I also see places advertising worms by the pound, around $18 plus shipping.
> 
> ...


You can buy fishing worms in the sporting goods at Wally World in my city. You can also find them in various convenience stores/country stores. 

How many worms you get in a pound depends on the size of the worms. I used to pack worms at a fish farm that resold them to places that sold live bait. We had to add in organic matter, and then count them so there were at least a certain number per container (depending on the size of the container) and we got paid piece meal based on the boxes of containers. My roommate in college and I did it. We went out in the evenings when the place was otherwise closed and it was just the two of us so we could drink beer, shoot the breeze, crank music play around the fish tanks as we wanted. It wasn't a fun job, but it was pretty easy and I have fond memories of hanging out and just having all those random stream of consciousness conversations that college kids have.


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## jross (Sep 3, 2006)

I just have to say this. This time of year, I'm fishing for stripers with bloodworms, which cost a buck a piece, come from Maine, and they bite.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

jross said:


> I just have to say this. This time of year, I'm fishing for stripers with bloodworms, which cost a buck a piece, come from Maine, and they bite.


you might want tot read this then

http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Live Food, Blood Worms.htm


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## jross (Sep 3, 2006)

Those are the bloodworms I used to feed tropical fish. Until I found out where they came from. The bloodworms I'm using come from the lowtide flats in Maine, are anywhere from 8 to 6 inches long and have a retractable appendage that has four black pincers that feel somewhat like a bee sting. There was an episode on Dirty Jobs that showed how they get them and it is back breaking work, yet a lucrative job, as one fellow told Mike Rowe that they paid for two houses..


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

Rats; I went fishing at two places yesterday, skunked at both. The first had so much driftwood and flotsam pushed against the shore that it left few places to get in the water. Nary a nibble after three hours, so drove about sixty miles to a second spot. Plenty of open water, but no fish. 

Must have been twenty other fishermen, boats and shore; did not see a single strike.

Met a young couple at the second spot; we were getting ready to leave at the same time. They asked for a ride "out to the pavement". I was floored--they had WALKED about two miles downhill to this fishing spot and were facing the same walk UPHILL carrying their gear. I carried them home, about a half mile "up the pavement". 

We went up and down several big hills between the water and their home. I'm a flat-lander, I'd never have made that trip on foot.


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## brownegg (Jan 5, 2006)

Yep, I fish with worms and dig what is needed from the gardens....by the time I have caught prolly 400 bluegills or more in the early summer...I'm good to go and don't need any more worms....what they charge for worms at the bait shop is fricken terrible...poor folks that don't have a clue.


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## Declan (Jan 18, 2015)

There must be some good fishing going on in our river this week. Lots of boats and people casting from the bank when there is seldom a lot of activity. I haven't seen this much gear in the water since there was a front page picture of a man pulling out monster catfish that had been caught between the dams when the floodwater went down.


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

Our local "Lake Harrison" has so much water going thru it that a cork won't stay put. I fished for a half hour yesterday, thinking I'd catch some bluegills for bait, caught just one.

The lake where I fished earlier in the week is ten feet above normal. The catfish are all out in the shallows stuffing themselves on earthworms and grubs that the water brings out. One poor fellow was trying to fish, but his gear kept getting caught in the grass and brush under the surface.


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

Find a river. You might have better luck. Place worms on a 3-way rig, as shown at http://extremecatfishing.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/3wayrig.gif (you don't need a float usually) and http://www.southcarolinasportsman.com/pics/p1347391510.jpg . Might find some catfish.


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

Michael; Checked last night; our lakes are up--closest one is ten feet into the power pool and the generators are running. When they generate the water in the inlets flows out, when they stop the water in the inlets flows back! Driftwood everywhere!

I've been to all the access points near me on the Buffalo. Limits on trout (which I'm not interested in) are two fish. No limb lines or yo-yo's allowed. No practical fishing except out of a boat. One little creek near me said to be "great trout fishing" but the sewer plant here empties into it (and I suspect others do too). Most places that creek is 30 feet wide. Fished for bait (bluegill, pumpkin seed, warmouth) twice, caught one bluegill, one pumpkin. 

Really unsatisfied.


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

My next suggestion would be to find someone that fishes a lot and catches fish a lot to take you with them or give you advice for your local area. It could be that right now is just a bad time with the high water. In fishing, timing is everything. The weather has to be right, the water level has to be right, the water temperature has to be right. 

We don't have near the fish you have down by you, but they can be caught. Just need to go to the right place at the right time of year, in the right weather, with the right bait. For example, I would not waste 1 minute fishing after a cold front just passed through with cold NW winds and a rising barometer. A steady or even falling barometer, on the other hand, make for good fishing. And often if the bugs are biting you like mad, the fish will also be biting like mad, so put on some repellent and go out!


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

Got a local fellow going to show me where to catch bait. THEN we'd try for some catfish.


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## JJ Grandits (Nov 10, 2002)

Went out friday but the heavy rains thursday night made most of the streams unfishable. Checked a pond I fish on the way home today. the ice is finally gone so If all goes well I'll hit it this weekend. My favorite rig is a small chartreuse jig with half of a Nightcrawler on it. Bounce it along the bottom, twitch it through the shallows or work it under a slip bobber, If I can't catch fish on that then I can't catch fish. From Bullhead to Salmon and even a few Northerns it is my standard.


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## Fishindude (May 19, 2015)

Gathering bait can be about as fun as fishing. 

During wet weather around here about all you have to do is go out after dark with a flashlight in the lawn and pick up all the night crawlers you want.
Red worms can typically be found in manure / straw piles behind livestock barns. Just turn it over with a pitchfork to get down to the damp stuff and usually lots of red worms.
Get a seine and you can get all the minnows you want out of small creeks & rivers, and often a bunch of crawdads too.
When the catalpa worms show up on those trees in July, they can be easily had and make great bait too.
Salamanders are common under rocks at limestone quarries around here.


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## Declan (Jan 18, 2015)

Worms like to eat the glue from cardboard. It is like popeye eating spinach for them. If you are going to raise your own, add boxes to your compost heap.


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