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Collecting Worms
Collecting worms for your future fishing excursion? Here's some great tips that you may or may not be able to use. I bet you didn't know there was so much work involved in collecting worms.
HOW TO COLLECT WORMS EASILY
Collecting worms is best done at night, when they are above ground, and you need no spade and laborious digging to catch them. If there has been a warm shower, these are the perfect conditions for collecting worms. Take a lantern and bucket. If you step softly, and hold your lantern close to the ground, you will see hundreds of worms in the wet grass, in the open footpath and by the roadside, great fat fellows called 'night crawlers' or 'lob worms', that will make any hungry fish's mouth water.
As a young boy, I would go collecting with a friend. When we saw a worm, we would snatch it as quickly as any robin. But that is not the best manner of collecting worms. When You see a worm lying on the ground, you will discover, if you look carefully, that it has one end of its slippery body hidden in its burrow, but what you cannot see is that the stiff bristles are firmly hooked in the soil in the hole. At a moment's notice the worm can draw itself out of sight, by simply contracting its muscles. If you will gently place your finger on the end of the worm's body at the burrow, you will frighten this end of his body, so to speak, and cause it to let go its hold. But as soon as the worm, in its endeavor to escape from the enemy at home, does this, it is helpless, and you may pick it up and put it in your bucket, which will soon be filled with good bait for the fishing trip.
DIFFERENT VARIETIES
There are many varieties known to be collected for fishing. Whether they are varieties recognized by the scientist or not, is of no importance here, but we all know that some worms are worth collecting as they are strong, lusty, dark in color, and will live some time on the hook; while others are weak, flabby, light in color, and soon die on the hook. In Izaak Walton's "Complete Angler," he speaks of the garden-worm as the "lob-worm," and then enumerates the other varieties as the red-worm of the manure heaps, and the brandling or yellow-worm, ringed with red, of manure-heaps and tan-heaps.
Fish will bite at all of these so collecting worms without prejudice is fine, but for large fish I have found the lob worms and the marsh or mud-worm, the most tempting.
HOW TO KEEP WORMS HEALTHY AND WELL
After collecting the squirmy fishing bait. Put them in any sort of clean tin box. Place the cover of the box on a piece of soft plank, and with a hammer and nail, make a number of holes in the cover to admit air. Gather some fresh moss, and cover your worms with it. Put in plenty of moss, and no earth, except that which naturally adheres to the moss. The moss should be moist but not wet. Leave enough space between the top of the moss and the cover to form an air-chamber.
In this box your fishing bait not only will not die, but will grow stronger and better day by day. When you wish a fresh bait, pull out the wad of moss, and you will find the worms hanging from the bottom like so many bits of string. Keep the box in some damp, cool place, where it will be sheltered from the rain and sun. I have often heard that if you tap on the ground the worms will come out of their holes. This is probably an ancient 'worm collecting' legend without truth. Some people, however, assert that the worms will think the noise to be rain, and hasten above ground to prevent being washed out and drowned.
HOW TO BRING THE WORMS OUT OF THEIR HOLES
A writer in La Nature makes the statement that the earth-worms can be quickly forced to come above ground, by pouring a solution of blue vitriol (cupric sulphate) on the ground. Ten grams of blue vitriol to a quart of water is given as the proper mixture. Ordinary soap-suds is good for the same purpose, and, if the water is pretty warm, it acts all the quicker. There is little danger of scalding the fishing bait you are collecting, for the water cools very rapidly when dashed on the ground. I have frequently noticed the earth-worms crawling around where the laundresses have emptied their tubs. Cold, fresh water will doubtless have the same effect, though possibly the worms will take more time in making their appearance upon the surface.
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