Catching Nightcrawlers

[salmotrutta]

Catching your own bait can add even more excitement to fishing. Nightcrawlers are relatively simple to catch and store and make an excellent bait for several species of fish.

I have heard that adding a ripped or split open nightcrawler into your batch can ruin the whole batch. Often, after a half hour of nightcrawler picking, a couple are slightly ripped, but I still keep them.

Has anyone ever experienced a batch of nightcrawlers getting ruined because of a few ripped ones being added to the batch? I find that the whole batch is fine the next day for fishing, and I am a little confused how adding a split nightcrawler will damage the rest of them.

Any input appreciated!

 

[reefrunner]

I've heard this as well, the one bad apple to ruin the whole lot. In fact, there is a bait shop in Parry Sound where the operator, when buying worms, opens up the container and gives it a sniff. He can smell a dead worm in the package (lol) and will sell you one with just live crawlers. That blew my mind away.

 

[Coreyhkh]

I think this fake or not true because I always rip my worms in two to save money and often some die but the other worms live.

 

[openfire]

This is first I've heard of this. When my GF fishes for panfish off the dock at the cottage, she rips off pieces and puts the rest back in the container. When she's finished, she puts it in the fridge. We come back the next week and the worms are still alive.

BTW, @ reefrunner, I think I've bought worms at that baitshop in Parry Sound... They package their worms in peat moss right?

 

[salmotrutta]

Maybe what they meant is that if one worm "goes off" - either from lack of moisture or too much heat - it will quickly cause the others to go bad and should be discarded. Seems like a unanimous agreement that ripped worms do not spoil other worms.

 

[stark]

Maybe what they meant is that if one worm "goes off" - either from lack of moisture or too much heat - it will quickly cause the others to go bad and should be discarded. Seems like a unanimous agreement that ripped worms do not spoil other worms.

ive tried this 2 times and kinda depressed now.....anyways after a heavy rain i spent 1 hour gathering about 100 worms...had them in my worm farm and i piked up this 1 giant 1 feet long worm that had is tail chopped off from a bird most likely...i put it in the batch and i noticed in the soil he released white slime the other worms had not....so after 1 week the damaged worm's movement slowed down and then 2nd week he was dead...i took him out....then i checked my other worms n they were less active but fine....3rd week i found numerous dead worms of mine at the surface of the container and then when i dug up the rest they were alive but decomposing at such a high rate that when i wud grab 1 lightly he wud break into pieces and in the end all of my worms died by breaking into pieces....i had this happen to me twice...lost about 200 worms....if u wud like to go into chemistry and biology u can read up that worms when dying release a special chemical from their body which helps them decompose better into the soil n it also kills other worms..its kind of like an enzyme.

 

[Djsms]

Catching your own bait can add even more excitement to fishing. Nightcrawlers are relatively simple to catch and store and make an excellent bait for several species of fish.

I have heard that adding a ripped or split open nightcrawler into your batch can ruin the whole batch. Often, after a half hour of nightcrawler picking, a couple are slightly ripped, but I still keep them.

Has anyone ever experienced a batch of nightcrawlers getting ruined because of a few ripped ones being added to the batch? I find that the whole batch is fine the next day for fishing, and I am a little confused how adding a split nightcrawler will damage the rest of them.

Any input appreciated!

Late reply but anyway, would like to add my 2 cents.

I have been picking dew worms now for several years. I store about 30 in each container in the fridge.
The worms last from 3-6 months if you get the moisture right, about 50-60% Moisture content. I like to stock up in the summer,
and keep a supply till end of december.

One bad worm will kill all the others if left too long. At 5C it takes about a week in the fridge. At room temp it takes about a day.
The best defense is to remove the damaged worm and put the rest in a fresh medium again.

A bad worm to me is one that has either been pulled too hard or stretched, or broken in half completely. Any time this happens during picking,
I just put it back on the ground. Worms may continue to live for sometime after being ripped in half, but to me I would rather keep my dozen or more whole worms alive,
then to take the risk of killing them by keeping a half a worm for later.

If you would like to start up your own worm bin, I would highly recommend european nightcrawlers. They are very hearty.
Unfortunatly quite a lot smaller then the dew worm so they work in finess situations. As much as I like using the Euro's nothing beats the
size and smell of a good ol' fashion Dewie.

Keep pickin', and keep fishin'

 

[Mykester]

What's so bad about half worms? I keep hearing about this. Do they release hormones?

 

[Djsms]

What's so bad about half worms? I keep hearing about this. Do they release hormones?

I am not a scientist however i believe they release toxins which are poisonous to the other worms. The dead worms tend to liquify in the container, giving off a very foul odor as the living worms breath in and absorb this liquid they will slowly begin to die as well. Colder temperature will delay the process but never stop it. I suggest to feed them half worms to the birds, or use them up no point storing it.

Unlike a composting worm, a dew worm does not feed upon their own dead, however dew worms do live on organic matter.