Nightcrawlers!

Ever get tired of paying waaaaay too much money for
crappy little half dead nightcrawlers? If you have them
in your yard or neighborhood it's easy to collect enough
in one night to last the entire fishing season.

Interested?

I thought you might be, please read on!

First, you must determine if you have crawlers in your
yard. They're only active after dark, but you can look
for signs during the day. Ever feel lumpy soil beneath
your feet when you walk through your yard, or see
funny-looking little piles of soil with small sticks or leaves
sticking out of them? If you do, then you probably have
nightcrawlers.
























The best time to collect them is early in the season,
shortly after the ground thaws in the late winter. They
remain active into June, but it becomes more difficult
to find them after the weather turns off hot and dry.
March/April/May is the best time here on the Konza.

The only thing you really need is a good LED headlamp
with red LED's. I payed eight or nine dollars for this
one at a local store several years ago, and it's an
indispensable piece of equipment.


















It uses three triple A batteries that last for an amazingly
long time, usually hundreds of hours, or pretty
much the entire fishing season.

Of course you can use a flashlight, (I did for years)
but that ties up one hand when you need both. And,
the LED headlamp has red LED's that the worms can't
detect when you shine it on them. They'll suck back
into their hole in a second if a regular flashlight beam
hits them.

The best time to search for them is after a rain, when
the ground is wet and soggy. Wait till about an hour
after the sun goes down, then don your headlamp and
grab a bucket. Approach the area on your hands and
knees, as it can be difficult to see them and damn near
impossible to reach them if you're standing upright.
Move slowly, and don't make any moves that will jar the
soil as this will cause the worms to back down their holes.
If you do, don't worry, the worms will come back out in
a few minutes; move a few feet away and resume hunting.
When you spot one, calmly reach down and grasp it firmly
where the body is anchored to the soil, and pull firmly but
gently.

It may take a few seconds but the worm will soon tire

and slide out of its hole. Professional worm collectors

strap a can of sawdust to their leg to coat their fingers
to give them better traction; I prefer to wipe my hands
on my pants occasionally to remove the mucous from my
fingers.

If you've never picked up nightcrawlers before, don't get
discouraged if you break some in half or if many of them
get away. It requires a little time to become efficient and
you'll get there in a matter of minutes.

Don't worry about depleting the population, it can't be done.
I have robins nesting in my yard that eat thousands of them
every year, not to mention the box turtles that rise before
the sun to eat their fill. After ten years of picking up
crawlers, I have more now than ever.

I usually catch two or three hundred worms to last me
throughout the fishing season. I keep my worms in the
fridge in a six-pack cooler, and it has its own revered spot
on the bottom shelf.






















Make sure your fridge doesn't get below freezing or you'll soon
wind up with a terrifically horrid smelling mess! For the
bedding, I've found the best thing to use is leaves.
I rake them up off the ground in the fall and dry them in the sun on
my driveway, then grind them on the concrete with my hands
until they're ground into small pieces. Before adding the leaves
to the cooler, I wet them just enough so that you can't squeeze
any water out of them. I collect enough leaves to change the
bedding four or five times throughout the summer, and when
changing the bedding I discard any weak looking or dead worms.
If dead worms remain in the cooler for very long it'll kill the rest
of them in a matter of weeks.


Any questions?

Hit the comments and I'll be happy to help you out.