Digging for worms

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Paul Wilkinson

Guest
Whilst I enjoy all methods of fishing for salmon, few things give me so much pleasure as that tap, tap, tap as a salmon first picks up a trotted lob worm and those tense moments (or is it hours) until the fish moves off and you finally sink the hook.
The down side is digging the damned worms. When conditions fall right for fishing the worm it always seems that the ground is too wet, too dry or you fork over what seems like half an acre to get couple of dozen, when the only place you want to be is on the river bank.
With this in mind can anyone offer any advice, or a source of advice, on creating my own little "worm farm" or methods of keeping worms in good condition until those all too few days when the water is just right and the salmon are running?
 
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Myles Kelly

Guest
Paul,
When I was a kid we used to lay old sides of plywood on out of the way grassy areas. It wrecks a lovely lawn but the moist habitat it creates means that worms just lie on the surface. So you just lift the lid (as it were) and pick your juicy crop. A few of these in different spots means you may well get a good number of worms and prehaps a couple of differnt types. Anyway the lobs always seem to find their way to them.

Variations include making a bit of a compost heap in a corner of the garden. Worms invariably love these and you are almost garaunteed a steady source.

Of course if you want you can throw your captives in to an old bath or half barrel with straw, earth etc and hope they do the biz and keep you in worms for life. This is what a mate's dad had and we only rarely needed to restock the 'rearing pen'. As you can imagine we were not allowed near these (unless putting them in or moving them to moss) so we had to devise our own methods above.

Myles
PS he used an old china sink lined with mosses (tight packed at the bottom ) and filled with clean moss to harden em up and improve their colour.
 
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Colin Leatherbarrow

Guest
Digging worms, not on your life, too much like hard work. Instead, get yourself a steel rod or tube (conduit), stick this into suitable ground where worms live (a lawn or similar) about 8-10 inches down, then 'waddle' the tool and watch the worms come-up to see what all the noise is about!
Gather them from this spot, then move 6 ft away and continue 'waddling'. I kid you not, we have been doing this method for years and it works a treat.
 
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MARK FRAME

Guest
i found that if you ditute formalin you can get more worms in an hour than by any other means only trouble is you get back ache picking em all up
 
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Paul Wilkinson

Guest
Thanks for the ideas, chaps. I'll give them a try, but the way the foot and mouth crisis is going, I don't think I'll be needing many this season. At least I'm fortunate enough to have a good sea going boat, and there aren't any sheep grazing the waves.
 
GrahamM

GrahamM

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There wasn't any sheep grazing the waves in Ireland but that didn't stop them from banning all fishing, including sea fishing. And it didn't stop our lot from closing the towpaths on urban canals, so it doesn't do to apply too much logic.

But good luck Paul - take no notice of my mild attack of pessimism!
 
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Paul Wilkinson

Guest
Know just what you mean, Graham. I was told by a friend yesterday that access has been blocked across 10 yards of sand from a local car park onto a the best bait digging beach in the area - some politically correct ******* must think that lug worms can transmit foot and mouth.
Don't get me wrong, I live in, and actually own a hotel, in the Cumbrian countryside, so F & M is no joke. I have many good farming friends with who I have every sympathy. Some of the stories you hear about the culls are truly horrific and believe me, Easter looks like it is going to be pretty grim for those who rely on tourism, too. I think the powers that be have completely lost the plot. I did see a brilliant roadside placard yesterday, though - "BLAIR FIDDLES WHILE THE COUNTRYSIDE BURNS"
 
GrahamM

GrahamM

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I have every sympathy with most of the farmers too, and I've seen the cattle burning for real, legs poking up in the air and the stink. But banning fishing where it is totally unnecessary kind of kills some of the sympathy, which isn't good either for us or the farmers.

Not to mention those tackle dealers and fishery owners who won't get any compensation when they're put out of business.
 
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Steve Baker

Guest
"get yourself a steel rod or tube (conduit), stick this into suitable ground where worms live (a lawn or similar) about 8-10 inches down, then 'waddle' the tool and watch the worms come-up to see what all the noise is about!
Gather them from this spot, then move 6 ft away and continue 'waddling'. I kid you not, we have been doing this method for years and it works a treat."

Was this an april fool? or does this work?
 
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ROBERT SWAN

Guest
With reference to Steves last note regarding sticking a steel tube into the ground , I use a succesful varation on this by simply sticking a garden fork into the lawn and carrrying out the same procedure with great success.
Similarly to the article about using dilute formalin , dilute fairy liquid works just as well too !!
 
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Nicky Garbutt

Guest
easy thing to do is wait for a damp warm night take a light and a bucket go to a field. just pick em up off the grass but be quick cause they go back down the hole very quick.
 
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Phil Hatton

Guest
Thanks for the worm-charming tip Colin,
now do'nt need to come and hand over my hard-earned pennies across your counter the next time I go on the Dane

Cheers.
 
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Colin Leatherbarrow

Guest
Phil,
Never mind the worms, buy a worm 'waddlin' tool for ?49.99 and collect your own. Thanks for posting a reply. Cheers, Colin.
 
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