Catching Crawlers

[Mobasser]

I learned about this over the weekend. A neighbor claims this is an easy way to catch nightcrawlers.                                    Get a stake about three ft long. Drive it into the ground about one ft. Cutting the end to a point makes this job quick. My neighbor uses a 2x2 stake. Get a metal bar, and rub it along the wooden stake. It works best at night.           The sound produced replicates the sound of a hungry mole. If you've ever seen any trace of moles in your yard, it will work. The worms come to the surface to escape the hungry mole. Bring a flashlight to pick them up, and try some different spots in your yard.            I can't verify this myself, but my neighbor hasn't bought nightcrawlers in years, and, he showed me a bunch he had in an old refrigerator he keeps in his garage. Crawlers are all he fishes with. I plan on trying this one of these nights. Has anyone else ever done any " worm grunting?"

[GreenPig]

Typically find a hardwood bottom that stays moist, rake, and pick up worms. Never had a problem locating and finding worms.

[Kirtley Howe]

Haven't tried that, but when I was a kid (12-15 years old) I used a similar technique. Early in the evening I would water soak a 10 ft. circle in the yard. Then I would drive a metal pipe about 3 feet into the ground with 3 feet about still above ground in the center of the soaked circle. Then at dark I would smack the side of the pipe with a hammer over and over again (by the way, this is a great way to make your neighbors hate you) and the nightcrawlers would come crawling right out of the ground and I would pick them up. Much easier on the back then bending over with a flashlight and trying to catch them. I don't often fish with live bait anymore, so I haven't done that since back then. Your friends technique sound easier......

[casts_by_fly]

My grandma had a bait shop for longer than I can recall.  The bulk of the business  was trout season in the spring and then guys just buying worms for the river. Most every worm sold in that shop was picked by hand, at night, by my dad. Starting in march (feb in a really warm spring) he’d be out most Friday or Saturday nights picking. This was after a 40 hour week in construction. 
 

you have to find a good location. His best (and about the only place he needed most of the time) was a soccer field that had good soil and lots of use. Then a good warm day and /or rain in the evening was enough to bring them out. The more warm rain the better. I joined as much as I was allowed. The really warm and wet nights would have worms crawling around on the surface which were easy to just pick up. Less wet nights had worms part way out of their holes and you had to pin them with one finger and pick them with three more. You could get into the hang of it without hurting them.  You’d be on one knee (your picking hand) with your other knee up and the light in that side hand. Elbow on your knee, light by your head. No LED lights here-  they would be too bright. A metal coffee can with a rope through a pair of drilled holes was your bucket. Pick, drop it in the bucket, find another, pick, move, repeat. From sunset until you couldn’t do anymore. 

 

my dad built two wooden boxes that were 24”x18”x12” deep with latches on the front and hinges on the back. On good nights he’d fill both boxes in an all nighter.  On really good nights he’d fill both early, bring them to grandmas shop, and go back out to fill them again. Grandma kept plastic ‘worm boxes’ in the downstairs fridges which I think were originally clothes storage boxes that were 10x18x3”.  It was a full sized fridge and they were multiply stacked.  I think you could fit 4 dozen night crawlers in one and at least 10 dozen red worms in one. I’m going to guess between the two fridges she’d have 40 containers at a time going, maybe more.  That’s in addition to the full two fridges in the front room with them packed by the one or two dozens. Worms were the biggest volume and when you’re picking them for free you take advantage of all you can. 

[looking45]

You don’t need the stake. My dad’s friend would water his lawn about a half hour before dark. We would go over when it got dark and the night crawlers were on top of the lawn. 

[WVU-SCPA]

The stake method will drive a few up.  Picked up 1,000's after spring/summmer rain at night for trout fishing.  Would never buy worms and usually had cooler or fridge stocked and ready to go.  Strap/tape a Folgers can to you leg and get to picking. 

 

Dad also had a thing we called the "worm shocker" for daylight hours.  Basically a iron T with an extension cord wired to it.  Insulation and electrical tape on the top of the T, pointed bottom to drive into the ground.  Would move it around the yard driving up crawlers before going fishing.  Times have changed, but not sure how it was ever a good idea for a 10 year old walking around with a live wired rod.

[king fisher]

      When I was a kid, an uncle of mine made me a similar electric prod. It was about two feet long with a wooden handle and one wire attached to the mettle rod, with a standard male electrical outlet plug at the other end.  I would water the lawn heavily, then stick the rod in the ground.  Night crawlers would quickly come to the surface.  If I plugged the rod into the outlet one way the rod wouldn't work, I would then turn the plug around and it would work.  My Uncle would always simply touch the rod to see if the plug end was in correctly.  I didn't like getting shocked by 110 volts while standing in a soaking wet lawn, so I would wait to see if the worms came up.  Later on I learned to slowly pull the rod out of the ground, and feel for a vibration that would only be present if the rod was working.                                                                                                                                                     Last time I was at my moms house I found the old electric rod in the garage.  She wanted me to go through the garage and throw out junk that had collected over the years.  I couldn't get my self to throw it out, even though I know I will never use it again, and could make one for almost nothing if If I wanted to.  At one time that electric rod was one of the most important piece of fishing equipment I owned, accounting for many of my fondest memories.