How to toughen worms ?

[essexboy]

Red worms from my compost heap are great bait but very soft and can be torn off the hook (barbless ) fairly easily.

I remember reading somewhere that you can toughen the worms skin by putting them in some slightly abrasive material but can't remember what it was.

Any Ideas would be appreciated.

[Ken L]

Red worms from my compost heap are great bait but very soft and can be torn off the hook (barbless ) fairly easily.

I remember reading somewhere that you can toughen the worms skin by putting them in some slightly abrasive material but can't remember what it was.

Any Ideas would be appreciated.

 

I would suggest that soft worms are what you want. A hook will tear through soft worms more easily resulting in better penetration. Different worms have different qualities though and it I recall, Dendrobaena's are the softest, redworms are somewhere in the middle and lobs are fairly tough. So first, pick your worms.

As for toughening them up, I have transferred worms to shredded newspaper before now to reduce their moisture content a bit. It does work but do it just before you go fishing because it will reduce their lifespan.

[Phone]

essexboy,

 

Powdered milk. We used to use cornmeal but powdered milk turned out to be better. Worm skins are made up of calcium. The more calcium the tougher the skin - that's what you want.

 

If you want to feed them regularly and powdered milk is a bit to pricy you can crush egg shells - C A U T I O N !! They must be cooked egg shells (i.e. from boiled eggs or boil (or microwave) the shell before crushing and putting them in the pile. Raw eggs, and the shell, can carry earthworm diseases.

 

The only worms I'm familiar with that toughen with abrasive materials are 'artifical worms'. (????)

 

Phone

[davedave]

Sand

 

Shredded newspaper

 

My favourite though is moss

[chavender]

sphagnum moss ,is what is required ,get a clump of sphagnum moss dampon it and place over the worms in a baitbox ,they will crawl through it scouring their skins and toughening them up .you can buy sphagnum moss ,from model / railway shops ,rather than take live moss from its home .

Edited October 30, 2012 by chavender

[DavyR]

Old books on fishing often included advice on how to "scour" worms for the hook and that advice usually advocated the use of moss. I think it applied exclusively to lobworms and I'm not sure it would have any effect on other types of worm.

 

I thought the practice of "scouring" worms had more or less died out anyway - or is it one of those angling fashions that comes around every now and then?

[stal1n]

Russian greatest fisherman Sabaneev also recomended to use moss.

[azrael]

Russian greatest fisherman Sabaneev also recomended to use moss.

 

he also thought that a pike lived for 300 years