Keeping Worms

[Kieran Hanrahan]

I recall a post on this forum before that ragworm stayed alive in coaldust dampened with fresh sea water. Bear in mind that all those dead worms are ideal bait for dabs which seem to like the scent!

 

FWIW...

[chris parker]

Coal dust will kill them within a day, crushed coal, the consistancy of very coarse grit, is a superb medium for keeping worm but all the dust must be washed out before you use it. Unlike coral sand it doesn't seem to harbour bacteria so only needs a wash to be able to reuse it. If you store them in coral sand you will have to boil it and rinse well to get rid of the build up it contains at least every month. I think the coal is probably anti bacterial and if you can source it in the right size it is well worth considering.

[wirral sea fishing]

Just put this together, i will get photos and stuff arranged for the feature page, also i will speak to Chris P nicley and ask him to do some photos of preparing sand eel now that he has a camera :-) crab etc will also be added in the coming days or when i get time .. :-)

 

The summer months for most sea anglers are spent collecting bait, this ranges from Peeler Crab - Black Lug Worm.

The feature section covers the collecting of baits, however this page will help you keep those baits either live or frozen.

There are various ways to keep bait, the most common is of course to freeze down baits for times when it is hard to obtain, however anglers will try to keep bait alive.

Freezing.

Freezing is the most common form of keeping bait, once you have collected your worms or crab it is important to get them in to the freezer as soon as possible.

Freezing Worms

Black Lug (suey) is probably the only worm that can be frozen down successfully without much trouble. Once you have finished collecting your worm and before you leave the beach it is best to start the preparation process, sort out your worms, if you have any that have not blown then separate them from the others, it will be possible to keep these live for a week or more with a little bit of care, once you have sorted your worms, it is best to then place them in dry sand, you normally get this at the top of the beach that the wind has blown, roll the worms in the sand this stops any further "leakage" from the worm, your live worms should be placed in to fresh sea water. Once you and your worms get home you must act quickly and get the worms wrapped and prepared for the freezer, the "live" worms should be placed in the bottom of the fridge immediately.

The next step is to wrap the worm ready for freezing, there is different methods used, such as blanching them first then wrapping in cling fling, however I prefer the newspaper method ....

Lay out sheets of newspaper and place a worm on it (the sand should of helped "dry up" the worm) then start to roll the newspaper adding a worm each time to a maximum of 10 or 12 worms to each package, once you have repeated the process until you have wrapped all your worms then they are nearly ready to place in the freezer, before placing in the freezer I suggest that you bang the package on to a hard surface, this makes the worms go "rigid" (you will see the paper move) then you place your worms in the freezer.

Salting Worms

This process was used extensively in the past and is still used today by a few anglers including myself.

This method works with BLACK LUG and tougher estuary BLOW LUG. These have a thicker skin than the open sea Blow/Common Lug, which tend to have thinner skins and are very watery and are useless for salting down.

You will need plenty of old newspapers or better, unprinted paper from your local "chippy" Some cooking salt, sufficient to cover the worms twice over and some resalable plastic bags.

Spread the worms, gutted if black lug or estuary blow lug onto the paper, approx 15 sheets thick. Now pour the cooking salt liberally over the worms sufficient to hide the worms completely. Cover them with another wad of paper and allow at least an hour for osmosis to occur. When you return you will find both the paper and the salt to be damp.

The salt may be yellow from the leakage of fluids that is due to the leakage of fluids from the worms.

Lay another wad of fresh paper and transfer the worms onto it. Now add another layer of salt and cover for another hour.

After the second hour riddle off the worms which will now be much thinner and stiffer and pack the worms, in suitable sized batches (10—20) with a little fresh salt into the plastic bags.

 

Lay the bags in the freezer at about —15 c

 

If you have done this successfully, the worms will not freeze completely, can be threaded onto the hook without the need to defrost.

 

When they hit the sea the osmosis process is reversed and the worm will swell back to near its original size.

Keeping Worms Alive.

This will worm for all worms, however the time they will stay alive may vary.

Lugworm / Rag worm / Black Worm etc can be kept alive in fresh seawater, you will have to keep the water fresh and remove and dead worms immediately, this will keep your worms alive for approx a week or more.

Most anglers prefer to keep this type of worm wrapped in newspaper and place in the bottom of the fridge, however this process will keep your worms alive for a shorter time.

[Harold.]

My personal preference for freezing Black Lug and Yellowtails is simple.

 

Bang them on their head to get them to gut themselves (pull on guts to get most out), Blacks tend to do this with little help, Yellowtails need persuading. Dont squeeze out the juices, leave them in!

 

Place on newspaper for 30 mins, changing the paper if it gets moist(this will extract most of the moisture from the worm), then pat dry with kitchen roll.

 

Roll in newspaper as normal (10 per roll), wrap this in cling film and place at bottom of freezer. Use as needed.

 

Runnydown is Geordie slang for Frozen Black Lug.

[wirral sea fishing]

Harold.:

 

Runnydown is Geordie slang for Frozen Black Lug.

Like Suey is the scouse word for black lug ! because they gut them selves 99% of the time, thus commiting suicide..

[slothy]

Keep blow lug in a tank of fresh sea water in a fridge with an air pump and filter stone.

they will keep for weeks removing dead ones regularly and change the water if it gets dirty.