How to Pick Worms For Profit and Fishing! [Catching, Storing, Ideal Conditions, Habits+]

In this video I will teach you everything you need to know about catching earthworms for fishing and profit. I ran a small business when I was in grade school with my brother and sister so I know a thing or two about gathering worms! The key is to go out when the conditions are ideal. Persistent rain is ideal, as is a warm temperature. The key is to get the right location and conditions. My preferred picking territory is bare or mud covered ground. This is often found in a freshly turned garden. But when that s not available, short cut grass will do the trick. Long grass will do too, but it s often quite a bit harder to see worms mixed in with all the rest. Early spring and late fall are great seasons for worm picking, the dead dry of summer usually leads to slim pickings, so to speak, unless you get a prolonged rain which drenches the soil long enough to trigger the worms to emerge. There are times when it rains for short periods of time, and that s not enough to produce ideal conditions. And that s the real key. Dew worms need moisture, and lots of it. Propelled higher to the surface, worms will become unearthed all by their own so long as it has rained long enough to keep the worm s body moist and prevent it from drying. These moist conditions can also occur from early morning dew, but the real catch happens when it rains long enough to saturate the soil deeply. You will rarely see worms in broad daylight as it exposes them to dry harsh sunlight and also predators. Worms are hermaphroditic, but can not mate under soil due to how they must be positioned. Rain, warmth, and darkness is the cue for them to break the surface of the ground in search of a suitable partner - and they probably aren t very picky either. Worms will hold half-in and half-out of their holes. When grasped or disturbed, their setae, tiny hair like projections or bristles, will extend outward to anchor themselves against their burrow. Worms are quite sensitive to both light, and vibration. Walking with heavy feet will send the worms back into their burrow as will a hastily cast light. It s imperative to be sneaky around the worms and it s not uncommon to send 6 worms into burrow when pulling one out. The best nights for picking tend to be when rain has been persistent and continues into the night as well as elevated temperatures. It s not long after dark that the worms will emerge. Even after worms have been disturbed, they will come back out shortly afterwards, so a small area can be worked and re-worked more than once. As a cash crop, they yield anywhere from $40-$400 million. It s really hard to know for certain since much of the industry operates underground and out of sight from the taxman. A good picker on a good night may pull a worm every 4-5 seconds or about a thousand worms an hour. On a 6-hour shift, that s 6,000 worms and at $15-$30 per thousand to a commercial picker, it produces only a living wage. A record pick produced over 22,000 worms in one night. To the angler, however, it s a substantial savings, as a dozen worms currently total about $4 Canadian so the effective wage runs at a thousand worms an hour, or $4,000/hr. Of course, one doesn t personally need a thousand worms, but you get the point - the savings are meaningful. A good soybean field, I m told, can hold dozens of visible worms every square yard, but even the mediocre pickings we had could fill a large ice cream bucket or two clear to the top with no soil. And that s with three novice pickers. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe our record pick was estimated to be around 2,000 worms - more than enough stock for our small business. I think my Dad chipped in a few too along the way, but it wasn t long before we were doing most of the labour. When disturbed, worms will move back into their holes within a second unless they have made the mistake of coming clear out. On good nights, mating pairs will be abundant. This occurs when two worms lock themselves together and exchange sperm with each other so as to fertilize their eggs. The lump on the earthworm body is called the citellium. The earth worm will move this lump over it s body picking up eggs first and then over the male pore where sperm is stored. The slime tube is then closed out forming an egg cocoon which is deposited in the soil. In a mating paired state, earthworms are easy to catch, but will separate and retreat if given enough time. Grab both if you can. Place them in the refrigerator on the bottom shelf. Worms will go nearly dormant at these temperatures so don t require much to eat. Make sure there is a way for air to be exchanged in the container so the worms can breath. Music: Garden Music Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Use code "WoodBeard" to get 10% off ASAT Camo: www.asatcamo.com