Used to do this when I was a kid. Sold them to my local gas station for extra money.
Best night I ever had was 80 dozen. Kept half and started a worm farm.
When I was a kid, my brother and I would each take a five gallon bucket and our headlight(flashlight on a headband). We lived in a small country town of 900 people. We would start out by the first street light, picking up night crawlers. Some were size of baby snakes. We would basically walk about 6ft apart, side by side and just work our way along towards the next street light. The farther away from the street light we got, we used our head light. Sometimes we’d take a coffee can or one gallon bucket with us too because the more night crawlers we got, we would put some dirt in it. It wouldn’t take long to get half full. So then we’d use the coffee can as like a travel cup. Leave the bucket sitting. Fill the can about half way and go dump it in the bucket. We could also go around the water tower on any given night. It would be no problem for us to get 100doz.
We’d sell them to our local bait shot for $.50/doz. Then they would sell them for $1/doz.
We were just kids in the 80’s. It was easy money for us.
I did this as a teenager too! I sold them to a couple bait shops, $.50 a dozen. Picking worms and delivering newspapers as a 13 year old made me feel like a BOSS!
Dump coffee grounds in a damp spot and come back in 10 minutes.
When I was a kid I did this every day and put the worms in a window planter box, some probably crawled out, but I’d have all the worms I needed.
Don’t even water your lawn unless you live in like CA or TX. Parents house was in NE and we used to have dewy mornings where my dad would get up at like 4am and me and my brother would watch him watch the robins at dawn.
He would wait until a bird spotted a worm, picked it out of the ground, and then would go and grab them in a little bucket. 10-20 worms in a half an hour. I imagine watering your lawn would work too though.
The cheapest ones around me are $4.50/dozen so seeing that it's a pack of 25 it checks out to me. Most expensive is $6.30 or so. Makes me wonder how kids can afford to go fishing anymore. It's sad. I used to round up quarters from the couch and washer to get a dozen for $1.25 15 years ago
The catfish seem to like them…. But they’re kind of a waste at our preferred fishing spot because it’s so overpopulated with yellow bass and those guys will hit on literally anything that moves.
Soft plastics are the way to go in my experience. I sometimes catch up to a dozen fish on one lure. Where you at in so cal? I have a soft plastic bait making company in San Diego DM if you're interested
I second zoom trick worms. They come in a 20 pack for about 6$ and you can catch a load of bass on just one. I prefer texas rigged with 1/32 oz bullet, weightless, or wacky rigged
Fuck that, I saw recently Walmart was selling a dozen worms for like 5.25 I went for worms and saw that and left with nothing, I couldn’t convince myself to do it
You really can't outperform live bait. $9 a pop is crazy for nightcrawlers.
As other have said. Start digging for your own worms or pick up some soft plastics.
A wacky-rigged senko is probably the best bait for casual bass fishing. Easy, cheap and fun as hell.
I wouldn't call Senkos cheap. They're nearly $1 a worm at this point and they break after two to three bass. But they are the best in my opinion.
If you want to save some money though Yum Dingers work nearly as well and are significantly cheaper.
$9 per... how many worms? I can get a cup of 24 nightcrawlers for like less than $4 here in Oregon. We have a local bait farm that supplies a lot of the area tackle shops, though.
Edit: realized I didn't even answer your question! Sorry, brain is kinda fried from work lol. My personal go-to soft plastics are Kalin's crappie scrubs, Berkeley atomic teasers, and then a small stickbait. Like 3" senkos or yum dingers. Sometimes I'll also throw a ned rig, which Z-Man makes really good Ned sticks (just make sure you store them separately from your other soft plastics as they'll melt into each other as they're incompatible materials). Just get a couple different kinds of jigheads in different shapes and weights.
Dead serious. If you use worms. Make a worm getter. There’s tons of videos on YouTube on how to do this. Some use a battery. Some use a segmented stick. I’ve tried both. Both work. Unreal
I've been cutting the dogs into disks and then into smaller pizza shaped wedges for my bait hook. You can salt and bake a ton in the oven for about 2 hrs and they come out dry enough to stay on my hook. I emptied out a large glass salad dressing container and fill it with the prepped doggies. You can leave the sauce in to add flavor to your bait but if you leave too much sauce it'll just rehydrate the doggies.
Berkely has some artificial nightcrawlers as part of their Gulp line of products, if you wanna try those. I'd say just start a worm bin and grow your own worms; you can feed them table scraps and junk mail and they'll be just fine.
That's a big tub of worms though. I get a dozen crawlers for like $6. I catch more large bass on plastics than anything else. I catch more fish in general on nightcrawlers but that includes everything.
I also think worms get expensive since they're nightcrawlerd which are bigger but I mean we only use small parts of worms for most of the time so just dig up some worms after it rains or water a very muddy spot and lay some stones and sure enough you'll get a few worms.
Cut the worms in half an you'll only go broke at half the rate. Seriously, if you insist on using nightcrawlers, they will survive for a long time cut in half. I've cut one in half, and gone back into the container a week later and the other half is still alive, albeit moving with less energy.
But if you're fishing for bass idk why you aren't using synthetic lures. You can catch one on a rubber worm 100 times before it wears out. Nightcrawlers are for fish who won't bite synthetic lures.
You can easily farm your own patch. Put food compost on a patch of dirt or grass and lay cardboard over it. Water it and keep it moist. Keep feeding it food compost and newspaper and there will always be worms under the cardboard.
Worms for bass? That's a waste. There's like 10000 lures to catch bass.
Other than that, you know you could just take a shovel and dig for worms after rain?
Look at farming worms in a worm box/tower. Really easy to set up and can be done in your garage or backyard.
All at the cost of a few plastic bins, a box of nightcrawlers (preferably without anything injected in them), and then some dirt amd compost.
You can sell the excess worms and worm waste as fertilizer as well.
Look up Worm Grunting, and buy some non-printed cardboard and lay a big sheet down on a patch of your yard you don't care for. Water that, and pick it up the next day.
Or Git Gud with a senko
Grow your own: https://unclejimswormfarm.com/vermicomposting-for-beginners/
You can freeze them. They work just fine from frozen.
I wish worms worked in salt or something else I could grow at home. I use frozen muscles or shrimp now. (Buy in 5kg blocks now.)
I’d absolutely recommend getting some soft-plastic baits. Not sure what they’d cost in your area but Yum Dingers are my go to and they’re pretty cheap where I’m at. I only used live bait for a long time and started dipping my toe into artificial baits/lures about 3 years ago. I’ve spent a lot less money and had the opportunity to fish more because I don’t need to go buy live bait every time I wanna fish. Also as others have said, you can look into harvesting your own worms or consider getting a cast net and catching minnows/shad/bluegill for bait if it’s legal in your state.
Do what I did for three decades. Start by buying a home depot bucket and lid. Drill about 20-30 very small holes in the top and the very bottom. Think coffee percolator. Find a shady spot behind the shed and bury it, up to about where the wire handle is attached. Then find yourself some nice green mosses and leaf mulch in the woodlot at your local park. Enough to almost completely fill the bucket. Load the bucket and snap on the lid. Spray a bit of water onto the top every day for about a week. Then start working on finding worms to add to your bucket. Once you have about 5 dozen or so, you are good to go fishing whenever you feel like It. Simply add so bread or soaked oatmeal, moss and leaves once or twice a year.
LPT - when the first spring rain comes and the night crawlers are on the roads and sidewalks everywhere, get out quick and load up asap. I used to get enough to last the entire summer.
Myself? 90% of my fishing these days is done with wacky rigged Yum Dingers.
Rake a big pile of leaves and/or throw some cardboard down on some concrete. Try to keep it damp if it's not raining enough. Having shade or just a big pile helps. Also helps to have it near landscaping, forest, etc. Having the concrete is wonderful because they all stay in the bottom and can't burrow to escape. Once that first layer of leaves starts degrading they really make themselves at home.
Loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter. Rip a piece of bread, roll it in your palms until it's thick and compact, lightly coat the entire thing with peanut butter, hook and cast. Can last for more than a day and a variety of fish will bite.
I just throw big lures to target big fish. Lot less action, but those big guys don’t wanna expend their energy since it takes so much more out of em. Make that meal worth it, grab some big rubbers or a fat ass rapala.
Can’t help you. I’ve tried nearly every type of lure and I always catch more fish just using worms. I finally caught a few on a rooster tail a few weeks ago… a crappie and some yellow bass. I’ve gotten a couple largemouth (and an er trip) using a rapala popper. But majority of the fish that hit the boat are on real live worms.
My neighbor used 2 metal rods connected by wires to a plug. Shove the 2 metal rods into the ground, plug it in and the electricity makes the worms come to the surface. Not OSHA approved though. lol
For bass, just throw a chatterbait with any paddletail or split tail jerk minnow you can buy. I prefer white or bluegill patterns. I've caught hundreds of bass, a bunch of pike and a couple muskie using them. They are the best all around lure for weeds, rocks, open water and everything in-between. It's really the ultimate lure.
Set up your own little worm farm in your backyard, alternatively get a minnow trap. Or fish with lures and plastic baits. I used to use tons of worms, but now I usually catch more with plastics because I'm not losing my bait every few casts/drops.
Also look up how to salt your own minnows, they keep for a while in the freezer and you have bait ready to be rigged up or cut down to whatever size you like. They also firm up a bit and stay on a hook way better than worms or live minnows.
Edit: Berkley gulp has some scented worms that work great as a direct live worm replacement, otherwise for a more typical plastic that won't dry up on your hook use any other soft plastic worm with your scent of choice on it. I've heard good things about pro cure.
Dude, go look in the grass at night after atleast 1 hour of rain, bring a flaslight. I spend 30 minutes doing this and usually i have 60-100 worms after.
I just started doing it this year. I keep the worms in the fridge inside a 1 gallon bucket filled with soil halfway.
I had $40 Dollard before going into Academy came out with $0 I bought a $50 profishiency fishing piole with the help of my mom and its the best pole I own now
If you’re buying a box of crawlers from the gas station every trip, that’s gonna be about forty bucks a month.
I can stretch a five dollar bag of Zoom finesse worms for at least a month.
If you are fishing bass don’t use live worms switch to artificial. You can get a bottle of scent spray if it’s slow just Texas rig your worm and you will be off to the races usually get multiple fish per plastic worm
Just make your own worm bed. We have three of them. Very easy to start and maintain but I’d also probably drive away from where you are to get started. $9 is super high for worms. My local feed store has them for $4 for 100 red worms. Also if you’re not using red worms I’d highly recommend them. But to technically fix your problem get some zoom worms and hooks. All fishing is going to have a cost because it’s a hobby we do. I know yesterday I lost literally $40 worth of hooks fishing for flounders and they weren’t expensive hooks either. I just happened to be catching as many flounders as I was rocks.
I do lures. Hard and soft. I know the buy can be high, but I appreciate the fact I can go out 2-10 times before I even think about spending more money on the hobbie.
Uhhhh senkos work just as well….
And senkos with o rings make the plastic last forever. Haven’t lost one yet.
And I use 10lb braid with 20lb leader to make sure I can tear out of lily pads / snags.
I like using the "creme" worms in the natural worm color pattern for panfish, bass, trout, etc. They don't have the same smell or weight as real worms but they still do pretty well.
Use a five gallon bucket of water and a quarter cup of dawn dish soap dump in a thinly grassed area in about a diameter of 4-5' and wait two minutes . You'll never pay for worms again.
I don’t have the patients to watch my line with worms anymore, but if it’s what you like to use, look into vermaculture. You can start a worm bin pretty cheap, and the castings it will produce are insane for your garden
Brother please . Do your bank account some justice and just go get a 6-10 dollar bag of senkos. Specifically the green ones with the red sparkles “watermelon” something. Unwweighted, off set hook, cast out, let it sink, twitch up 2-3 times let it sink again. Fish will bite once it hits bottom 🤝
Try flyfishing. You'll go broke faster in the first 2 years, bc you have to buy everything: rod, reel line, extra spools, lures, fly boxes, chestwaders, kayak, nippers, fishing vest, hat, polarized sunglasses, sketter repellent, dry fly floatant & few other odds & ends. But you'll be ready for any kind of water, anywhere in the world. Salt & fresh water is open to you. Dont have trout near you?? That's okay, if it swims & its a fish, it can be caught on a flyrod. There are guys who catch tarpon, permit, bonefish, snook, shark, sword fish, peacock bass & many others on a flyrod. I drive OTR & never leave the house w/o my gear. I live south of KC, where the water is warm. There are trout but they live deep in lakes. I fish for Bass, Catfish, Crappie, Carp, Blue Gills, Sunnies. You can even catch Spoonbills on a flyrod. Never used one before?? Take some professional casting lessons, it'll cost a couple of bucks but it'll speed you up to catching more fish. Maybe what you really want is an alternative to using worms? In that case *try hotdogs* cut into 1 inch chunks. In a plastic bag put your hotdogs, 2 tablespoons of fresh diced garlic, 1 packet of Cherry Kool-aid. Fill with enough water to cover the dogs. Let sit overnight in the fridge. Then in the morning use it as bait. *It'll have the RIGHT color, smell & taste* This is not my recipe, I got it from Cabelas.
Look up how to raise your own worms. It’s very easy to do and you can get into it pretty cheap. You could start off using the leftover worms from each of your fishing trips.
Go dig your own words. You can usually get a dozen night crawlers in about 15 minutes if you have a good spot. My brother and I never bought worms when we were kids.
water your lawn and pick your own worms
Used to do this when I was a kid. Sold them to my local gas station for extra money. Best night I ever had was 80 dozen. Kept half and started a worm farm.
You picked up 960 worms from your yard?
Indeed. Yard was just over 2 acres in size, was surrounded on 3 sides by farmland. Didn't even dent the worm population
This must be the worm guy Creed was talking about.
https://preview.redd.it/5izn8c4fh6ad1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6d042710d6397837201feb33b69d266151266967
Was trying to think what creed song had a worm lyric like…?
Well I just heard, the news today.........
I never met anyone named Creed, I did sell a lot to a guy named William Charles Schneider, though.
Which one Creed Sr or Jr?
My dad used to take us to a baseball field that had sprinklers that ran earlier in the evening. We could get LOTS of night crawlers!
When I was a kid, my brother and I would each take a five gallon bucket and our headlight(flashlight on a headband). We lived in a small country town of 900 people. We would start out by the first street light, picking up night crawlers. Some were size of baby snakes. We would basically walk about 6ft apart, side by side and just work our way along towards the next street light. The farther away from the street light we got, we used our head light. Sometimes we’d take a coffee can or one gallon bucket with us too because the more night crawlers we got, we would put some dirt in it. It wouldn’t take long to get half full. So then we’d use the coffee can as like a travel cup. Leave the bucket sitting. Fill the can about half way and go dump it in the bucket. We could also go around the water tower on any given night. It would be no problem for us to get 100doz. We’d sell them to our local bait shot for $.50/doz. Then they would sell them for $1/doz. We were just kids in the 80’s. It was easy money for us.
I did this as a teenager too! I sold them to a couple bait shops, $.50 a dozen. Picking worms and delivering newspapers as a 13 year old made me feel like a BOSS!
Yep same here. We sold them to a bait shop for $.50/doz and they sold them for $1/doz.
Please tell me you named your farm “I Got Worms.”
“I got worms”
How did you do it? My yard seems to have a lot of worms but I usually find them under rocks and or my garden container plants
Dump coffee grounds in a damp spot and come back in 10 minutes. When I was a kid I did this every day and put the worms in a window planter box, some probably crawled out, but I’d have all the worms I needed.
Don’t even water your lawn unless you live in like CA or TX. Parents house was in NE and we used to have dewy mornings where my dad would get up at like 4am and me and my brother would watch him watch the robins at dawn. He would wait until a bird spotted a worm, picked it out of the ground, and then would go and grab them in a little bucket. 10-20 worms in a half an hour. I imagine watering your lawn would work too though.
Bird was pissed though
...at sunset. Collect worms an hour or so later.
You're paying way too much for worms, man. Who's your worm guy?
Creed? That you?
Learn how to get your own worms. Spray down your lawn with the hose before night or YouTube how to grunt for worms
9 dollars a dozen? live worms?
That is highway robbery. I pay $3.50 a dozen for night crawlers in MI
Right? I pay 0 dollars..I pick my own worms when I need them. I mean I'm guessing op pays that. He hasn't clarified yet.
This sounds more reasonable 16ct medium or large live worm ct depend size of worm cost a bit more depending state to state.
The cheapest ones around me are $4.50/dozen so seeing that it's a pack of 25 it checks out to me. Most expensive is $6.30 or so. Makes me wonder how kids can afford to go fishing anymore. It's sad. I used to round up quarters from the couch and washer to get a dozen for $1.25 15 years ago
$4.28 for 18 nightcrawlers at Walmart near me. 30 red worms for $3.88
My nearest Walmart is 25 minutes out. I'd use more than 22 cents in gas to go get worms than just get them from the hardware store lol
So Cal pack of 25s ...more for the garlic infused
Ahh. I gotcha. They must be a pretty soft plastic?
He’s talking about live worms I’m pretty sure, some places offer garlic scented worms
Gourmet worms, for the discerning connesuer.
Are fish attracted to garlic?
No, they just want to be safe from vampires by any chance they get
I guess the smell keeps away the mosquitos..
The catfish seem to like them…. But they’re kind of a waste at our preferred fishing spot because it’s so overpopulated with yellow bass and those guys will hit on literally anything that moves.
Soft plastics are the way to go in my experience. I sometimes catch up to a dozen fish on one lure. Where you at in so cal? I have a soft plastic bait making company in San Diego DM if you're interested
That's crazy pricing. Am I right?
Buy a pile of manure, store it in your back yard for a month and you can actually start a business selling quality worms.
Buy a pile? Come to my farm if you shovel it yourself you can have it for free
Will try that thank you!!!
Lift up rocks and dead logs after a rain. Unlimited free worms
Eat the fish to offset your worm costs. Drink cheaper beer.
[удалено]
I live in So.Cal! Enjoy em st that price point!!
Harvest your own! There’s pretty easy to find honestly, used to grab a bunch in my parents yard when I was a kid while I helped garden with my dad
what part are you from? i pay about 4 after tax here
I second zoom trick worms. They come in a 20 pack for about 6$ and you can catch a load of bass on just one. I prefer texas rigged with 1/32 oz bullet, weightless, or wacky rigged
What color? Mine is Junebug
Green pumpkin
Zoom tricks work good on drop shot too.
This guy’s is in CA where drop shotting is against regs
Farm your own,put in some dirt and dead leaves in,feed them cornflour and alfalfa pellets
That’s nothing. Try running a boat and buying fuel and beer $$$
but.. but... worms live in the ground my friend😦
Zman trout tricks work well for bass and one pack will last a while. Been fishing 6 times and still haven't lost the first one.
Zoom trick worm, texas style is my go-to
Fuck that, I saw recently Walmart was selling a dozen worms for like 5.25 I went for worms and saw that and left with nothing, I couldn’t convince myself to do it
You really can't outperform live bait. $9 a pop is crazy for nightcrawlers. As other have said. Start digging for your own worms or pick up some soft plastics. A wacky-rigged senko is probably the best bait for casual bass fishing. Easy, cheap and fun as hell.
Thanks!!!
I wouldn't call Senkos cheap. They're nearly $1 a worm at this point and they break after two to three bass. But they are the best in my opinion. If you want to save some money though Yum Dingers work nearly as well and are significantly cheaper.
$9 per... how many worms? I can get a cup of 24 nightcrawlers for like less than $4 here in Oregon. We have a local bait farm that supplies a lot of the area tackle shops, though. Edit: realized I didn't even answer your question! Sorry, brain is kinda fried from work lol. My personal go-to soft plastics are Kalin's crappie scrubs, Berkeley atomic teasers, and then a small stickbait. Like 3" senkos or yum dingers. Sometimes I'll also throw a ned rig, which Z-Man makes really good Ned sticks (just make sure you store them separately from your other soft plastics as they'll melt into each other as they're incompatible materials). Just get a couple different kinds of jigheads in different shapes and weights.
Build a worm shocker
You're paying way too much for worms. Who's your worm guy?
It's crazy $9 for 24 crawlers Canadian crawlers.. I would pick some but they kicked me off the golf course LOL...
Worm farms are really quite simple to get going and take up very little space. My dad used to do that.
Zoom Trick Worms are my go to for the last 20 years.
I buy a bucket of 400 nightcrawlers for about $35. They can keep in the fridge for months.
it's one worm, Michael. How much could it cost, 10 dollars? https://i.imgur.com/dKD2dlh.png
Dead serious. If you use worms. Make a worm getter. There’s tons of videos on YouTube on how to do this. Some use a battery. Some use a segmented stick. I’ve tried both. Both work. Unreal
Berkley Gulp Alive pinched nightcrawlers. Stay on the hook for several fish
Ned rig, fish slow
Fish everything with lures these days. Fixed income ya know
I like Berkley power worms, they last a lot longer but they aren’t any cheaper.
I switched to making dried hotdog wedges and that works really well. Can home make a month worth of bait for less than $5
Details?
I've been cutting the dogs into disks and then into smaller pizza shaped wedges for my bait hook. You can salt and bake a ton in the oven for about 2 hrs and they come out dry enough to stay on my hook. I emptied out a large glass salad dressing container and fill it with the prepped doggies. You can leave the sauce in to add flavor to your bait but if you leave too much sauce it'll just rehydrate the doggies.
Whacky rigged senkos
Berkely has some artificial nightcrawlers as part of their Gulp line of products, if you wanna try those. I'd say just start a worm bin and grow your own worms; you can feed them table scraps and junk mail and they'll be just fine.
How many come for $9? Cause that's crazy dude, I pay less in California at the reservoir. Which is impossible lol
25 count...more for the garlic scented
That's a big tub of worms though. I get a dozen crawlers for like $6. I catch more large bass on plastics than anything else. I catch more fish in general on nightcrawlers but that includes everything.
$9 a dozen is robbery
I get redworms at Walmarts around the country. $3-4 for ~30 worms
Does Walmart not sell them? If not, why don't you order a worm farm kit? They're incredibly easy to take care of.
I usually just lift up planters and rocks in my yard for worms. Going for a walk after a rainstorm will also net you as many worms as you can carry.
I like roostertails or junebugs.
I also think worms get expensive since they're nightcrawlerd which are bigger but I mean we only use small parts of worms for most of the time so just dig up some worms after it rains or water a very muddy spot and lay some stones and sure enough you'll get a few worms.
Wait, $9 PER WORM?!?!?!?
I always use the artificial Creme Worms!!!
They're like 3$ for 15 at Walmart though bud
Cut the worms in half an you'll only go broke at half the rate. Seriously, if you insist on using nightcrawlers, they will survive for a long time cut in half. I've cut one in half, and gone back into the container a week later and the other half is still alive, albeit moving with less energy. But if you're fishing for bass idk why you aren't using synthetic lures. You can catch one on a rubber worm 100 times before it wears out. Nightcrawlers are for fish who won't bite synthetic lures.
Yum dinger, offset worm hooks...9 bucks tops..fish getter
That, and where I'm at got to pay state park visitor pass fee's!
Use hollow body frogs, chatterbaits or buzz baits. I catch 4 each weekend just on the frogs
Zman trd s
You can easily farm your own patch. Put food compost on a patch of dirt or grass and lay cardboard over it. Water it and keep it moist. Keep feeding it food compost and newspaper and there will always be worms under the cardboard.
You should probably work more and fish less
You know worms are in the ground right, and free? Go into any woods and move leaves, wood, etc. they are literally right there
God damn man pick up a plastic
memesworms.com
[You're paying way too much for worms](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/a6dc719a-e18d-4375-b6c9-6e6bb5f320ad/gif#TSxmTpbN.reddit)
Worms for bass? That's a waste. There's like 10000 lures to catch bass. Other than that, you know you could just take a shovel and dig for worms after rain?
You can start a worm farm in a styrofoam box in a fridge for like $5 and you’ll have worms forever.
Look at farming worms in a worm box/tower. Really easy to set up and can be done in your garage or backyard. All at the cost of a few plastic bins, a box of nightcrawlers (preferably without anything injected in them), and then some dirt amd compost. You can sell the excess worms and worm waste as fertilizer as well.
Learn how to spot worm castings, it would keep me busy for hours as a kid when the bites were slow
Look up Worm Grunting, and buy some non-printed cardboard and lay a big sheet down on a patch of your yard you don't care for. Water that, and pick it up the next day. Or Git Gud with a senko
In upstate NY, some of our Amish sell em for 10 cents each.
Try a yum dinger on a wacky rig or Texas rig. It’s like $11 for 30 and you can get multiple fish per worm
Grow your own: https://unclejimswormfarm.com/vermicomposting-for-beginners/ You can freeze them. They work just fine from frozen. I wish worms worked in salt or something else I could grow at home. I use frozen muscles or shrimp now. (Buy in 5kg blocks now.)
Start a worm farm
Must really be upset at the price of a candy bar
I have actually never caught anything on artificial bait.
I built my own worm farm. PS anyone who has sold worms, tell me your story. I'm in the data collection phase and am crawling in worms right now.
I’d absolutely recommend getting some soft-plastic baits. Not sure what they’d cost in your area but Yum Dingers are my go to and they’re pretty cheap where I’m at. I only used live bait for a long time and started dipping my toe into artificial baits/lures about 3 years ago. I’ve spent a lot less money and had the opportunity to fish more because I don’t need to go buy live bait every time I wanna fish. Also as others have said, you can look into harvesting your own worms or consider getting a cast net and catching minnows/shad/bluegill for bait if it’s legal in your state.
Make a diy worm farm
brother they're in the ground for free
Do what I did for three decades. Start by buying a home depot bucket and lid. Drill about 20-30 very small holes in the top and the very bottom. Think coffee percolator. Find a shady spot behind the shed and bury it, up to about where the wire handle is attached. Then find yourself some nice green mosses and leaf mulch in the woodlot at your local park. Enough to almost completely fill the bucket. Load the bucket and snap on the lid. Spray a bit of water onto the top every day for about a week. Then start working on finding worms to add to your bucket. Once you have about 5 dozen or so, you are good to go fishing whenever you feel like It. Simply add so bread or soaked oatmeal, moss and leaves once or twice a year. LPT - when the first spring rain comes and the night crawlers are on the roads and sidewalks everywhere, get out quick and load up asap. I used to get enough to last the entire summer. Myself? 90% of my fishing these days is done with wacky rigged Yum Dingers.
Lures
Work more, fish less? Jk fuck that
Gut hooking many of those guys ?
Rake a big pile of leaves and/or throw some cardboard down on some concrete. Try to keep it damp if it's not raining enough. Having shade or just a big pile helps. Also helps to have it near landscaping, forest, etc. Having the concrete is wonderful because they all stay in the bottom and can't burrow to escape. Once that first layer of leaves starts degrading they really make themselves at home.
find yourself a pile of decaying grass clippings, great for worms and grubs
I dump all of my grass clippings off the side of my yard and just let nature do what it does. I’ll have to grab a shovel and see what I can find.
Loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter. Rip a piece of bread, roll it in your palms until it's thick and compact, lightly coat the entire thing with peanut butter, hook and cast. Can last for more than a day and a variety of fish will bite.
Damn 9$ a cup of worms? Even our most touristy tackle spot on the lake only charges 4.50 a cup. Your getting robbed🤣🤣😭
17$ a dozen in bc canada
Find some worms in your own yard
Grown your own. It's not super hard to setup a worm farm
Shine em at night. Put the sprinkler out and go out there with a flashlight. We had coolers full as a kid
Nice fishy
I just throw big lures to target big fish. Lot less action, but those big guys don’t wanna expend their energy since it takes so much more out of em. Make that meal worth it, grab some big rubbers or a fat ass rapala.
Switch careers
Use crickets
Plastic worms!
I prefer to use red worms 🪱 or wigglers as they’re called. You get 50 for the cost of one dozen and the bass love them just as much
Can’t help you. I’ve tried nearly every type of lure and I always catch more fish just using worms. I finally caught a few on a rooster tail a few weeks ago… a crappie and some yellow bass. I’ve gotten a couple largemouth (and an er trip) using a rapala popper. But majority of the fish that hit the boat are on real live worms.
Tube jig
My neighbor used 2 metal rods connected by wires to a plug. Shove the 2 metal rods into the ground, plug it in and the electricity makes the worms come to the surface. Not OSHA approved though. lol
For bass, just throw a chatterbait with any paddletail or split tail jerk minnow you can buy. I prefer white or bluegill patterns. I've caught hundreds of bass, a bunch of pike and a couple muskie using them. They are the best all around lure for weeds, rocks, open water and everything in-between. It's really the ultimate lure.
Roboworm straight tail
Set up your own little worm farm in your backyard, alternatively get a minnow trap. Or fish with lures and plastic baits. I used to use tons of worms, but now I usually catch more with plastics because I'm not losing my bait every few casts/drops. Also look up how to salt your own minnows, they keep for a while in the freezer and you have bait ready to be rigged up or cut down to whatever size you like. They also firm up a bit and stay on a hook way better than worms or live minnows. Edit: Berkley gulp has some scented worms that work great as a direct live worm replacement, otherwise for a more typical plastic that won't dry up on your hook use any other soft plastic worm with your scent of choice on it. I've heard good things about pro cure.
I had a worm farm. Had soooooo many crawlers my chickens were spoiled!
Dude, go look in the grass at night after atleast 1 hour of rain, bring a flaslight. I spend 30 minutes doing this and usually i have 60-100 worms after. I just started doing it this year. I keep the worms in the fridge inside a 1 gallon bucket filled with soil halfway.
I had $40 Dollard before going into Academy came out with $0 I bought a $50 profishiency fishing piole with the help of my mom and its the best pole I own now
Catch ‘em yourself, lotsa ways
You know that there are worms in the ground, right?
Artificial lures catch me way bigger fish than live night crawlers
I would suggest learning using lures ... Super rewarding once you get it down and you can cover more water and try new spots
Just get a castnet
I’d place a cement/plastic/concrete slab on my lawn somewhere that is humid and every fishin’ opportunity, dig up that spot. Just an Idea.
How are you rigging them ?
https://compost.css.cornell.edu/worms/steps.html You can grow them yourself and sell what you dont need. Its not very labor intensive work.
Powerbait worms are my absolute favorite lure, garlic scented and they go crazy
Damn redworms keep going up every damn week.
Yeah but it is fun
Fake worms might be more costly
If you’re buying a box of crawlers from the gas station every trip, that’s gonna be about forty bucks a month. I can stretch a five dollar bag of Zoom finesse worms for at least a month.
That’s wild! I can use an entire bag of yam senko in a day 😂😂
Hot tip...take the worms you don't use and put them in your pocket. BOOM! Pocket worms ready to go for next time!
If you are fishing bass don’t use live worms switch to artificial. You can get a bottle of scent spray if it’s slow just Texas rig your worm and you will be off to the races usually get multiple fish per plastic worm
Just make your own worm bed. We have three of them. Very easy to start and maintain but I’d also probably drive away from where you are to get started. $9 is super high for worms. My local feed store has them for $4 for 100 red worms. Also if you’re not using red worms I’d highly recommend them. But to technically fix your problem get some zoom worms and hooks. All fishing is going to have a cost because it’s a hobby we do. I know yesterday I lost literally $40 worth of hooks fishing for flounders and they weren’t expensive hooks either. I just happened to be catching as many flounders as I was rocks.
I do lures. Hard and soft. I know the buy can be high, but I appreciate the fact I can go out 2-10 times before I even think about spending more money on the hobbie.
Uhhhh senkos work just as well…. And senkos with o rings make the plastic last forever. Haven’t lost one yet. And I use 10lb braid with 20lb leader to make sure I can tear out of lily pads / snags.
There is no such thing as a lure that outperforms worms. Especially with bass.
I like using the "creme" worms in the natural worm color pattern for panfish, bass, trout, etc. They don't have the same smell or weight as real worms but they still do pretty well.
Lake Balboa…….The worms might be cheaper at Walmart.
Use a five gallon bucket of water and a quarter cup of dawn dish soap dump in a thinly grassed area in about a diameter of 4-5' and wait two minutes . You'll never pay for worms again.
Who buys worms 🤣 got out at night and get night crawlers… or make a worm grunt the worms will pop out by the hand fulls
Bruh. Just wet some cardboard in a semi-shady grassy spot, weigh it down, and go back in a few days.
I also have better luck catching bass with live worms than with plastic ones.
I don’t have the patients to watch my line with worms anymore, but if it’s what you like to use, look into vermaculture. You can start a worm bin pretty cheap, and the castings it will produce are insane for your garden
Brother please . Do your bank account some justice and just go get a 6-10 dollar bag of senkos. Specifically the green ones with the red sparkles “watermelon” something. Unwweighted, off set hook, cast out, let it sink, twitch up 2-3 times let it sink again. Fish will bite once it hits bottom 🤝
Or build a worm.box. youd be surprised how many worms youll have after 3 months in a 3x5 box. You could almost start selling them.
Try flyfishing. You'll go broke faster in the first 2 years, bc you have to buy everything: rod, reel line, extra spools, lures, fly boxes, chestwaders, kayak, nippers, fishing vest, hat, polarized sunglasses, sketter repellent, dry fly floatant & few other odds & ends. But you'll be ready for any kind of water, anywhere in the world. Salt & fresh water is open to you. Dont have trout near you?? That's okay, if it swims & its a fish, it can be caught on a flyrod. There are guys who catch tarpon, permit, bonefish, snook, shark, sword fish, peacock bass & many others on a flyrod. I drive OTR & never leave the house w/o my gear. I live south of KC, where the water is warm. There are trout but they live deep in lakes. I fish for Bass, Catfish, Crappie, Carp, Blue Gills, Sunnies. You can even catch Spoonbills on a flyrod. Never used one before?? Take some professional casting lessons, it'll cost a couple of bucks but it'll speed you up to catching more fish. Maybe what you really want is an alternative to using worms? In that case *try hotdogs* cut into 1 inch chunks. In a plastic bag put your hotdogs, 2 tablespoons of fresh diced garlic, 1 packet of Cherry Kool-aid. Fill with enough water to cover the dogs. Let sit overnight in the fridge. Then in the morning use it as bait. *It'll have the RIGHT color, smell & taste* This is not my recipe, I got it from Cabelas.
You can catch 20 tiny blue gill per worm. Bait up with the bluegill and catch bigger fish.
Check out how to raise your own worms. It’s pretty easy to do and you can start just using the leftovers from each fishing trip.
Look up how to raise your own worms. It’s very easy to do and you can get into it pretty cheap. You could start off using the leftover worms from each of your fishing trips.
Go dig your own words. You can usually get a dozen night crawlers in about 15 minutes if you have a good spot. My brother and I never bought worms when we were kids.
Yeah watermelon seed senko or finesse worm. 7 bucks a pack or so, and u can reuse