To capture a worm

[lonehunter]

Just as there are dozens of ways to catch a fish so are there ways to catch their favorite taste treat , the worm .

I'm sure there a a few of us that break the shovel out of the garage and till the soil in the flower garden under the pretense that we are "helping" the Mrs. out with her floral decorations , when in fact we have an old soup can within reach to deposit some treasured fish snacks .

Then there are some of us who prowl the darkness like a thief in the night , stalking the neighbors damp grass armed with a flashlight looking for that shimmering taned skin of a fat nightcrawler before it vanishes before our very eyes .

Then we have the hi-teck hunters , armed with a couple hundred feet of extension cords and probes to bring the worms out from their cover under most any conditions .

Low-teck hunters use grunting for worms with great success and a lot of back breaking exercise , makes the catch at the river more rewarding to them I think . I have to wonder if there is a special secret to the storage of an old leaf-spring to maximize it's effectiveness from year to year .

We have the worm baiters that leave moldy bread slices out on their lawns at night , hoping to beat the birds before dawn and recover the worms beneath the mildewed bread .

Then we have the try your luck worm bwanas , flipping every board ,brick or branch to catch a worm sleeping under it's otherwise impenetrable shelter . Yes , we have all done this method for sure .

Then there is the lazy guys way of getting worms , stopping in at the baitshop and opening up the wallet .

With worm now going upwards of $3.85 a dozen I was just curious on your plans to harvest some of these delightful critters that no true blooded fisherman should ever be without . What are you doing to store your leftovers ?
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[lurtch]

i go down to the local park at nite after every rain..got an old refrierator buried behind the shed they stay good all summer..i buy my red worms ..stictly bluegill bait..
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[Jaackrabbit]

I'm the theif with the flashlight prowling the neighboors flower garden after/during a night rain.

Either that or I break out the wallet.

I've actualy had A LOT of success using the Gulp worms for bass/bluegills and crappie (you can't fool the walleyes, you need the real thing for them)
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[davetclown]

I am the guy out there raiding your ice box the day after the midnight rains...[:p]

I will pull up a few earth worms out of the garden while working it, I will pick up crawlers off the sub pave in the morning after the midnight rains...

when the rains finialy worm up the ground at my house, I can be found right out side my front door catching crawlers....

I used to think I was lucky, I had a place to get bait right out side my front door, and a fishing hole at the end of my street. That was untill greed moved in on my street. now I have bait and have to drive to a fishing hole on some other lake....
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[lurtch]

i find that a lake owners asociatin member can always be bribed with fish,,
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[lurtch]

i remember an old guy lived on the little manistee..he had a car batterie and two metal prongs hooked to it with cables..hed stick them prongs in the ground and the worms would start coming out of the ground..i was just a kid this was amazing to me..my parents wouldnt let me have a car battery..wonder why..
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[davetclown]

there used to be a gadget, "hand gennerator" that you could crank and send a charge in to the ground.... simmilar to the battery princible only better....

I think it kinda whent to the way side, or at least I dont hear about it any more... I wonder if it had to do with attracting lightning during thunder storms.... [:p]
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[lurtch]

i just know if you send electrical current into the ground...them worms come out of the ground..somebody problely thought it to be inhumane to the worms??
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[davetclown]

all I can say to that is, "little brother likes his worms raw, not fried" ... [:p]
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[lurtch]

dont worry thell be quite lively when they come out..
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[davetclown]

dont try this method...

I used to be able to follow behind in the furow to grab worms, but I am not fast enough to drive and follow behind any more. [:p]







Beleive me, it is a lot worse than it looks.
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[lonehunter]

DETAILS !!!!

I SEE SOME WET GROUND AND A LOOOOONG RUT !!
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[davetclown]

the long rut is a normal furow, looking at the back of the tractor what you cant see is the two bottom plow that sank compleatly in to the ground. the yellow sticking up is the plow frame.

in that furow you called a long rut was a soup hole under the sod, and when I hit it, I though I was going under with the tractor... I mean, it went down fast like a boat some one dropped an ancor though the floor. I was looking for a place to jump ship, but there was no place to go.....

I had been complaining for the last couple weeks that the ground was too wet to plow, I aint hearing any more complaints of not getting the job done now [laugh][sly][]

both me and the tractor came out with out a scratch, the plow was a little muddy, I had to un hitch it and rap a chain around it and pull it back out of the ground with the tractor while it was still soft...

I went back today to fill in the hole, I stepped in to measure how deap it was, It was above my waist...[shocked]

I just found out this morning that this was the area a perk test was taken, I dont realy think that had anything to do with it, but would have been nice to know.... There is susposed to be two more perk test ares in that feild, I cant wait...[sly][laugh]

I have seen this happen before to some one else, but insted of hitting a soup hole they hit a ground hog hole... needless to say it resulted in the same results.. seeing it from behind while it was happening was a scary site to see, but living first hand it was and the only way I can best explain it is, being a rat in a sinking ship looking for something to climb on... I now understand why old farmer Mc Donald "fictatious name" wanted a beer or two before he started plowing and a shot for lunch....[laugh] It might also explain the loss of fur under his hat too...[:p]

today I had better luck with the tractor, I was going to tighten the watter pump belt, but when I went to the threads were rusted tight, so I put penitratioin oil on the threads and moved on to electrical then on to giving it a second oil chainge in a week, it sure needed it, the first change the oil came out chuncky monkey stile, today it cam out black molasis..

I put the new oil and filter in, then started it up to see if I could see any leaks... we were good, for five seconds that is, then oil started gushing out all over the place... that thin plastic oil presure hose busted at the nut...

remember I said I had good luck [:p] Indeed it was good luck, because the tractor was in the barn when the presure hose broke and not in the feild. [cool]

like I said I have seen them go down, but this was my first at going down on one...[:p] Remind me to tell you about the time I stepped in to quick sand, and yes aposed to popular concences I did survive the experience... [:p]

I saw one get stuck in irish hills a few years back, a big one, the axles were five feet over my head and all the tires were sunk to the axles. to top that off, there were six semi tractors all chained together stuck in line from trying to get out the tractor... they did get it out, two weeks later after the feild dried up....
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[lonehunter]

That's a pretty good story to go with the pics .
Jumping off the tractor , man that would be a scarry thought , a lot of farmers up here have done that as their last thing on this earth to do . Usually the jump the wrong way and it's worm bait for them .

I had my expearance with quicksand while duck hunting and don't want to do that again ever ! Heck , I musta looked like the swamp creature when I was rescued out of that stuff . I wish I had a pic of that to look back on .
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[davetclown]

I tell ya, I know the fealing, I could not find a good direction to jump...

At which point when I knew was no longer sinking I could situate my self to get the tractor out of gear then climb down to reach the ignition switch, Today I spent a couple bucks and a couple hours and put in a kill switch that I can hit with my foot. [:p]

I was out running a trap line and thought I would follow some duck hunters path back, ya it was a short cut from my usual tour but I was wanting to get to my other line cuz I was sure I was going to have a mink.

being careful, I stepped in the same steps as the fellow did before me, well you know how them underground springs go, one just had to open up and suck me down,

from watching enuff tv, I knew not to struggle cuz it makes you go down faster. I firred three rounds in sessision then another three rounds in sussession "the standard alert code" but no one came,

Well I sank to my waist fast, from the waist to my chest was about a minnute, I figgured I has seen my last, so I tossed my shot gun on the path cross ways a few feet from where I was sinking. it was that time I realised I could wiggle inside of my dads floppy over sized waders, and so I did just that, like a worm I squirmed, I tell ya an inch worm would have been proud of me the way I squiggled out. and then laying flat I rolled in the water and reeds and yes I grapped the long straps of my dads waders as I rolled away and pulled them out as I went.

Soaking wet and cold, I did my civic duty as any good sportsman, I grabbed my machetty and wacked off a couple branches, shaved them, and placed them in the "X" across both sides of the trail that led to the quick sand.....

I met up with the co later that day, and he asked me what I was shooting at out behind his house... I said "buddy I was a shootin for you" He gave me some strange harry eye ball and said "WHAT" then I told him the story above and he no, there aint no quick sand in michigan, I said bud dont you know when some one shoots 3 times then shoots three times again your susposed to answer the call for help?

I said bud, walk with me and I will show you what dont exist in michigan. and we did, and when we came up to the X's and I pointed out the hole that was still there from my pressents, sure enuff he said ya learn somethin new every day,,,, and I said to that,,,, today was a toofer....[:p]

and by the way, I went back along the long way, and yes I did have my mink....[:p]
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