“Fishing with chopped worm is as dirty, deadly and cheap as ever”
IN SPITE of the endless variety of tackle and bait available these days, it’s surprising how many of us still love making and digging our own.
Granted, it can seem quaint but pointless when you can buy just about anything. But how quickly can that change when the local tackle shop is shut?
Fresh out of maggots and casters, there was only one solution to my bait shortage last week, and that was to get my hands dirty.
After a fairly stressful house move last summer, one of my first priorities had been to set up a compost heap.
Well, this is what I call it when the wife’s listening... it’s basically a worm factory.
The fact that I quite enjoy baitsnatching probably says a lot about the tedium of life under lockdown. But it’s been amazing to see the explosion of free fish food you can get from just a few food scraps and a handful of dendrobaena worms!
Having harvested bait this way since childhood, it’s a ritual I’d secretly missed. Not only did it save on pocket money, but “choppie” always worked a treat, especially for the perch and eels that got me out of jail in several matches.
Looking back, some things never change. Worms are still a fabulous bait for all sorts of species. They still draw crazybold bites and let you get away with larger hooks and heavier tackle. Thinking back to the crude pole rigs I tied as a kid with a similar scrawny profile to the bait itself, this was a definite advantage.
Back to the present, and it was a local pond that got the fruits of my mucky labour. With a simple four sections of pole and regular helpings of choppie, it could have been 1993 all over again!
Reassuringly, snag fishing with chopped worm is as dirty, deadly and cheap as it ever was. The hard bit is resisting the urge to dive in too soon after feeding because, rather like cooking a good stew, the results are always better if you first leave it to simmer.
To beat the itch, I stretched my legs for half-an-hour and fed the local robin. He wasn’t the only ravenous little so-and-so, either, because as soon as I finally dropped into the swim, it took all of about six seconds to get a sail-away bite.
There was nothing fancy about the next three hours, but it was blissfully straightforward fishing. In went regular little top-ups... down went the float... and out came everything from skimmers to perch of all sizes.
The only slight shame was that just as it got interesting, I had to leave to feed my daughter (egg on toast, not dendrobaenas, I hasten to add). Never mind. I’d had a netful of fun at little cost beyond grubby hands.
“One of my first priorities had been to set up a compost heap”
LE 9 ’T T!