How It All Started…
So, there we are, fishing for bluegill yet again…Have I mentioned, we love fishing for bluegill? Why? Well: One, it takes a good amount of skill to catch those little buggers (imagine trying to catch a mouse loose in a hoarder’s house and you’ll have a good idea as to what the process entails); Two, they make incredible catfish bait (and I am always chomping at the bit to go catfishing) no matter if they’re alive or dead; and Three, they require very little in the way of supplies/equipment…So, anyway…
We were fishing the “standard” bobber with hook and worm setup. Between the two of us we had as many as four poles going at a time, which became rather difficult when the bite was hot. We are never good at keeping track of time when we’re fishing, so we had no idea how long we’d been out there, but we dug into the container to re-rig our setups when we discovered we were completely out of worms.
I know, I know; no big deal, just go to the store and get another container or two…Except:
- It’s 2020
- It’s eight o’clock at night
- We’ve already caught about 30 between us (only kept about 12 since the others were just too small)
- And we’re not in a big city, actually, we weren’t in a city at all.
- The closest store with any worms was a good 20+ minutes away and the store with these nightcrawlers were about 1 1/2-2 hours away.
So, dejected and rather disappointed in myself for not being better prepared, we headed home.
On they way, I started thinking about this dilemma. It wasn’t the first time we’d run into the problem. It wasn’t the first time I’d been disappointed with the circumstance…Needless to say, I’m rarely ever “ready to go” when we finally call it quits with our fishing. The worms we were using on this trip were Canadian Nightcrawlers, not much different from the nightcrawlers we usually buy, but there was a noticeable difference in their plumpness that seemed to attract the attention of the fish. The few times we’d used these worms we’d caught several other species of fish without even intending to!
At least half the drive home we discussed the differences, how the fish seemed to be biting better despite the weather and water temps being the same, how the other fish were just as interested as the bluegill (which doesn’t tend to happen for us often), and how noticeable the difference was. I commented about how it would be nice if we could get that brand of worm whenever we wanted to go fishing, but it just wasn’t feasible to drive an hour and a half to the gas station with “these” worms every time we wanted to fish. And then the lightbulb flickered!
Problem-Solution?-Plan
We have been living in the same area, fishing the same waterways for about 3 years now. The local stores (all that are within half an hour of the house) carry roughly the same brands and breeds of bait. The biggest similarity: the worms are puny and small. The alternative: The absolute best, healthiest, fattest, strongest worms we’ve found (including all the other states and areas we’ve fished in) are being sold better than an hour