night crawlers

[shoot-em-dead]

 Dang those things are fast. My boy and I were out tonight for a couple hours and had a blast. He was really into it and got a few. I had a lot of fun just watching him. Tonight they were very shy and disappeared as soon as the light hit them. Other nights they hang out a bit longer so you can catch them easier. Hopefully they will help us on sturgeon tommarrow. lol

[sirfunkeybut]

good luck   
i know i always have better luck when its sprinkling outside a little bit. i think it helps with them not sensing your vibrations as much

[ICEMAN]

 

We used to leave scrap sheets of cardboard and plywood over wet areas of the lawn to help catch them... Pick it up quick and the crawlers were caught in the open...

[rasbo]

red plastic over your flash light or red light helps

[BOWHUNTER45]

LMAO ... Yeah it will definately up grade your stalking skills !! When I was a kid I loved catching nightcrawlers ...Hell some nights we would fill a 5 gal. bucket full  another good trick is to not hold the light on them so long , once you spot them shine the light to the side of them just so you can just see them 

[smdave]

We noticed one time when we were rinsing out the outboard after a late day of fishing the water in the grass with the outboard vibration brought them to the surface, this is how we always did it after that.

[rasbo]

grunt them out

[WapitiFreak]

Shock the ground. take a 12v car battery jumper cables and two 3' metal rods. stick the rods into the ground about 12" deep  18" apart and connect the battery, the worms will come up to the surface. if there are any there.

[BOWHUNTER45]

You can also fill up a 5 gal .bucket with dish soap and dump it in the yard ..they will pop out everywhere and then go in the house and rinse them off and take a bowl with flour in it - salt and pepper and little garlic salt and roll them in flour and deep fry them ....Yummmy !! Yeah done this in science class in around 1984 

[Pinetar]

Yep, red light and keep it to the side works best! Always a blast to get the kids out there picking crawlers for fishing.

[bloodhound]

yahh the soap works great, it does something to them that makes it so they have to go to the surface. little dawn and a couple buckets makes an easy killing!

[Pinetar]

bloodhound- can you do this during the daylight hours? and does it harm the crawlers or will they stay healthy for awhile?

[bloodhound]

doesnt hurt them at all, it makes it so they cant breath well or something. they come up to get air. and yahh ive seen it work during the day just make sure you wet the lawn first so its damp and will take the mixture instead of sitting on the surface. and find damp shady part of the lawn to do it at. worms tend to like cool moist soil better so youll have better results that way!

[Pinetar]

Thanks bloodhound, going to have to give it a try

[Austrian Hunter]

Take two metal sticks, tie a old electrical cord to each of the sticks and put them in the yard with an extension cord plug in the other end.  Make sure you wear rubber boots and watch they Nightcrawlers come up fast.   

[Pinetar]

Austrian Hunter - We are headed to Banks Lake for 10 days so we've been doing exactly that all day and YES it does work great. Once the sun drops my yard will be crawling and it won't take long to get the rest that we will need.

[Gobble Doc]

Warm nights, smell of wet dirt and sprinkler's pulsing, discussing strategy.  Yep, that is what it is all about.  I used night crawlers every night through jr. high and high school in an effort to catch every sucker out of the Columbia.  Good memories. 

[HntnFsh]

The soap and water works but the crawlers wont live as long as those gathered at night.If your using them soon its ok.But if you want to keep them awhile I wouldnt do it. Same with the shockers. Ive done it all and the best method for getting crawlers that you want to keep is to gather at night. Keep them in wet moss.Feed them corn meal,cofeee grounds,egg shells etc.

[C-Money]

I have some good memories of crawler hunting with my Brother and Dad. We had a good size worm farm in our basement stocked up for our trips to Port Clinton OH, & Erie Pa,  fishing on Lake Erie.  Walleyes love crawler harnesses anywhere you go!

[Alchase]

Dang, and here I thought going to the nearest store and buying them for a couple buck a dozen was a lot of work, lol.

I use to empty the unused nitcrawlers into a worm farm after i was done fishing. That worked pretty well for a few years, until I left the lid off one morning after grabbing a couple dozen to go fishing. By the time I got home, the birds had cleaned out my nitecrawler supply.
 

[gaddy]

i made a probe out of an old bbq rotissery rod that you plug into an extension cord. damp ground & at night & the little buggers almost jump from the ground. great family fun.

[quadrafire]

I was running a jackhammer in my yard friday,  breaking up some rock. It brought a few to the surface that I saw, but I wasn't looking too hard.

[Austrian Hunter]

Austrian Hunter - We are headed to Banks Lake for 10 days so we've been doing exactly that all day and YES it does work great. Once the sun drops my yard will be crawling and it won't take long to get the rest that we will need.

  I've been doing it this way since since I was a little.