Where to buy bait fish in Toronto?

[Aquaneko]

Last year fishing the Rouge River mouth someone fishing there was leaving and offered me thier nightcrawler bait and I was shocked at the price. $2.79/12ct. If you have a pair of pliers or a multitool go out at night after a rain storm at a local park or your front/backyard. Best if after the park has mowed the grass. Use a red flashlight as the worms are sensitive to bright light. If you do not have a red flashlight then get some red clear wrapping film or some red opaque shopping bag and cover the light and shine it on the ground. Better to use a red clear wrapping film. I plucked like 50-60 nightcrawlers in an hours time on my lawn. A tip I can give is look at the worm before plucking. Obviously if the worm is like 4inchs stretched out of it's burrow you will have a higher chance of catching it. By looking at the worm I mean look to see which end is moving. You want to make sure you find the end that is out already then either pluck it about 2inches from the tip of the worm that is out already or target near the burrow. When you pluck it with the pliers you want a gentle pressure to hold the worm and a quick jerk to pluck it out of its hole. If you hesitate for moment while plucking the worm you will likely get what I call as a 'pinch off' meaning the worm is ripped in half. No loss there, you can still keep the ripped off worm if you plan to fish in a few days with it. IIRC a earthworm has about 5 hearts and can regenerate thier body. I tend to put the pinch offs back on the lawn.

A moist or wet lawn makes it easy to pluck the worm as the ground acts as lubrication. If yo try to pluck a worm on a dry lawn you risk high pinch offs. Anyways, just thought I would share that to help save some money.

I find if you spook an area while plucking a worm you have to wait about 5-10mins before a worm will come back up again so just keep moving around. People will give you the oddest looks when you pluck the worms. I've had people driving slow down to a crawl driving by looking while I am plucking worms on my lawn like they've never seen anyone plucking worms before. I am like 'hey the red light should have been a clue there buddy' but I don't say that to them as they drive off as I beam them with the read light.