Where to buy bait fish in Toronto?

[Aquaneko]

(06-20-2014 08:46 AM)Aquaneko Wrote:  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.

I would also like to add to clean the pliers/multitool of any grass before attempting to pluck another worm. The reason is that if there is a grass blade on the pliers/multitool it will likely touch/catch the grass as you go in to pluck another worm. Basically you just set off an alarm to the worm and the worm bolts on you. On that mention about looking at the worm before plucking you want to spend about 10-20seconds looking at the worm to see which end wiggles and sometimes a very gentle blow of air from your mouth will cause the worm to slightly react allowing you to see which end is out.

As you get better at worm plucking you can attempt plucking worms that just stuck thier heads out of the soil about 1-1.5inch and may get a lucky pull. Also sometimes you get what I call a 'double strike' in that you missed the first time and the worm started to bolt back into it's hole but stopped for a second before fully disappearing. At quick 1-2seconds the worm stops allows if you are quick and at the ready to get a second chance to pluck it but understand the worms body muscles now are moving downwards so you might risk a 'pinch off' unless the ground is really wet/moist after a rain storm then you have a higher chance of getting a full worm pull.

A chair does come in handy to rest. I find after about 15mins of plucking I need to relax the back before plucking again so how much you get in 15mins depends on skill and speed but one thing is for sure the amount of money you save adds up a lot over time.

If you mow the lawn short and apply some compost over the top of the lawn or a thin layer of peat moss as one does yearly as basic lawn maintenance you can lure more of the worms up and eat on the organic matter in the peat/compost and you can pluck them up then. Try not to go for the '2 for 1 special'. If you see 2 worms like they are glued together leave them alone. They are making future worms for you to pluck. A healthy lawn will be teaming with lots of worms.

Interesting note from my research on worms from vermicomposting. Worms seem to be very smart in the breeding area unlike humans it seems. They can sense the area (or housing if in a bin) and stop breeding if the area can not handle thier population and the resources around to feed them it seems. Seems humans could learn something from the worms there to help with the overpopulation of the planet and limited resources.