Fishing tackle reviews, tips and How To's
So you’ve read my articles on how to build your own wormery and how to collect your own lobworms but you would rather buy from a company on the internet? Well go on then, here is a list of a number of companies that can supply you with as many worms as you need, including large bulk orders.
Popular worms for fishing that you can buy in bulk are denrobaena, red worms and lob worms.
I’m a big fan of natural baits with lobworms definitely being high up on the list of my favourites. Just recently I’ve used lobworms for perch on the river Yare, taking about 20 fish in 3 hours up to 2lb and also a big lobworm tempted a 6lb 5oz Tench from West Somerton Staithe after it had point blank refused to take my bread flake, a quick switch to the mighty lobworm and within 10 seconds the tench was on. So how do you go about collecting lobworms? Read on to find out how I do it along with some other suggestions.
What I have done is part filled some empty plastic dog food bags with soil (you know the sort, the 20kg bags of kibble, fertiliser bags or similar will also do) and laid them out in an unused part of the garden, no need to fill them too full, make sure you can easily move them as they only need to have a bit of weight to stop them from blowing away, it also has the added benefit of making sure the bottom of the bag is snug to the ground as the worms seem to like this. After a few days of the bags being there, lift them up one at a time and you should find a number of lobworms amongst other smaller worms and other insects, you will find it is even better after a night of rain too.
Depending on how many I find, if I need more I will then look under flower pots, paving slabs, logs etc where you are sure to find a few more hiding away.
There you go, nice and easy and you don’t have to collect them in the dark. Try not to collect more than you need and any you do have left over after your session, put them back in the garden or keep them in a purpose built lobworm wormery. (an article on a lob worm wormery coming soon).
One final tip, the lobworms will usually have one end down a hole, make sure you grab hold of the worm at this end and pinch it firmly between fore finger and thumb, once you feel it relax you will be able to pull the worm all of the way out without breaking it.
1. Following a good down pour of rain during the day when it has been relatively warm and not windy, lobworms will lie on top of your lawn once nightfall has come, be quiet when walking about and use a dimmed down torch to spot them
2. Throw a couple of buckets of water on to the lawn a couple of hours before sunset, after darkness has come, search the lawn with a torch as above for the lobworms
3. Knock a garden fork in to your lawn so all of the tongs are completely covered, gently tap the handle of the fork with a clenched fist or rubber mallet, in theory, this should bring the worms to the surface. I’ve not tried this myself as I’ve never had too, try it and let me know how you get on.
Having recently posted about different ways to fish with bread I thought it would be fun to show what kind of results you can expect if you decide to give it a go.
So with 3 hours spare this morning, no wind to speak of, bright sun but a little cloud cover I decided to give West Somerton Staithe a shot (at the head of the river Thurne) with a bread flake and mashed bread approach. Arriving at 09:00 and finding a swim with a gravel patch amongst the weed (made easy by the fact that the water was gin clear) I assembled a 13ft match rod a shakespere mach 2 front drag reel loaded with 4lb line, a crystal insert waggler locked in place by 4 BB shot with a size 10 barbless hook tied direct. I had no shot further down the line as I wanted the bread flake to fall at a natural pace.
I then collected a little river water in the bucket and placed half a fresh loaf of sliced bread in with the water. I usually remove the crusts when making mashed bread but I was happy to leave it in this time as I had seen a number of rudd taking flies from the surface, leaving the crusts in meant that some were likely to rise to the surface and I could keep an eye out for fish taking them.
I then took a good handful of mashed bread, squeezed out the excess water and deposited the lot about a rod length out over the gravel patch. The bread erupted in to a big cloud and I could see fish had been drawn in to the area almost immediately. Eager to get fishing I pinched a big piece of flake on to the size 10 hook and with an under arm swing, sent out the bait directly over the mashed bread feed.
It wasn’t long before not only could I see the float bobbing about indicating interest but also, due to the clarity of the water, I could see numorous fish taking it in turns to attack the hook bait. Now these fish wern’t massive but it was good to see there was some activity in the swim. After a further couple of minutes and following a positive bite, a lovely conditioned roach was swung in to hand.
Following the roach I sent another handful of mashed bread in to the swim as I could see that a large shoal of roach and rudd had almost cleared up the first lot already. This had the immediate effect of drawing in some much larger fish, nothing over the 1lb mark but nice fish all the same. I had great fun over the next hour taking roach and rudd all between 6oz and 1lb.
As expected some of the pieces of crust in the mashed bread had risen to the surface and I could see and hear fish rising to attack them so I decide to shallow up a little and hook on a small piece of crust. I was able to take 2 rudd around the 8oz mark before a light wind picked up and the fish dissapered off the surface.
I decided to top up the swim with two more handfuls of mashed bread which scattered the fish off in all directions but it wasn’t long before they returned, I could see some much larger roach were now part of the shoal, I estimated them to be around the 2lb mark but these fish were much more weary and spent most of the time amongst the weed on the edge of the gravel, picking of lose pieces of bread that drifted their way, no matter what I tried I was unable to tempt one, this time round anyway, now I know that they are there, I’m sure to make a return trip. It was then that I noticed a huge shadow kicking up the mashed bread in the swim, I wasn’t sure what it was at first but it then upended with its mouth to the bottom revealing itself to be a large tench.
Now I had heard there was tench in these parts of the Norfolk Broads river system but I hadn’t witnessed one myself and to say the prospect of catching a large tench from the river was an exciting prospect is very much an understatement. Alas, no matter how I presented the bread flake to the fish it ignored it and carried on hoovering up the free bread sat there on the bottom. That was when I remembered that I had also brought along some large lobworms (read my guide on how to collect lobworms).
I immediately put one on the hook and lowered the night crawler in over the mashed bread feed. By now the light wind had picked the surface up in to a little chop and I was unable to even see if the fish was still there, 10 seconds later and the float lifted slightly and then shot right under, immediately on striking I knew I had hook the tench as a healthy bend developed in the rod and the fish shot out in to the middle, heading for the weed beds for sanctuary. A healthy dose of side strain, luck and finger crossing later I slid the landing net under the beautful green flanks of easily the largest tench I have ever caught.
After quickly unhooking the fish I put her in the sling and watched as the scales settled down to show 6lb 5 oz, beating my previous personal best tench by 1lb 4oz, what a result. After calling out to the resident boat that was moored just upstream of me the owner was more than happy to take a couple of pictures for me, remarking that he had never in the space of many years being based at the staithe seen a tench that big taken from there before.
Now that to me just proves how deadily a bread based approach can work, with the mashed bread working extremely well as an attractent, with many roach and rudd confidently taking the bread flake hook bait. The tench might not have been fooled by the bread on the hook and needed a change of hook bait to tempt it but it goes to show how even large fish find mashed bread irresistible. Get out there and give it a try it now, especially as we have now said goodbye to summer with the autumn and winter months being traditional times of year for bread fishing.
After dropping my wife and daughter off this morning, as I drove back I was suddenly hit with a need to go fishing, as I only had a couple of hours free I decided to go after Perch on the River Yare in Brundall, Norfolk. First I needed to sort out some bait, thankfully we had experienced some heavy rain over night and sure enough, lifting up the old dog food bags I had laid out on one of the flower borders I found plenty of large lob worms, certainly enough for a couple of hours fishing and it took me less than 5 minutes to collect them, bargain. I always like to take some red maggots with me for lose feed so after packing the car with a few bits I set off for Brundall and stopped off at Lathams Fishing in Potter Heigham quickly to grab the maggots.
Parking up at the top of Church Lane in Brundall I had a 10 minute walk to the river which was made easier than usual as I had minimal gear with me, a match rod and spinning rod, both made up, a bucket containing a few bit of tackle and the bait and also a 30Plus Robo chair to sit on (read my review of the 30Plus Robo chair here) .
I chose a swim that I had been to a few weeks back when I was bream fishing, a friend and myself had fun catching bream and a good stamp of roach, when the smaller roach were returned direct to the river a couple of them were taken by perch right up against the near bank under our feet and after witnessing this I promised to myself I would return and here I was.
I started off by feeding a handful of red maggots a couple of feet out from the bank with the hope that not only would it attract the perch but would also attract small roach etc that in turn would hopefully attract the bigger perch. Hookbait was a lobworm with the end nipped off to allow the worms juices to flow and act as a further attractant, the hook was a size 10 tied direct to the 6 pound main line with a small insert waggler locked in place with 2 BB shot and the last BB shot a couple of inches above the hook to help get the worm down on the deck. I would normally fish a stick float on these larger rivers but as I was only fishing a couple of feet out from the bank I was out of the main flow and the insert waggler would easily cope. Perch don’t like much resistance so I always try to fish an insert waggler if the conditions allow.
First cast I took a 6oz perch which took a large lobworm, over the next hour I took a further 9 perch up to 0.5lb which took me up to high water slack when the bites started to tail off so I decided to try a spinner. First cast out I took a small perch on the but was unable to tempt any further fish over the next 10 minutes. By then the ebb had started to pick up so I returned to the waggler rod.
While I was spinning I still kept a trickle of red maggots going in to the swim which seemed to be doing the job as the next perch to come out which was about 0.5lb spat out a mouthful of maggots in to the landing net so they had definitely been feeding on the lose feed. After a 10 minute wait the float shot under and on the strike I knew instantly I was in to a better fish as it made a run for the overhanging bush to my left, after a fight that lasted about a minute or so I slid the landing net under a beautiful 1.5lb perch. After returning the fish back to her lair I decided to call it a morning and return home, happy that I had caught the fish I had set out for. I’m convinced there is bigger perch in the river so no doubt I’ll be back soon.
Worm is a great bait but it can quickly become expensive if you use it regularly and have to buy it from the tackle shop. For this very reason I have built my own wormery which will provide me with all the worms I will ever need, will save me a few quid each time I go fishing and allows me to compost some of the waste that our household creates. If your looking for step by step directions on how to build your own wormery and how to maintain it so you have a steady supply of worms then read on.
After a great deal of research it transpires that it’s all to do with having a large surface area, not depth. With this in mind I have chosen a plastic stacking box which is approximately ?? x ??. You could build a box out of untreated ply but I didn’t have any wood laying around that was suitable and couldn’t be bothered, besides the box only cost £4 from QD.
Plastic stacking box to be used as a wormery
Drill holes in the bottom of the box approximately the width of a pencil (be careful not to push to hard or you risk cracking the plastic), this will allow any liquid to drain. Line the bottom of the box with damp newspaper or if like me you have some weed suppressant material laying around cut a piece of this to size. I then poured in a mixture of sand and grit (often used in laying patios etc) which I had laying around. This is to aid drainage and also acts as a deterant to the worms burrowing down to the bottom as they don’t like the course texture of the sand/grit mixture.
Showing weed surpresent
Sand and grit layer
Next I poured in a layer of well rotted compost from our garden compost heap, followed by a layer of newspaper shredding that had been soaked over night. As I had the remains of a bag of sawdust I poured this in too. The aim here is to provide the worms with a variety of bedding material.
Compost bedding layer for the worms
shredded newspaper bedding
Next I added a few pots of dendrebena worms that I bought from the local tackle shop, these quickly burrowed down in to the bedding material. Then I added a layer of kitchen waste, this included vegetable peelings, a couple of egg shells that had been crushed up and a number of tea bags that had been ripped open. You need to be careful not to overfeed the worms as this can kill them and as I had only added a couple of hundred worms I have only covered approximately half of the box. A quick spray with an atomiser spray to keep the wormery damp and then a few sheets of damp newspaper on top, after that the lid is placed back on (make sure you have drilled air holes in the lid).
kitchen scraps
Choose where you are going to situate the wormery, somewhere out of direct sunlight would be best and ensure you place it on bricks (one in each corner should be surfice) to help with drainage, you could even place a tray/container underneath and use the liquid as fertiliser on your plant. I keep mine in an old outbuilding.