How to Fiddle For Worms For Free Fishing Bait

Fiddling for worms can be profitable, great entertainment for the kids, and can save you money on fishing bait. Read further to learn this old timers lost art of fiddling for worms.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Bucket
• Hand Saw
• Tree Stump

1. Worms like moist ground so a good place to start would be some woods. If you don't own the land it's best to get permission from the owner. You need a tree stump about 3 or 4 inches across and about 12 to 18 inches high. You may have to cut a tree to get a good stump to work with here. We always used a brick or a concrete block but you can use the hand saw. A chain saw will work also.

2. What you want to do is take the block and set it on the stump, then just push it back and forth on top of the stump using just the weight of the block. What this does is causes a vibration through the root system and shakes or vibrates the ground. You may have to work the block in shifts with your crew because it can get a little tiresome. Keep the vibration going though and start looking for the worms on top of the ground.

3. If you are in a good spot you should have plenty laying around after about ten or fifteen minutes of fiddling. You need to look in a fairly wide area because they may be some 20 or 30 feet out away from the stump. Fiddle worms are great for fishing because they are nice and fat and long too. Being sort of tough, they stay on the hook better than the little wimpys you buy at the bait shop.

4. All the members of your fiddling group should have their own bucket with them filled with some dried leaves and soil from the woods. With some dried corn meal sprinkled in there the worms will live just fine for several days if not a couple of weeks or more. You can also use a chain saw by just cranking it up, preferably without the chain on it for safety, and just set it on the ground and rev it up and let it run. This vibrates the ground just as good and is much easier on you.

5. The kids will love this because it's a lot like an easter egg hunt except they are finding worms instead. Watch out for poison ivy, you sure don't want to bring that misery back home with you. If you end up with more worms than you need you can get some styrofoam cups or good boxes, fill them with the same type of soil in your buckets and sell them bait to some fishing folks. 25 or so worms at 7 cents apiece should get you close to two bucks a cupful.

Tips & Warnings

• If you don't see any fiddle worms coming out of the ground after 15 or twenty minutes just move to another spot and try again.
• It's good if you own the land, and if not I would advise not cutting any trees to do this because most landowners kind of frown on that practice.

[rnmassage]

on 11/14/2009 Never thought about catching worms this way, interesting article 5*'s

[dfager]

on 10/24/2009 love it, sold worms when I was a kid, never fiddled though.

[norblits]

on 10/24/2009 Funny article, yet a really great skill shared. Thanks!