How to make worm and caster last longer - Tony Curd
MY FAVOURITE method of doing this is to riddle the peat off the worms and use this to make your feed go further.
Fish a stiffer mix for bigger fish
Depending on the venue, this should be mixed sloppy if fishing up in the water or when targeting smaller fish, or mixed stiffer when fishing on the bottom for bigger fish such as carp or barbel.
To the peat I add a small amount of chopped worm and a handful of casters, and I feed this mix through a pole pot regularly.
Add a small amount of chopped worm and caster to the peat
You’ll be surprised at the big weights you can put together on very little bait when doing this!
It catches everything!
Steve Ringer's top 10 baits to use when fishing commercials.
Are you looking for for an edge when it comes to being on a commercial fishery? Then follow match ace Steve Ringer's top 10 baits that he uses when fishing for carp on a commercial as these tips will give you the advantage that you need.
1) Margins – big baits means more bites
When fishing in the edge, one of the hardest things is getting a carp to pick up your hookbait, especially when a lot of them are feeding. I would go as far as to say there is nothing more frustrating than being able to see carp in the edge and then not be able to catch them. This is where a big ‘target bait’ such as 10-12 dead red maggots really comes into its own.
If you think about it there are going to be lots of maggots on the bottom so if I fish just two or three on the hook it’s going to take a while for a carp to find them. Fish a bunch, however, and bites can be instant! That’s how much of a difference it can make.
2) Blow up your pellets
A few years back I was doing a lot of straight lead and pellet fishing but always felt I was missing an edge over other anglers who were fishing the same tactic. Then one day when I was packing up I noticed a few pellets had fallen under my seatbox. What struck me was the size of the pellets – they had taken on water and were almost twice the size.
This got me thinking as the same thing had to be happening in the water once the pellets had been on the bottom a while. I therefore decided to pump some hard 8mm pellets and leave them in water so that they ‘blew up’ into massive, soft pellets.
Once I got the process of prepping the pellets rightthe results were staggering and I was getting more bites than ever before on my ‘new’ blown pellets! I had found the edge I had been looking for and ever since that day when lead and pellet fishing I always have a few ‘blown’ pellets with me.
3) Hard pellets - noise is the key
When the fishing is hard and there isn’t a lot happening I am big believer in trying to draw a few fish into the swim and the best way to do so is to make a noise with hard pellets. I pick up my catapult and ping just 3-4 pellets on top of the float every 20 seconds.
The reason this works is that carp home in on the noise of the pellets hitting the water but at the same time I’m not putting lots of bait on the bottom and risking killing the swim. Size-wise this tactic works best with either 6mm or 8mm pellets because anything smaller doesn’t make enough noise to help pull a fish or two into the swim.
4) Coloured water equals red meat
I love fishing meat but it loses its effectiveness when the water is extremely coloured. When this is the case I will take a handful of my 6mm cubes and dye them red. The reason being when the water is very coloured red offers a strong silhouette and gives the carp a bait they can really home in on.
I was always sceptical about red meat in the past but I’ve had good results using it too many times in coloured water conditions for it to be coincidence. I use Ringers Red Liquid to dye my cubes and will only dye my hookbait meat and not the cubes used for feeding.
5) Foul-hooking? Hemp is the answer
I’m often asked how to prevent foul-hooking carp when fishing meat close in?
My answer is to use hemp. But, and it’s a big but, it has to be used in the right way. If you feed it little and often along with the meat then there is a danger the carp can get preoccupied on it and you won’t be able to catch them.
It’s much better to use hemp purely as settling bait. So at the start I will pot in two thirds of a large 250ml Drennan pot of just hemp to form a bed. Then if I start to catch a few and then start to suffer from foul hooking, I will simply introduce another big pot of hemp to settle them back down again.
6) Feed heavy close in to get out of jail
Every now and again in a match you need a get- out-of-jail card and, while most people use the margins for this, I prefer to fish short on a top kit straight in front of me. I mix hemp, corn and meat and simply lash it in to create the impression of someone packing up and throwing all their bait in.
I normally kick the swim off with three big handfuls of bait and go straight in over the top because quite often I will get a quick response from a fish within seconds. From that point on I will keep lashing the bait.It’s an approach that doesn’t always work but it has paid off on many occasions for it to be my ‘go to’ line when things aren’t going to plan.
7) Pack in the particles for bream
The secret to building a big weight of bream is particles particles – casters, pellets, worms etc. I pile in the particles in the first hour to put a bed of bait on the bottom. To do thisuse a bigger feeder and cast more often. Then when the bream turn up, perhaps 90 minutes in, I have a lot more bait on the bottom to hold the bream for longer.
8) Corn – two grains are better than one
Sweetcorn is a fantastic bait all year round but it’s particularly effective at this time of year. The interesting part about corn is that when it comes to fishing it on the hook then I always tend to find that two grains are without doubt better than one.
Loads of times I have caught on corn and alternated between single and double on the hook only to find two grains constantly produced quicker bites and bigger fish. There are two possible reasons for this, firstly the bigger bait stands out more over the loose offerings so the carp spot it that bit quicker, or it could be that everyone tends to fish a single grain of corn so two grains gets treated with less suspicion.
9) Stand out or blend in?
When fishing the Method or Hybrid feeder there are loads of different hookbaits you can use but I like to simplify things by dividing them into two camps, blend-in and stand-out. Blend-in baits are those such as hard pellets that match the pellets on the feeder. When the fishing is hard this type of bait takes some beating.
The reason for this is that when the fishing is hard there aren’t many fish in the swim so those that are there can afford to be picky about what they pick up. Hence a blend-in bait works well as it can trick even the wariest of carp.
If, however, there are loads of fish in the swim then stand-out baits such as mini fluoro boilies or bread really come into their own. These work because they are highly visible and give the carp something they can really home in on.
10) Give your meat a double cut
A couple of years back I spent a lot of time at Tunnel Barn Farm fishing meat into the shallow water across to far banks and islands. The problem was I struggled to hold the fish in the swim for long periods when feeding 6mm cubes.
What I needed, of course, was to create a cloud to firstly draw the fish in and then hold them in the swim once they arrived. To achieve this I decided to create a meaty mush by passing around a third of my 6mm meat cubes back through the cutter again, giving myself a feed made up of different sizes which almost exploded on the surface of the water.
This was added to 8-10 6mm cubes in my pot so when it was fed the cloudy mush pulled the fish into the swim and once they arrived they followed the 6mm cubes down to the bottom so I could catch them!
How to look after your lobworms and redworms
Get more from your worms by following our 10-point guide to looking after them properly
1 Give them plenty of room
Store your worms in a large bucket, or better still, in a hessian sack. That way plenty of air will get to them and they will remain in tip-top condition. Ideally, hang up the bucket or the sack so that air can circulate all around it.
2 Control the temperature
The quickest way to kill worms is to make sudden changes in the temperature of the air around them. A temperature between 10 and 20 degrees Centigrade is best to keep them healthy.
3 Float them in water
On warm days, keep worms out of the sun while fishing. The best way is to float your worms in water, in the mouth of your keepnet.
4 Keep them well fed
Your worms will need feeding to keep them in tip-top condition. Cold, cooked mashed potato, broken into small pieces, will do nicely. You can even use Smash if you want! You’ll be amazed how much they can eat. Fruit is another good food.
5 Maggot death
Fresh maggots spell disaster for your worms. The ammonia in a maggot with a large feed spot – one that has recently come off the meat – will soon kill any worms near it.
6 Try newspaper for lobworms
Lobworms can be kept in dampened moss or even shredded newspaper but if you manage to keep them for more than a couple of months, you’re doing well. They can also be fed.
7 Find a friendly farmer for reds
The hardest worms to keep are redworms – found in compost heaps. Buy them only when you need them… or find a friendly farmer!
8 Store them in plenty of peat
Make sure that there is plenty of peat with them. As they age, the peat will become damp and you will need to feed them more.
9 Wormeries can be a disappointment
Creating your own wormery is difficult because it is the natural instinct of worms to vacate an area after breeding in order to let the immature worms grow.
10 Invest in a Worm Bank
Buying a product called a Worm Bank is a good investment. This is produced by British Worm Breeders and is a bucket containing food used by them to grow the worms that they supply to anglers and tackle shops. The 71⁄2-litre container is specially designed to self-feed the worms for up to six months depending on the time of year. You can buy a Worm Bank for £15 or £21 including 1,000 small worms which will double and treble in weight. Lobworms and dendrobaena will live together in one.
Catching big fish with lobworms as bait
I DIDN’T know whether to laugh or cry. We’d already cancelled this feature once because the lake was frozen over but, as I was setting up my tackle, conditions could hardly be said to have got much better.
As I was battered by gale force northerly winds that cut to the bone, squalls of heavy rain were ripping across the lake the like of which you see in television news reports about hurricanes.
Ah well, these things are sent to try us.
I was fishing at Messingham Sands, near Scunthorpe, a popular day ticket complex that offers far more than the usual match-sized carp.
Messingham’s North Lake has a track record of producing big perch, decent sized chub, bream and quality roach, too.
My challenge was to catch some better-than-average fish using techniques that would normally be used by specialist anglers.
It’s very easy to complicate matters in winter to the point where you will spend all day chopping and changing while struggling to get bites.
Sometimes it is better to stick with a simple plan – and there are few better winter baits than worms.
Everything from a minnow to a catfish will eat worms, but if catching quality fish is your goal, then there’s nothing better than a lobworm. And, collecting them is nearly as much fun as fishing with them.
COLLECTING LOBWORMS
You can collect lobworms from any decent sized area of mown grass – public parks and football fields are ideal.
I collect mine from the local cricket pitch on mild, damp nights. Calm nights are best because worms don’t like wind, nor do they like the cold.
I’ll go out with a head torch and a bucket, about two hours after dark, making sure I tread carefully.
The worms will usually be laid on the grass, half exposed, but their tails are still in their burrows and it only takes a single heavy footfall or bright light for them to shoot back into their underground hides.
The skill is in spotting a worm, bending down and grabbing it firmly between finger and thumb and simply hanging on tight.
You can’t afford to go tugging at the worm or it will break and, contary to folklore, will die. Just apply a steady amount of gentle pressure and wait.
You’ll be amazed at how strong a worm is – you will feel it pulling back – but it will relax and you should be able to draw it out of the ground unharmed.
On a good evening I can collect enough cricket pitch specials to last a full session in around half an hour.
1. On a mild, damp night walk softly across a football pitch or cricket field and study the ground looking for the end of a lobworm sticking out
2. When you spy a worm illuminate it with a torch and immediately grip it between your thumb and first finger
3. Don’t pull the worm. Instead, keep a firm grip on it and wait for it to loosen its hold in the ground
4. This is what you are looking for – a handful of fat, juicy lobworms which virtually all fish will respond to
TARGETING FEATURES WITH BITS OF LOBWORM
Most commercial and club-run day ticket lakes contain good quality fish of various species, especially if the water has existed for several years.
The older the lake the more likely it is there will also be a ready supply of fish-holding features to cast to.
Overhanging trees, bushes, islands, weedbeds and dead rushes are the best holding areas for fish of all species.
When I’m targeting a water with lobworms for larger sized fish, I like to use two rods, each cast to a different feature. It increases my chances of a bite.
The right-hand rod was cast parallel to the bank towards an overhanging bush. This was my banker for a decent perch or a chub.
The other rod was cast to an aerator in the middle of the lake. In the weedfree open water that is the norm on commercial fisheries, surface objects like an aerator are prime fish holding features.
I always stress the importance of correct feeding, especially in winter.
Feeding is much easier when you are using small baits like maggots or casters but if you offer a fish a big, juicy lobworm in winter, it might be the only thing it eats all day. Consequently, you can’t throw in lobworms by the dozen.
Instead, I chop lobworms into small pieces and introduce them through a swimfeeder. Unless the fish are going mad, which is rare in winter conditions, I’ll only introduce one, or very occasionally two, chopped lobworms in the feeder each cast.
Chopped worms leak off blood and amino acids which stimulates a fish’s hunger.
In tough conditions it is best to target one fish at a time and a fast leak-off of wormy juices provides instant stimulation.
A cage feeder is my favoured carrier for chopped worms because its open sides allow the bait to leak. But I prefer not to use groundbait to plug the ends as this soaks up the juices I’m staking my approach on.
Instead, I mix a bit of peat with bankside soil to plug the ends of the feeder and it hardly takes a genius to work out that the soil at a place called Messingham Sands is actually sand. This is great because sand won’t soak up the juices.
Peat will soak up the worm liquids so I only use enough to bind the sand. Leam is even better if you can lay your hands on some.
Whatever you choose, use as little as you can and test it in the water to make sure it breaks down quickly to release the feed.
When bites are hard to come by you should cut right down on the amount of feed introduced and this is where the option to switch between a feeder and a straight lead scores. You should also chop the worms into much smaller pieces.
Winter fishing is about making the most of limited opportunities. When fish are reluctant to feed you need to stimulate them, hit every bite and land every fish.
PUTTING YOUR WORMS TO WORK
...now you’ve got the bait you need and prepared it correctly, here’s the rig...
BOB’S LOW RESISTANCE LIFTING LINK RIG
I’ve outlined why lobworms produce great fish in winter, how you collect them and the best way to chop them up and stuff them in a feeder.
Now I’ll move on to describe my favourite rig and bite indication set-up that I use with this bait – they complement each other well.
At Messingham, I used one of my favourite tactics. In this age of near mandatory bolt-rigs and hair-rigs it’s a throwback to a bygone age.
My low resistance lifting rig works for most species and can be employed on ponds, lakes, reservoirs, canals, drains and slow moving rivers.
In basic terms it enables you to present baits that fish can pick up while feeling minimal resistance, something that’s vital with ‘canny’ species like perch and stillwater chub.
It is normally referred to as a ‘running rig’ as the mainline runs smoothly through the swimfeeder/leger weight.
Bites are normally positive and you have plenty of time to hit them.
First, let’s reel back because it’s not a rig you can buy off the shelf. You’ll need to spend a bit of time making one but, if I can do it, anyone can.
Most anglers using running rigs simply thread a leger weight on their mainline. This means the line has to pass through a narrow diameter swivel to show a bite.
However, this swivel can drop into silt, weed or any other kind of rubbish on the lake bed, jamming the mainline.
By contrast, my rig lifts the line clear of the bottom thanks to the home-made buoyant boom I’ve illustrated.
This simple device really does make a difference. The line slips through the ring, with the minimum resistance, to produce the very best bite indication at the rod end.
Another important part of the boom is the clip on the end, this allows me to switch between a feeder and leger.
In many circumstances I use the lightest leger weight I can get away with, but I don’t with this rig.
It is vital that when you get a bite the leger weight doesn’t move. If it does, resistance will be applied to the running line.
To avoid this, use at least 1oz of lead/feeder that will stay anchored on the bottom as the line slides through the boom.
A static weight with line passing through it also means it doesn’t matter which way a fish swims off with your bait. The bite is registered as a positive pull at the rod.
This brings me nicely to the next important piece of kit, the bite indicator.
Forget advanced carp indicators. What you need is a simple lightweight bobbin – the lighter the better.
On windy days or on large waters where there might be an undertow, you may need to add split shot to the cord below the bobbin to prevent it rising in the wind and giving false bites. I generally use a bite alarm, in case my attention wanders, but you don’t have to.
Any rodrest head that doesn’t trap the line will do but you’ll need to concentrate on the bobbin.
Make sure the rod is pointed directly at the leger to reduce friction and the dampening effect of the rod tip.
If you are going to use two rods, as I like to, it pays to set them up on separate rodrests rather than a rod pod.
One last thing to know is that for tench, perch or chub, it pays to set the bobbins on a long drop because the bites can vary from tentative jerks to a complete flier, where the bobbin shoots straight up to the rod. You can easily miss bites on a short drop.
RIG CONSTRUCTION
To make my boom I take a Fox run ring, a cork ball, a length of stiff rig tubing, a 2cm- 3cm piece of soft 2mm-3mm silicone tubing, a few inches of braid, a clip swivel and a little epoxy resin.
1. Take a cork ball and very carefully cut a slot in the top using a craft knife. This is where the run ring goes. I make a small hole in the opposite side using a sharp drill bit and that’s the hard work done
2. Take a section of stiff rig tubing. The length depends upon how high you want the mainline to sit above the bottom. In weedy swims this might be 15cm, at Messingham it was 4cm. Cut the top at an angle and push it inside the cork ball
3. Thread the braid through the run ring and the stiff tubing. It is better to use fairly thick braid, rather than really fine stuff, as this will thread through the tubing far easier
4. Push the silicone tube over the braid, and on to the stiff tubing. Knot and glue the braid to the clip
5. Slide the soft silicone tubing over one half of the clip swivel, then Araldite the cork ball, stiff tubing and run ring. Job done
6. Here’s the finished boom with the feeder attached. Thanks to the clip swivel, it is easy to swap to a leger to give you more tactical options on the bank
THE PERFECT WORM HOOKBAIT
How you present a lobworm on the hook makes a big difference to the number of bites you hit.
A lobworm is a big bait that easily masks the hookpoint so make sure you use a large hook. I’m using size 8 Gamakatsu GP 203 and I’ll not hesitate to step up to a size 6 or even a 4 if circumstances demand.
Being a barbless hook the worm can easily mask the point, but I overcome this by slipping a section of elastic band over the point. This has two main advantages.
First, the worm is pushed back on to the hook shank so the gape and point stand proud of the worm, increasing the chances of a hook-up.
Second, you’ll also note I’m using red elastic – just stop for a second and think how often we use red as an attractor.
Corn tipped off with a red maggot, worms likewise, bloodworms, red corn, red boilies and pastes, red groundbaits, spinners with red wool on the hook, plugs and spinners with red flashes, pike baits with red polyballs attached – the list goes on.
When bites are proving hard to come by I’ll try a couple of edges to increase my chances of a take.
Firstly, I’ll inject air into the already hooked worm using a hypodermic needle. Don’t overdo it and test the worm in the margins before casting.
The aim is to make your bait semi-buoyant and not to have it popped-up above the feeder.
You must be extremely careful if you try this. Should you accidentally inject air into your body it can have fatal consequences. I get round the risks by laying my hooked worm on a bait box lid to inject the air and then I immediately replace the needle point cap.
My next tactical dodge is to twitch the hookbait. If you think about what has happened under water after you cast, the hookbait probably landed beyond the feeder by the approximate length of the hooklink.
When you feel sure the feeder has emptied you can slowly twitch the hookbait back towards you by this distance and that way it should now lie among the free offerings.
Finally, and this pays off most in really cold weather, watch the rod tip like a hawk.
It doesn’t matter if you have the most sensitive set-up imaginable, if there is the slightest deflection in the direction of your line leaving the rod tip very tentative bites might not register on the bobbin. I’ve caught some very big fish over the years when the only indication has been a slight movement of the rod tip.
BEATEN BUT NOT DEFEATED
It’s at this point I describe how I fished brilliantly and took Messingham Sands apart.
Unfortunately, I had a right old ‘mare’ and I think it’s only right and proper that I tell you this because it’s easy to believe that top anglers catch fish all the time and never make mistakes.
Well, we do and anyone who pretends otherwise is only fooling themselves.
My first bite on the rod cast towards the overhanging bush produced a sail-away lift that was unmissable.
Clunk went the strike, round went the rod tip and I found myself attached to a fair old weight at the other end.
In cold water big fish rarely scream off like they do in summer. For a moment it hung there, nodding it’s head quite savagely.
Applying steady pressure I guided the fish towards me only for it to kite into the tree and snag me up.
The air was blue, I can tell you, as I’d probably lost a big old chub.
The next fish to fall off came from my only bite up against the aerator and that was almost certainly a bream. I couldn’t see how I lost that fish and a simple hook-pull is just one of those things, I guess.
After that, the roach moved in and I was plagued with bites from over-enthusiastic silvers. It was clear I was not managing to build the swim with chopped lobs because they were being mopped up.
I stuck this out for a fair while, but with a dwindling supply of lobs I decided to try a swim move. Again, the silvers homed in on my bait as I caught some good quality roach, skimmers, a cracking golden rudd and a small but beautifully scaled carp. Where had the better fish gone?
Sometimes, you have to accept they are not feeding and switch tactics to catch the obviously eager silverfish species. But I stuck it out and late in the day the wind eased enough for me to see a couple of decent sized fish roll on the surface.
Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I put a bait out right where the fish had shown and within a couple of minutes the bobbin rose to the rod and stopped there.
The strike hit into a very solid creature.
At first, I thought it might have been a snag but, no, a gentle nod told me all I needed to know. I had hooked into a ‘lump’.
Slowly I steered the fish towards me, anticipating that it would probably wake up under the rod tip and that I’d need to back the drag off before the fireworks began.
And then disaster struck. My hooklength parted for no apparent reason.
The fish was calm, I was calm, I was being very gentle with it – but there you go.
Perhaps I need to start checking my hooklink more often during a session – a lesson we can all learn.
So there you have it. Bob isn’t perfect but don’t let that put you off trying what is a cracking method.
Lobworms, redworms and dendrobaena worms
Good old garden lobworms, compost-loving redworms and the Dutch dendrobaena worms all make great fishing baits in certain circumstances. Their juicy protein-packed bodies are packed with goodness that gives the fish all the nourishment it needs, so it’s no wonder why the fish love them so much.
Lobworms
These giant worms are found in the soil of your garden. They are brilliant baits to use on rivers, when the rivers are high, flooded and coloured. The reason why they are so good in those conditions is because of the size of the bait – the fish can find it easily in the murky water.
But more importantly, the size and the wriggling action of lobworms makes them also impossible for perch and tench to resist. A carefully presented lobworm, either floatfished over depth or legered tight to a marginal shelf or weed bed is sure to be taken by either of those species.
The great thing about lobworms is that they are free for those anglers prepared to put in a little effort. A little time spent digging the garden borders will provide you with a handful of worms, but if you want a mass of them wait until there’s a very damp evening and head out to any park, cricket pitch or well-mown garden, armed with a torch, when it’s pitch black.
By carefully creeping along the grass you’ll find that the worms have come out of their burrows and will be wriggling across the grass to find a mate. You will be able to pick them off the grass and place them into your bait bucket.
But it’s not always that easy – some of the worms may only be protruding slightly from their burrows. You’ll have to get hold of them and gently prize then from the burrows by pulling gently. It’s difficult to explain the amount of force that you need to use and the best method, but with practice you’ll master it really quickly.
If any of the worms that you collect is damaged in any way, you MUST not keep it. It’s unknown why this happens, but if you do store a damaged or broken worm with any other pristine conditioned worms, they will all die within hours, and you will have wasted all your time and effort.
Hooking lobworms
Firstly, you’ll need to match the size of your hook to the size of the bait, so you’ll need quite a substantial hook for lobbies. A size eight, six, four or even a size two will be required. Use a size eight or a six for lobworm tails (the last inch or so of a broken lobworm), or a size four or two for a whole lobworm (hooked cleanly through the thicker and darker coloured saddle of the worm).
Redworms
These little worms are a favourite among tench, bream and roach – they absolutely adore redworms. What’s more, redworms are the perfect size bait for these species too.
The best place to find a readily available supply of redworms is a well-established compost heap. The warm, rotting vegetation provides a healthy home for the worms which will soon breed and thrive in that sort of environment.
Redworms can be bought from good tackle dealers, but if you do have your own compost heap, or you have a friendly neighbour who will let you turn his or her compost heap over to collect the redworms, you’re onto a winner!
They can be fished whole, or halved, on their own or in conjunction with another bait to create a cocktail (a great technique to trick bream and tench).
A fully-grown whole redworm would be best fished upon a size 14 or better still a size 16 hook, while small sections of redworm are better upon a size 18 or even a size 20 hook when the going gets a little tough.
A great bait for roach and bream is to use half a redworm. The best way to hook this is to thread the hook through the broken end of the worm as this is the part of the worm that the fish will suck up first – that’s because of the scent that the broken section is releasing into the water.
Dendrobaena worms
These worm originate from Holland. They are a large redworm – twice the size of our native redworm, and therefore they can make a much better bait. They can be bought from all good tackle shops throughout the year. Expect to pay around £12 for a kilo – more than enough for a full day’s fishing.
Bream, roach, tench, carp, chub and barbel will all accept a dendrobaea or a piece of dendrobaena worm.
If you read about anyone having a good catch using chopped worms they will more than likely have used dendrobaena worms for their ‘choppie’ mix – the mush of chopped-up worms that are used as a groundbait to attract fish such as perch, tench, bream, roach and carp.
Chopped worm is one of the very best ways to put together a good bag of quality fish, especially during the colder months. Introducing a pole cup of chopped up dendrobaena worms will attract fish on lakes, canals and on slower flowing rivers, but it’s not a great technique to use on fast and powerful rivers as the worms will simply be washed away.
Chopped up worms also make a superb fish-attracting additive for your groundbait mix. Bream especially will be attracted to a pile of groundbait laced with many small worm pieces, with their juices escaping into the water.
Fishing with chopped worms
This method is best fished using a pole for the simple reason that the chopped up worms are almost impossible to catapult as they spray all over the place, so you need to use a pole cup to introduce the chopped-up worm pieces into a single area with accuracy.
Firstly, you will need a decent pair of scissors. Any old scissors will do, but many anglers use purpose-made chopped worm scissors, available from all good tackle shops. These have either two or three blades – a bit like two or three scissors stuck side to side. They make chopping up the worms a whole lot easier.
The worms need cleaning first as they are stored in compost that can blunt the scissors. To do this you need to act quickly – grab a handful of worms, place them in a fine mesh landing net head and swish them in the margins quickly. Don’t let too many escape! Now place the cleaned worms into a clean bait box and use your scissors to cut them up into small pieces. They are now ready to use.
Once you have plumbed the depth and have found your spot, cup a small amount of chopped worms and fish a piece of worm on your hook, right over the top. You’ll be quite amazed just how quickly chopped worms can attract fish, particularly those perch! But the carp, tench and bream will arrive soon after.
Chopped worms in a feeder
This method of fishing chopped-up worms is deadly for bream – perhaps the No1 technique to use to amass a good bag of bream.
You simply follow the steps above to clean and chop your worms, then mix your groundbait as you would normally, and add a small amount of chopped worms to your groundbait as you scoop it into your feeder
A small helping of casters or even squats will add extra attraction to your groundbait, and the best bait to use on the hook will either be a worm section or a worm and caster cocktail.
If you keep casting your groundbait and worm pieces to exactly the same spot throughout the session you’ll soon have those bream queuing up to be caught!
