Night Crawlers- the Bait You Cannot Beat

Fishing with night crawlers, which are simply large earthworms, is not only productive, but is lots of fun as well. Once you get over the part of having to put one on your hook, fishing with night crawlers is the best way, as well as the cheapest, to catch a huge variety of fish. Here in eastern Connecticut, I have found that fishing with night crawlers enables me to target trout, bass, white and yellow perch, bullhead, suckers, carp, and bluegills.
Ever since I was old enough for him to take me fishing, using night crawlers as bait was what my father always went in for. He would take us to the state forest, where his job was to keep hooking the worms onto our bamboo poles while we were busy fishing with night crawlers. As fast as he could get them on the hook, we would be pulling in ravenous bullheads one after the other. It was the only bait we had ever used, and as I got older and kept fishing, I always gravitated back to fishing with night crawlers.
To go fishing with night crawlers, you first must have some. In my area, convenience stores often sell "Canadian night crawlers" as bait. I have even purchased them at Wal-Mart for as little as $2.50 for a couple dozen. However, there is no reason to pay for your bait if you intend to go fishing with night crawlers if you can catch them yourself. This requires only a flashlight, a can, and a pair of hands. Night crawlers will begin to appear around the middle of April in Connecticut; sooner if it has been warm. Once it is dark outside in the evening, especially during or following a rain, go out into the backyard and shine your light on the ground. You should see plenty of night crawlers, especially around gardens, under fir trees, and in areas where there is open dirt. Keep the light directly off of them as they will quickly head back underground. Reach down and pinch the night crawler as close to where you think the end that is nearest its hole is and pull slowly up. If you have guessed correctly, you should easily be able to capture it. Even if you are wrong and have grabbed the wrong end of the night crawler, which will happen frequently, you have an excellent chance of catching it. Do not tug hard in order to avoid breaking the night crawler in two. Rather, pull gently until it comes up out of its hole. After a while, you will get the hang of catching night crawlers.
Once you have the night crawlers, you need to keep them in dirt, dead leaves, moss, or grass in a cool place. I actually use a small refrigerator in our garage for this purpose, but they can be kept in your kitchen refrigerator if the family does not protest. I have found that you can keep night crawlers alive for over a month in the refrigerator. I have several small containers that I will put about a dozen night crawlers in. I pack them in loose dirt and moss and leave them in the refrigerator. I take these fishing and when I return I will refill the smaller containers from a larger plastic container that holds several dozen night crawlers. I will spend about fifteen minutes on rainy or moist evenings capturing more night crawlers so that I have plenty in stock. Be sure to use the night crawlers that you have had the longest in order to avoid them going bad. Some anglers have been known to fill a child's wading pool with peat moss and keep their stash of night crawlers there, locating it in the basement or in another cool place that does not receive direct sunlight.
I fish for the most part in the Quinebaug River here in Connecticut, using only night crawlers as bait. I have light spinning gear, with ten pound test and use a number four snelled hook with three or four split shots about eighteen inches up the line from the hook. The number four hook is just the right size to fit large night crawlers on. Many anglers will hook the night crawler only once through the fleshy end and cast it out, but I have always hooked them so that they wind up in the shape of a ball more or less, hooked several times the length of their bodies. In the spring, I target trout and white perch, but have also caught bass, yellow perch, bullhead, and suckers while fishing with night crawlers. I will simply cast out downstream and wait until the night crawler attracts some action. White perch tend to tap, tap, tap on the night crawler, requiring the ability to know when to set the hook. Once you have one on the line, white perch put up a surprisingly strong fight for their size. White perch tend to travel in schools; it is rare that you will catch only one when fishing with night crawlers. I have had a lot of success over the years catching brown trout on night crawlers. Brownies will hit hard and take off, or sometimes grab the night crawler as you are reeling it in.
Springtime is also the season when you can catch suckers with night crawlers. Although not recognized as good eating or a game fish, I have had some of my toughest fights with large suckers that have gone after night crawlers. If you fish towards evening, you will catch an occasional catfish or bullhead in the river. If you head to a farm pond or small lake, where bullhead are plentiful, you will have your hands full trying to keep up with the action. Bullhead will go after night crawlers like it's their job; just be careful of the spines they have on their top and side fins!
In the summer months, it is harder to keep my supply of night crawlers up because they tend to not come out as much unless it is a very wet summer. If my supply dwindles, I have to turn to purchasing them, but it is worth the money as fishing with night crawlers is no less productive in July and August. When the river gets low, my pals and I will actually go right in and cast downstream, or stand in the middle and cast towards the shore. This is the time of year when smallmouth and largemouth bass are more than happy to gulp down a nice juicy night crawler. Smallmouth will often take to the air when they have been hooked, giving you all you can handle. Largemouth tend to try to head to cover or to the bottom, but both species will grab a night crawler and run; no playing around with it for these guys. Likewise, carp, which are the largest fish in most rivers, will take a night crawler. Last year. I landed an eight pounder, small by carp standards as the Connecticut record is a whopping thirty nine pounds, but still a huge thrill for me that I will never forget. If I did not have a net and some companions with me that day, there would have been little chance of me catching that fellow.
Fishing with night crawlers, especially if you can catch your own, is a fantastic way to spend time. And like Forrest Gump's mother might have said, "Fishing with night crawlers is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get!"