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Sand Worms: finding and keeping them

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reasedaddy

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I would love to find out how to find sand worms in the Belmar NJ or Sandy Hook area. Once you get them, what is the best way to keep them? I heard moist paper towels in a refrigerated ventilated box works well. Nobody seems to know anything about finding them, aka lost art. Bait shops seem to always get a good supply of them but it sounds like a black market once you ask a few questions. I know somebody knows.

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to find them go to a calm beach that is rocky. go at low tide with a bucket and shovel and a pair of waiders. when in the water you'll be stepping on rocks most of the time but there are spots where the bottom is just a patch of sand. dig down deep with the shovel and bring up a big chink of sand, look through for sand worms. to keep them take a bunch of moist seaweed in a covered cardboard box and put the worms in and keep out of the sun

"Give a man a fish and he has food for a day; teach him how to fish and you can get rid of him for the entire weekend."
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View PostIn lieu of a shovel, I'd recommend a garden variety pitchfork....makes turning the sand over a lot easier..not to mention you won't be cutting any worms

 

 

 

yea pitchforks are alot easier! i used a shovel once and it wasnt very fun nice sized worms kept getting cut up.redface.gif

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I've dug for these sweet worms for some time now; I've always found at a low tide, rocky area, and anything from sandy to thick hard clay; but you MUST use a pitch fork, or you'll destroy them. Now if you want to keep them for about a week or so, I have found that when I used the brown hand towels that are in a roll, shred it up for a bed but lay them in something that they won't be on top of each other, and change the paper often, the fluids that are released from them will also kill them. (they sell worm bedding which also works well, but again, you must change it when it gets wet, this is much cheaper and works.) Good Luck.

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saw a guy a few weeks ago digging for them. looked like he had been doing it for years. had a pitchfork but the fork had a lot of tines- more than the 3 or 4 i typically see on a pitchfork. he was dropping them in a bucket he had on a rope over his shoulder with a vented top

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I can dig up a cup full in a few minutes. I use a pitch fork at low tide. Its all about location, not every type of sand will hold good numbers of sand worms and avoid places were strong currently flow at high tide. The strong current is constantly changing the arrangement of the sand on the bottom and therefore it will not hold sand worms.

 

I never bring them back with me because I rarely fish with sand worms so I don't know how to preserve them. Sometimes I will dig some up for weakies or fluke, but mostly for porgies in the summer!

(*member formerly known as 'JohnB.')

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