This act of generosity happens every day wherever people congregate to saltwater fish: Those departing will give away their leftover bloodworms. No way to keep them, they say. They’ll spoil before I have another chance to go fishing.
The fact is, bloodworms can be preserved quickly and easily.
”All you need is some salt that doesn’t contain iodine and a little bit of caution,” former charter boat captain Dee Johnson explained at last week’s Peninsula Salt Water Sport Fisherman’s Association monthly meeting.
Caution is needed because the worms will deteriorate if left to stew in their own juices. When that happens, you’re left with a puddle instead of preserved bait.
”When you put them in the salt, they excrete all their body fluids,” Johnson said. ”What I do is coat the worms in pickling salt and then put them in a container lined with paper towels. I put that in the refrigerator for an hour or so. Then I take out the worms, change the salt and the paper towels and put them back into the refrigerator or the freezer.”
Bloodworms cost $4 to $5 a dozen. They are an excellent bait for spot and gray trout. Since each worm is cut into three or four pieces of bait – all you need is enough to tip the hook – using up the dozen before it deteriorates is a problem.
”You can’t just leave them in the little plastic bag or the cup they came in,” Johnson said. ”You should have something you can keep in your cooler. Line it with paper towels, then put in the seaweed the worms came in, then the worms. A little precaution like that can keep your worms fresh all day.”
And if there are any left over at day’s end, salt them down and freeze them.
Do salted bloodworms catch fish?
”When I was running the charter, I would put salted bloodworms on one set of hooks and fresh bloodworms on another,” Johnson said. ”There wasn’t any difference in the amount of fish the people caught.”
In fact, preserved baits are a matter of human preference, not something the fish are worried about.
”On the Eastern Shore, frozen minnows are the only thing used for flounder,” Johnson said. ”Go into a shop over there and ask for minnows and they’ll reach down into the freezer and hand you a package.
”On this side of the bay, everybody uses live minnows for flounder. Frozen minnows catch flounder and live minnows catch flounder. It’s just a matter of personal preference for the guy doing the fishing.”
We decided to give salted bloodworms a try.
We used rock salt instead of pickling salt. Not only did it work fine, it kept the worms well out of the pool of liquid that formed.
The next day, we took the salted worms to Buckroe Pier. The worms were leathery and needed to be cut to length. Beyond that, they were easy to use and virtually odorless.
Like most salted meats, they regained shape and size after being in the water awhile. And Johnson was right. Salted or unsalted … it didn’t seem to matter to the fish. We caught mullet and spot, just like those who were using fresh bloodworms.
”This is just a way you can save some money and always have some bait on hand,” Johnson concluded. ”It’s easy and doesn’t make a big mess.”
HOW TO PRESERVE
Preserving bloodworms
* Coat leftover bloodworms with some pickling salt (or salt that doesn’t contain iodine).
* Put bloodworms in a container lined with paper towels in the refrigerator for about an hour or so.
* Don’t let bloodworms deteriorate in their own juices.
* Take worms out of refrigerator. Change the salt and paper towels and put them back in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to use again.
* We used rock salt instead of pickling salt. Not only did it work fine, it kept the worms well out of the pool of liquid that formed. The next day, we took the salted worms to Buckroe Pier. The worms were leathery and needed to be cut to length. Beyond that, they were easy to use and virtually odorless.
