BAIT

Any angler who fishes for cod in the winter will know that when you catch cod and gut them you nearly always find a squat lobster in it, that is a deadly bait in the winter months not only for cod ,what really amazes me is why the small boats that go out don't sell them to tackle shops. It's a good earner for them. I'm going to make it a point to have a word with some of the skippers and find out how we can get them.

Fishing with lugworm

The black lug are the larger of the two species being from 6" long up to 18" long and usually black or dark brown coloured. Blow lug grow up to about 6ins long, the colouring is usually red to mid brown, though when living in rotted down weed amongst the sand they do turn almost black.

LOCATION - BLOW LUG
Blow lug favour lee shores protected from the worst of the weather. They are rarely found in numbers along the higher reaches of a true surf or flash beach, but may be in small colonies in a corner of the beach protected from the elements. The best numbers of blow lug are mostly found in an estuary environment living along the sides of the permanently wet run off creeks amongst mud and sand.

Blow lug leave a tell tale round cast with an adjacent blow hole within a few inches. The worm lives in a U shaped burrow directly below and between the cast and blow hole. These casts over a dense worm colony are an easy give away for location. Such areas uncover with every tide, including the smallest neaps.

COLLECTION - BLOW LUG
Because blow lug live in dense groups they can be trenched with a fork. The best fork is the four pronged, flat tined potato fork.

There is a right and wrong way to trench. The wrong way is to indiscriminately dig long single fork width trenches or to dig round shaped holes. This leaves a savage scar on the mud flats and can upset other non angling estuary users.

The correct method is basically the same as when digging the garden. Start by taking a fork of sand out and turning it back into the same hole upside down to reveal any worms. Work a trench across in front of you for a few feet, then go back to the original end and start a new trench directly behind the old one. In this way the flooding tide will flatten off the turned sand and over a few tides no evidence of you ever being there will exist.

It pays when trenching to select the slightly lower wetter areas of sand rather than the higher and drier areas which may have plenty of casts, but the worms here will be much deeper down.

TIDES
The tides effect the collection of blow lug. The worms tend to be deeper while the tide is still ebbing, but as soon as the new tide starts to flood the worms rise in the sand and are easier to dig. This even applies to worm beds well away from the sea high up in the estuary flats.

WEATHER EFFECTS
Expect blow lug to move deeper down in the sand during periods of hard frosts. In fact, this is one time when the digging may be more successful during ebb tides when the beds are just uncovering and the sand has been warmed by the water.

Periods of high pressure are less good for digging than low pressure systems ie, those surrounding unsettled weather patterns. The higher the air pressure, the deeper the worms go.

STORAGE - BLOW LUG
Blow lug should be wrapped 20 per packet in several sheets of newspaper and kept in a cool temperature such as a domestic fridge and carried to the beach etc, in a cool box with ice packs placed in the top. It pays to change the newspaper everyday and also check for any dead worms. In this way, blow lug will keep for up to 5 days without major casualties.

LOCATION - BLACK LUG
Black lug have totally different habits and locations. They are found only along the immediate low water line of the higher medium to larger spring tides. Often, collection is only possible on a half dozen tides per month in some areas. Blacks burrow differently, too!. They live in a vertical or near vertical burrow underneath a small black coloured cast, but unlike the blow lug there is no adjacent blow hole. Blacks are at their most numerous close to areas that hold water such as along shallow banks and in the middle of drained gullies.

COLLECTION - BLACK LUG
Black lug are individuals and cannot be trenched like blow lug. You have a choice of collection methods, either with a spade or by a bait pump. The spade needs to be a special draining spade with a narrow cutting edge and wider top. These are often sold under the name of "Peat Spades".

To dig black with a spade means walking the low tide line until you spot the black cast. Place the spade about 6" in front of the cast and take out a spade of sand about 8" deep. Now take another cut directly behind the cast an dig as deep as you can. The worm is usually in this second cut. Some diggers prefer to make three cuts starting further in front of the cast with a shallow cut, then another just in front and the last deep one just behind the cast to reveal the worm.

Many diggers have now forsaken the spade in preference of the bait pump. This requires a similar techniques to extract the worm. Put the pump base over the cast and take a core of sand only about 6" deep out. Back down the hole and go as deep as you can with the second pump. As you lift the pump free of the hole pump out the core flat on the sand and the worm should be visible. Occasionally, and it's worth doing anyway, break open the core to reveal any hidden worms.

Blacks do not always conform to this vertical burrow habit and in some areas, especially those where sub surface stone and pebble exists, will burrow at a slight angle causing some worms to be chopped off.

TIDES
Black lug are dramatically affected by the tides, also! You will see isolated casts on the last of the ebb tide, but as soon as the tide turns to flood again you'll notice casts popping up everywhere. This is the peak time to pump and the worms will move closer to the surface.

WEATHER EFFECTS
Only accessible towards the low water period and their deeper burrowing habit keeps black lug protected from the worst of the frosty weather and such conditions makes little difference to collection.

The air pressure effects them though, with low barometric pressure being better than persistent high pressure. Having said that, high pressure systems tend to push the tide further out than predicted and expose sand that rarely gets the opportunity to be pumped.

STORAGE - BLACK LUG
Ungutted black lug need to be stored for immediate use the same way as blow lug are, and the same applies to worms that will be used within a couple of days, though you may need to gut them for this. For longer term storage they will need to be gutted by nipping the heads off to release the guts, then placed separately 5 or 6 worms across a sheet of newspaper, and stored again in the fridge. They can also be deep frozen this way. Change the paper every day or two depending how damp it gets.

Try not to handle black lug with your bare fingers, it's the heat of your fingers that burns their skins and makes them explode. You'll notice that if handled with wet industrial gloves far fewer worms suffer from expansion of the body ending in their quick demise.

PRESENTATION
Lug is particularly affective fished uptide for winter cod and codling on pennel rigs. Small 1in lengths of black are excellent for dabs even if the worm is past it's best. Lug works well for spring plaice as part of a combination bait with sandeel, crab or sandeel. Surprisingly, it's one of the best baits for rock living wrasse in the summer. Used to bait feathers during the winter it will take codling, whiting, and in the Northeast, occasional haddock as well.

It's almost impossible to mistake the king rag for any other marine ragworm due to it's sheer size. Juveniles are a minimum 3", with the average worm between 6 and 9" long. Much larger worms to 18" are not uncommon, and specimens to 24" can be found in North Wales and occasionally elsewhere. There are records of king rag growing to 36" and having the diameter of a man's thumb!

The colouration covers a wide range. Mainly mid green, but with a dark purple iridescence along the back. Many worms take on an orange tinge and even vermilion when taken from their burrows. The belly carries a pinker tint.

The head has four long antennae or feelers either side which the rag uses to find food. Two large black pincers called Chitinous jaws are housed in the mouth. These are to stab and hold onto prey that the rag comes across and are powerful enough to penetrate the skin on the fingers of the digger. Along the sides of the body are locomotory feet that aid swimming, are used to circulate water to retain freshness, and to bring food to the worm via the water drawn into the burrow.

The adult worms seek out areas of mud and silt laying over and amongst broken rocky ground and are sometimes found in split bed rock and weed. Mussel beds anchored over mud and rock ground at the heads of estuaries hold rag, and so can fine graded gravel banks alongside cleaner sand, though these worms tend to be the smaller juveniles.

COLLECTION
Almost as much fun as the fishing, but messy! It's rare nowadays, to be able to trench king rag like you can blow lug. In years gone by you could, but heavy digging pressures over the past two decades and also pollution has reduced and scattered the worm numbers.

You need a strong, flat tined potato fork for digging rag. It's wise to modify the right fork by eliminating the wooden handle and having a metal shaft welded direct to the fork itself for strength. You'll be using the fork as much as a lever as you will as a digging instrument.

The technique is to walk backwards slowly over the mud patches amongst the rocks looking for a small, circular hole up to .25" in diameter in the mud's surface that suddenly floods and overflows with water. This indicates where a rag burrow is and often has a small circle of blown out mud around it. As your weight passes over the burrow, the worm starts to wriggle deeper into it's lair and forces water out through the blow hole.

Start digging as deep as you can right over the hole, then slowly widen the digging circle with each fork full around the hole until you discover the worm. Rag can be as much as 2' from the hole. The depth you dig may only be a few inches in heavy ground, but you'll still turn out the worm.

It's less reliable, and you need a quick hand, but it's worth turning over flat stones that lay amongst mud etc. Rag can sometimes be found laying flat underneath these stones, fully exposed, when their burrow has touched the stone and they've been forced to dig along the surface for a way. If a worm makes it part way back into the burrow, but you get a grip on it, just keep up a steady pressure without breaking the worm and it will slowly release it's grip and come free.

TIDES
Tides govern the collection of rag. Rag tend to live from about mid tide zone to below the lowest spring tide water line. Also, because of the heavy digging pressure, it makes sense to try to work the ground that uncovers infrequently only on the bigger tides where the worm beds have been least disturbed.

Rag become fairly dormant on the last of the ebb tide and are deeper in the burrows. As soon as the new flood gets underway their activity increases and they start to move and hunt bringing them closer to the surface. Digging on the ebb is rarely as successful as digging with the tide on your heels.

WEATHER EFFECTS
Frosty weather puts the worms deep, but humid nights keep them surface working and easier to dig.

Rag resident close to and in estuary mouths can be put down deeper into their holes by continual heavy floodwater pushing through the estuary. Likewise, digging during actual heavy rain also makes you have to work harder to fill the bait bucket.

Experienced rag diggers prefer to dig during the dark hours with a not too bright headlight as the rag are far more active in the dark hours and close to the surface.

STORAGE
Correct storage starts at the digging stage. As you dig, separate any damaged worm from the whole ones. Their blood is very toxic and will quickly kill off the rest.

Vermiculite chips from a builders supplier or a bed of almost dry sand placed in a plastic ice cream container with air holes in the lid is good for longer term storage in a bait fridge set at about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. You can wrap the worms en mass in numbers of 6 large worms or over a dozen smaller ones in several sheets of newspaper and then into the fridge, but you'll need to change the paper daily.

Winter and summer it pays to transport your worms as stored in the fridge to the fishing station in a proper cool box with ice packs added. But keep the worms fully insulated from actually touching the ice packs with a sheet of polystyrene placing the packs above this and the worms.

BUYING TIPS
When buying rag from a tackle shop it's worth asking to see the rag, don't just take the packets that are given to you. You're looking for lively worms that wriggle and snake with energy. Dormant worms may have been kept at too low a temperature causing them to go comatose, but mostly this is a sign that they are past their best and about to expire.

Also check that their skins have not started to go crinkly, another sign that they have been kept long term and are not in the best of health.

Think about the size of the worm that's best suited to the species you intend to target. Generally, you want the smaller 3-6" worms for smaller species like plaice, dogfish, codling etc, but take the big 8" plus worms when after bass, stingray and cod.

IDENTIFICATION
Usually attains a length of between 6 and 9cm, but can grow to 18cm. It's colour varies from beach to beach, but generally a pearly white to faint grey, but can carry a light yellowish tinge to it. The body shape is slightly flattened.

HABITAT
Smaller white rag are to be found living in muddy sand amongst blow lug beds and cockle beds inside estuaries. The bigger worms are found along the open shore on the spring tide low water line preferring fine to coarse sand populated by tube worms. Some of the largest white rag show a preference for the sand banks alongside water holding pools around the heads of estuaries.

White rag appear to breed en mass all in the one tide with the eggs and sperm mixing together with the flooding tide. Natures best option of making sure there are little rag next year to carry on the life line.

TIDES
The white rag beds on open beaches only uncover on the very biggest spring tides for about an hour either side of low water.

Inside estuaries, although the rag are often only up to 3" or so long, they are diggable every tide, usually including the small neaps.

WEATHER
Strong winds off the sea will stop the tide retreating as far as predicted and will also push wash waves further up the sand which keeps the rag beds covered, even on the big tides denying access.

Very cold still days will see the rag burrow deeper into the sand to gain insulation from the air temperature. Days when heavy rain is falling also tends to push the worms deeper.

COLLECTION
The only collecting method is to dig. Use a fork for this, the best ones being the flat tined potato forks with four tines. Professional bait diggers tend to remove the original wooden handle shafts and replace them with ones a good 6" longer to save bending so far.

The quickest way to locate white rag is to walk the low water line looking for the exposed tubes of the tube worm poking from the sand. White rag live around these in the soft sand, so these are likely places to start.

White rag also sometimes leave a small blow hole about 1mm across, but this is not a reliable way to identify the existence of rag.

Aim to dig as close to the actual water line as possible. The worms tend to be nearer the surface here and on beds that get frequently dug you'll get on average a larger worm here because this extreme low water area sees less frequent digging due to limited exposure.

Start by digging a short trench a few feet from the water and then work backwards and forwards across this towards the sea filling in the previous trench as you go. The worms are only a few inches deep, rarely more than 10", so don't waste effort going deeper. The knack to getting a reasonable number is the overall ground area covered.

If the sand retains a fair degree of water, then as the worms are uncovered they will burrow back down into the sand quickly, so be quick to pick them up.

Broken worms should not be exposed to whole ones. Any broken worms to be used immediately should be placed in separate containers or discarded.

Collecting white rag requires two plastic buckets. The builders type with sealable lids are best. Make some small holes in the lid to allow air access.

The water in the buckets needs collecting just before you are to start digging as it needs to be an identical temperature to that which the worms are currently living in and used to. Even small changes in water temperature can be enough to kill off all the worms. Also make sure the water is clean and not full of suspended sediment.

As you lift each worm, gently wash the clinging sediment and sand off the worm in the first bucket, then place the cleaned worm into the second bucket. When finished clip on the for safety in transit.

When you get home you'll find that the worm have grouped together in a tight ball. Leave them to settle without moving for a few minutes and the group will start to disperse.

STORAGE
This is critical and white's take more work to keep than lug and crab do, but keep alive longer.

Use 1 litre sized ice cream containers with lids that have a couple of small holes pierced in them to allow air in, or use cat litter trays. Place only 15 worms into each container which should be about three quarters full of fresh, clean sea water. Store them with the lids on in a fridge.

You need to have access to replenish your supplies of fresh seawater. This needs to be kept in the same fridge. Use this to change the water in the worm containers every two days. At this time check for any casualties, which should be minimal, and the worm will live quite happily.

Keep checking the colour of the water. If it starts to go cloudy and diffused in appearance, change it.

TRANSPORTATION
Transporting live whites requires a cool box. Place the worm in sealed lid containers in a loose stacking system allowing air to circulate between the containers. Make a sheet of thin board with holes in over the top of the worms and place an ice block on the top to keep the temperature down.

They'll keep okay like this for a couple of days, but lift the lids off occasionally to allow in some fresh air.

PRESENTATION
Small sections of worm prove excellent as tippets pushed over the hook point with lug and rag which is a good combination for pout, whiting, and flatfish. This makes the fish strike at the hook point itself and not further up the bait away from the hook.

Several small whites can be nicked onto a thin wired Aberdeen hook just behind the head leaving the tails to wriggle in the tide. This takes flounders.

Larger whites can be used whole. Top anglers like to thread the worm over the hook shank tail first and pushing this up on to the trace line, then nipping off the head which is then slid over the hook point and barb. This puts the scent of the bait right by the hook point.

Many anglers assume that white rag is a sight only bait, but this wrong. Whites have a strong scent and are capable of pulling fish in from some distance even when fished in coloured seas at night.

Fish not necessarily eager to feed will snap at whites, and white rag is often the only bait to use during flat calm seas and high pressure systems when little seems to interest the fish.

EXPECTED SPECIES
White rag takes most fish, but especially appeals to flounders, plaice and dabs, whiting, spring cod, surf bass, pout, rockling and dogfish. Pollack also take it under float tackle and mullet will hit white rag slowly drifted across the seabed on fine line.

DO'S AND DON'TS
When grabbing sandeel, be aware that poisonous lesser weevers could be in the coarse sand. Many diggers prefer to wear gloves when after whites for this reason.

When collecting from estuary bars some way off shore, make sure somebody knows where you are and what time you'll be back. Check and double check the tide times including allowing for the hour on and off in spring and autumn. It's easy to get it wrong and get cut off on the big spring tides.

Reserve sea water for replacing the old should be stored in air tight plastic bottles, preferably those containing mineral water, that have been thoroughly rinsed out to avoid any chance of contamination.

Worms with a reddish coloured swelling evident on the head are dead and need to be instantly removed.

White rag cannot be stored by wrapping them in sheets of newspaper. Done like this they survive for only a few short hours.

Cut and broken worms will live in a separate container for some time and can be used for imminent trips.

IDENTIFICATION
The Shore Crab is the commonest variety of crab found around the UK shoreline. The shell is wide at the front with a series of bony serration's along the forward edge. The shell tapers inwards in a straight line towards the rear of the crab.

The only other crab found over the same ground as the shore crab is the velvet swimmer which has a similar shape but the back of the shell is covered in like a velvet growth that instantly distinguishes the two apart.

PEELING SEASON
Whilst the shore crab is a common sight twelve months of the year, the period it peels is governed by the warmth of the weather.

In Devon and Cornwall peelers can be found virtually right through the year, but numbers fall lowest during the colder months of January and February. In the West and Wales, expect the first crabs to peel from about mid March with peak peeling explosions in May and June, then again in September, with the last of the peelers picked in early November.

In the East, it's late April and into May before numbers are worth picking, and June is the real start of it for anglers in the Northeast and in Scotland. Early October at the latest is the usual end of the peeling season this far north.

It varies with the severity of the winter and spring. Cold weather delays the whole process and early frosts shorten the season.

THE PEELING PROCESS
Think in loose terms of the crab being opposite to a human. Whereas our soft outer bodies grow around a rigid inner skeleton the crabs internal organs grow inside a non growing outer shell. When this gets too small for the crab it has to be shed for the crab to continue growing.

The crab does this by extracting calcium from both the surrounding sea water and from it's old shell and creates a new initially soft shell which is formed in a corrugated fashion underneath the old shell. This extraction of calcium is why the old shell becomes brittle and falls away.

Just prior to actually peeling, the crab takes in large amounts of water which swells up the inner body by about 30% which literally forces the old shell free. The peel itself takes about 3 hours. The new shell hardens by consuming the left over calcium inside the body and also calcium from surrounding sea water. This hardening process takes between 4 and 6 days in summer, but can be as long as 16 days in the spring and autumn.

The juvenile crab moult up to 3 times a year, those approaching maturity only once a year, but once a crab fully matures the peeling cycle ceases.

TELLING PEELERS FROM HARDBACKS
Peeler crab can be identified from hardbacks by nipping off the end segment of the rearward trailing leg. If a white tendon is left the crab is a hardback and no good for bait. If though, there is a soft new leg underneath the crab is a peeler and excellent bait.

More sophisticated ways to tell peelers from hardbacks are by running the ball of the finger over the back which feels soapy to the touch on a peeler, or by putting gentle pressure into the small of the crabs back and seeing if the shell is brittle and cracks which tells that the crabs shell is about ready to be shed and the crab a peeler. The colouration of a peeler crabs back and belly shell also goes dull and diffuse just prior to peeling.

Takes refuge in paint cans, bits of waste tubing and guttering, under metal sheets and discarded washed up fertiliser bags, but is especially abundant in an estuary environment favouring the channel edges amongst rocks, weed, etc, and will even create crab colonies by burrowing in to mud banks.

Even working through the edges of clean sand gutters with a gloved hand or small three pronged hoeing fork along the edges of estuaries will turn up peelers buried in the sand, especially at the height of the peeling explosion when hiding places are at a premium.

COLLECTION
The commonest collection method is to work along the beach, estuary etc, turning over stones and weed until the crabs are revealed. However, the crab will often bury itself in the sand and mud underneath the stones and weed, so get into the habit of just working the fingers through the surface sand to feel for the crab. Often though, the give-away is that you can see the crabs eyes protruding through the surface. Finally, place the stone back exactly as you found it and you'll pick crab from there again. If you don't, the barnacles etc, that live under the stone die and pollute the immediate area keeping other crabs away.

Carrier crabs will walk up harbour walls and settle in the hanging weed. You can collect these by working a landing net vertically up and down the wall and into the weed scooping the crabs up as you go.

Another way is to lay a trap line. These can be staked out tyres, buried lengths of guttering, paint cans, etc, placed along the beach or estuary bank, all of which the crab will crawl into for protection whilst peeling takes place.

A messy, but very effective way to gather early spring peelers is to push your bare arm up to the elbow down the burrows and pull the crabs out living inside. Cuts, abrasions and covered in smelly mud maybe, but you pick peelers a good two weeks before their evident in the rocks.

The male crab will carry a female peeler underneath it until the female peels. Only when the peel has taken place the female is soft can breeding occur, hence the male crabs devotion. Any crab carried underneath another crab will be either a peeler or softie and good bait. A carried peeler will be facing downward underneath the male and a softie facing upward.

Use plastic ice cream containers and similar putting fresh seaweed into each dampened with fresh sea water and put no more than 8 to 10 crabs in each one. Make sure that the lids are punctured to let oxygen in.

Every day check for and remove dead crabs, wash the seaweed in fresh sea water and replace them. They'll keep like this with only minimum casualties for at least a couple of weeks and with careful management as long as four weeks.

When transporting crabs for fishing trips, do so in a cool box with ice packs which keeps them in good condition and avoids wasted bait.

BRINGING CRABS ON
Those crabs that are in the early stages of peeling but do not have the brittle shell are okay for bait and do catch fish, but the nearer the crab is to actually peeling the better it is as bait. You can bring these slow developers on by taking them from the fridge and allowing them to acclimatise to normal air temperature, then placing them in fresh sea water that has been allowed to heat up to air temperature and letting them drink this in which triggers the peeling process. You'll see bubbles from their mouths as they soak up the water.

This is why it's essential to only damp the seaweed that you're keeping them in. If you let the ones you want to hold back have an occasional drink like is suggested by some anglers, the peeling process starts and you lose the crab.

BAIT PRESENTATION
Peel off all the shell and the legs so that you are left just with a soft body. You can peel the shell off the body, cut this in half and leave the legs on each side which go up the shank of the hook to disguise this and also to force the fish to bite at the hook point end. This is useful when bass hit the bait, run and drop it. Also for flounder, plaice and eels.

Peeler is full of scent. However, you need to maximise this scent, so always cut the whole crab down the middle, or in to quarters and bind them to the hook with a minimal amount of sheering elastic. Chunks quartered are excellent for eels, flounders, and plaice.

Big bass and cod like big baits, so instead of halving the crab, use scissors to cut the crab half way through towards the back, put the hook point into one side of the cut and then pull the hook around the crabs body until the point comes out opposite to where you started, then add the thread.

BUYING TIPS
When buying crabs from a shop, check that all are alive and slightly damp. If they are dry and few are moving there are likely to be many dead amongst them and the flesh deteriorating.

Try to buy crabs just after the spring tides begin to drop back to neaps. This means that crabs taken from high ground will have taken in fresh sea water before collection. Crabs can survive for several days without fresh sea water when living on higher ground but quickly die when stored in the fridge if picked before the high tides return. Some collectors and shops will put in a few hardbacks from time to time to make up the numbers. If they let you try to pick out your own crabs.