Keeping crawlers for the long haul

I generally hate dealing with live bait and more so, is the price we pay these days. Not knocking bait dealers….because if they didn’t charge accordingly, they wouldn’t be there when we need them. But each Spring as the walleyes make their way back down the river you have to eventually give into dragging crawlers.

So at the end of the day what do you do with the dozen or so you have left? I see everything – dumped into the river, dumped on shore, given away, taken home and put into the fridg…. For cheap people like me, its taken home and add to the worm bed. As a kid, we were dumped off at 11pm at a golf coarse, and picked up a few hours later with our dozens and dozens of crawlers. How we took care of them then is still serving me well nearly 40 years later.

Styrofoam cooler and a mix of sphagnum moss. Prep is easy. Catch a couple of buckets of rainwater and soak the dried out moss over night. Ring the excess water out of the moss, shred apart, and put in the cooler. Add crawlers…. Store in a cool place like basement or corner of garage.

In excessive heat of summer, I’ll put ice in it to keep it cool and to add moisture.

Each week, dump it out and remove any dead ones. Dampen the moss as needed and return to the cooler. I mess around with worm food, but I don’t know how well it actually works.

These days, I normally don’t have time to pick worms, so I buy a flat at a time. Keeping them in moss has worked better lfor me than any of the bedding that I have tried. Not to say they don’t work….just not as well for me.

So if your looking to shave a little off the bait bill this year, keeping those partial dozens for a later date will help.

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XX2
BB2

Randy

I am right with you on moss and culling the herd to keep them healthy. Moist but not wet. So, I use single sheet of dampened newspaper across top of crawlers and bedding. Feed? I use corn meal. Kids and I pick crawlers using red head lamps. Bring on the rains!

Do you buy the moss or pick it?
Can it be purchased?
DT

I pick the moss in the ravines behind our house. Dark, deep, smelly ravines with wild creatures…

Most good greenhouses will have it. Nice thing is at the end of the year, just dry it out and store it. I’ve got some that is probably 12 years old or more

is buss bedding still being made? that’s what I used in my bait shop..

You guys get by fine with just a basement floor or garage? No refrigerator? I have always kept mine in the garage fridge with fair-at-best luck.

I just give my leftovers to the next fishermen putting in. Spreads good will I hope.

Timmy wrote:

You guys get by fine with just a basement floor or garage? No refrigerator? I have always kept mine in the garage fridge with fair-at-best luck.

Timmy, just a place for them to remain cool. Because i am in and out of mine so much during the spring down run, I just keep them in the coolest corner of my garage. I use very little of summer, but still keep them cool – usually the basement in the heat of july and Aug.

Little critters do their thing though. I’ll have tiny ones in the mix by late summer.

BTW – didn’t mentioned this, but the moss is so much easier to clean out of a boat carpet than dirt.

Moss is the way to go, easier to clean and pick through, and as you said it will last for years. I’m lucky we have a 60 acre marsh near the old homestead that is covered in it.

I’ve had really good luck with 2 parts of peat moss bought at Menards, ect. and a bag of cow manure composted (you can buy both at Fleet Farm). The Worm Ranch Styrofoam is the perfect size. I’ve used corn meal without the salt (very important) bought a Wal Mart and general rolled oats and use a blender to get to a flour consistency and just sprinkle on top like the magic worm food directions. Within 2 weeks tops, the crawlers I’ve caught or bought will be as big as anacondas. Flip the bedding once a week, change every other depending on how many as they’ll eat their body weight in food a day. I’ve been able to keep crawlers like this for well over 3 months. It’s hard to let them go in the garden later in the year after all the work! I’ve also found that putting them in a fridge is much more advantageous to keeping them in tip top shape rather than in the basement, but it’s better than nothing.

When I was a kid I mixed leaves and soil. Worked excellent. Now I use bedding.
Have always kept them in the basement without issue. Fridge not necessary. If you don’t have a full depth basement then fridge or hole in the yard is necessary.

Crawler mojo tonight! Ahhhh…one of many rites of Spring.

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Is styrofoam just an insulation thing or does it offer aeration or something? Is a plastic cooler as good? It would sure be handy to use the Strikemaster bait buckets from my ice fishing gear but would this be too air tight? There is nothing worse than a big (expensive) bucket of rotting crawlers.

Now I have to go find some sphagnum moss…. I’ve tried the store bought bedding, and maybe handled it wrong, but never been real impressed there.

Hate dirt… hate the mess of worms in the boat anyway, and seems my buddy never finishes a trip without dumping a box on the floor – you would think he was still five years old or something.

Phil Bauerly wrote:

Is styrofoam just an insulation thing or does it offer aeration or something? Is a plastic cooler as good? It would sure be handy to use the Strikemaster bait buckets from my ice fishing gear but would this be too air tight? There is nothing worse than a big (expensive) bucket of rotting crawlers.

You don’t want to use anything plastic for long term storage.

I use styrofoam in a fridge in my garage. I usually go through 3 flats a year and what ever is left if I pay attention to them will keep throughout the winter and multiply.

Great thread Randy!

Is the sphagnum moss you are using just any old moss that I would find out in the woods?

Randy, I’ve had good luck keeping crawlers all summer long by mixing buss bedding in a big styrofoam cooler and keeping it in the basement. Making sure that the buss bedding is just moist enough to not be able to wring out any water in my hand. I also put them to bed by laying a double moist newspaper on the top, every now and then I’ll re-wet the newspaper. Hmmm maybe I should try this with the misses at night.

Thank you! this has gotten me started in keeping and catching worms. I got a small styrofoam container from fleet farm to start with and is half filled with sphagnum moss. I only have about 20 worms but looks like I need to go get some more moss from my backyard if I want to continue stocking up on worms.

How big of containers do you guys use, and how many worms to you generally store in them? Not really sure what size container I should have for storage. (I plan on going out and finding more worms)

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I have a Styrofoam cooler, maybe 40 quarts. Then I have a couple smaller ones for travel and boat

I found 100’s of crawlers in my yard last year. I caught a ton and put them in a “Warm Farm” from Wal-mart. It put them in the basement and lost about 90% in 2 weeks.

TTT