Bloodworms make excellent bait and fish food, and just like most baits, you want to keep them alive and fresh. This will entice fish even more compared to using dead or rotting bait! So if you caught a couple of these bad boys, how do you keep them alive for the meantime, until your next fishing escapade?
Don’t worry, it’s easy to do! Read on as I show you how to keep bloodworms alive to use as high-quality fish bait.
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How to Keep Bloodworms Alive
No one knows why the worm is one of the most enticing for fresh and saltwater fish, whether it’s the color, wriggling, or the smell. Regardless, using worms like the bloodworm can get you big catches.
There are various types of bloodworms, with the two most popular ones being the small red larvae from midge or a group of worms typically located in marine waters.
Either way, these worm species are best for feeding or baiting fish, with most fish species consuming this worm in their diets. More specifically, these bloodworms can entice winter flounder, porgies, striped bass, perch, even bluefish!
Do you want to learn more about bloodworms and how to use them as fishing bait? Check out this informative video:
You can purchase or find bloodworms yourself, and if you want to entice fish even better, they need to be kept alive until you take your cast. However, you can’t find live bloodworms easily, and if you do, you need to learn how to keep them alive properly.
While difficult to find, you can purchase them in some fishing stores. Their larvae cycle only lasts for up to 12 days, and you need to use them within three days of getting them. But, there are ways to lengthen their lifespan to use as food and bait.
So what should you do? Here are some helpful tips and things to take note of to keep you bloodworms alive:
1. Can You Breed Bloodworms?
You may think you can breed your bloodworms, which is cheaper and offers more convenience. However, this method only works if you know the living conditions of a bloodworm and how to breed them well.
Unfortunately, it’s a bit tough to breed them, and it isn’t a practical method for plain hobbyists. You’ll have to know and build ideal living conditions to lessen the risk of it getting diseases and parasites. And the worst part is that they bite when handling them, causing similar allergic reactions to bee stings!
To do this, you have to prepare an enclosed area where they fully mature into flies. This is to prevent them from flying away to lay eggs in other areas. They will require a tank with an aquatic pump, screening, organic material, and sterile water to stay alive!
Because they breed when they are adult midges, it makes breeding your bloodworms difficult, risking swarming. Besides this, midges may find it difficult to mate in captivity.
With all this in mind, you might even find it better to invest in freeze-dried bloodworms over breeding it on your own. The work is just as tedious as raising your fish and pets!
That’s why I would rather much purchase live bloodworms regularly and use the next mentioned method to keep them alive. While a bit pricier, finding a regular supplier of these worms keep are a better alternative compared to “making” your worms.
2. Cultivating Bloodworms
If you don’t want to breed your own bloodworms and just want them alive for bait, then this is the method to follow. You won’t need to create a whole habitat for them!
To use this method, follow this step:
- You can purchase live bloodworms to lessen the hassle of hunting for them yourself. However, they are also found in estuarine or coastal marine environments, so with a bit of digging and scooping, you can catch some of your own. You just have to be wary and wear gloves to prevent getting bitten, which can be quite painful.
- Look below the bloodworm’s head and there will be a collar of muscle. Using a knife, make a small incision in the area.
- Hold your bloodworm by its tail, squeezing out its guts, towards its head.
- There should be two nerves that pop out, along with all its guts. Be sure that you do NOT damage the nerves. Take all the guts out of the worm, but leave the nerves the way they are.
- Wrap your bloodworm in one piece of moistened paper, placing it in the fridge. Be sure that the paper won’t dry up and that your fridge isn’t freezing cold.
- When you treat worms this way, you can keep it alive for up to one week or so. You will need to change the paper every once in a while, as the worms would eject the sand from their system. Each time you change it, wet the paper with saltwater.
Keep checking on the worms once every other day to see if they are still alive, salting the worms as you do so. If you notice some worms have died, then get rid of them to prevent it from contaminating other worms.
You will know if the worms are still alive by picking it up then dropping it on hard surfaces. If the worm moves, then it isn’t dead yet.
Read More: How to Catch Worms For Fishing: The Helpful Guide You Need
Wrapping It Up
Bloodworms are great to use for outdoor fishing, known to some as the ultimate fish bait. You can purchase or hunt for them, and regardless of how you collect your bait, they have to be kept alive for better chances of getting a bite. Fortunately, there are easy ways to do so!
I hope that these tips on how to keep bloodworms alive helped you out! So if you catch some bloodworms as bait, follow these tips to keep them fresh for your next fishing trip.
