Easy nightcrawlers - during the day!

[robw]

Getting ready to catch some walleye in the lower river over the long weekend and needed more bait.  Looked online to see how to catch night crawlers the easy way, since I'm not a kid anymore, and hate bending over the yard with a flashlight, and found this.  Didn't think it would work, but tried it, and wow, bait just got cheap, close to home, and easy. 

 

Fill a 5 gallon pail with cold, clean water

Add ~ 1/3 cup dawn dish soap, and stir, careful not to make sudsy water, as the suds hide worms.

Pour on the ground in ~ a 4 foot circle

After ~ 30 sec worms will start coming out of the ground

worms will continue coming up over a period of time (30 min for me, when I stopped watching, but more were still showing)

 

I kept a strainer and the hose with me to rinse the soap off the worms, so they don't die from it. In 30 min, I made 4 circles, I picked up over 4 dozen night crawlers with almost no effort, and the 1 1/3 cup of soap cost less than $1.00.  Plus no drive to a bait shop!  If I knew how well it worked, I'd of stopped after 2 circles.

 

Hope this helps someone out!!

 

BTW, also saw folks used laundry soap with similar results

 

[shawnhu]

There's others ways that I know of, but this is a first. Will the soap cause less strikes? Do let us know.

[jjb4900]

if nothing else, you'll have the cleanest worms on the lake.........

[BizCT]

Id be too worried the worms have a soap scent. I don't even wash my hands or get gas before fishing in fear of scent

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[Cabin Fever]

I wonder if the HS scent-free soap or shampoo would work just as well? 

[letinmfly]

This brings back memories. As a kid  I remember using mustard powder mixed with water to get them up to the surface.