Lugworm

Had a hours fishing last Friday

2008-12-10T08:37:00.006Z

Hi Folks,
I have now moved my blog over to Lugworm.org. Once you are there you will see blog at the top left of the page under the heading: - Pages.

I ventured out last Friday for a short fishing trip to the Ha'penny pier. There was a stiff north westerley blowing which made it a bit uncomfortable. I took my Daughter Mickey fishing with me. She loves fishing but only if the fish are biting. She was in charge of cutting up a small mackerel for bait. We were also using some shrimp that we caught in the boating lake and some salted lugworm.
After an hour of catching just one small whiting and no further bites we gave up and came home. I will try again soon!

Waaay tooo cold for me at the moment.

2008-11-29T16:11:00.004Z

Yes, you can say I am getting to be a fair weather fisherman. When I was younger I could stand out in all weathers waiting for the bite (and hopefully some fish). Now, I would rather stay in the warm! I did however venture out the other day and went digging for some lugworm
I managed to dig around 50 lug before the light faded. I found another lead breakaway to add to my collection. This breakaway had all the terminal tackle along with a Codling around the 2 lb mark on the end of the hook. It was still fresh but had been partially eaten by the 'beach chickens' or shitehawks as I prefer to call them. I recovered the tackle and left the Codling behind on the low water mark. I have around 20 weights now. All around the 5oz weight. Sure beats buying them at £1+ a pop.
I might venture out next week to see if I can catch some more Codling. I have attached some photos of where I catch my bait shrimp. More next time.

Codling in the river Stour

2008-11-14T09:23:00.008Z

My cousin Chris rang me at midday on the 12th Nov and asked me if I would like to go fishing the next day. Well the 13th happened to be my birthday (52 years young) so I asked permission of the boss (Judy) who said yes! I quickly cycled down to the beach at Earlams and dug some lovely Lugworm.
Friday morning at 8.30 am Chris and I met up at Titchmarsh marina and after the important first cup of coffee, we set sail for the fishing spot. After about 1 hours steaming we arrived and dropped anchor. We anchored in the same spot as the last visit the week before. We were between the end of the stone pier and Felixstowe container port. Just outside the shipping channel, on the Harwich side.
We fished for about 3 hours and caught about 15 codling, some pouting and loads of whiting. We just kept the codling and one big pouting. Most of the codling weighed about 2lbs but I had one at 4lbs, 8oz. We fished the top of the tide and some of the ebb before we had to up anchor and head back to the Marina. One of the best days fishing for ages.

2008-11-12T05:44:00.004Z

Went out fishing on my Cousin Chris's yacht last Friday. He has a Hansa 32 (nice boat). We anchored just outside the shipping channel, not far from the end of the stone pier in Harwich harbour. The fishing action was non stop. Loads of whiting and a few codling just under the 2 llb mark. We threw most of the whiting back but kept 7 of the biggest.
We used lugworm for bait along with some live shrimp caught in the boating lake at Dovercourt (by the swimming pool).

2008-11-04T10:54:00.002Z

What a difference a day makes. Sun shining, not a puff of wind. Seagulls looked happy today. Only problem was trying to dig the lugworm. I think the cold and the high pressure is driving them down deep. I ran out of steam after 45 minutes and about 20 worms. Will try again tomorrow.

Monday 3rd Nov

2008-11-03T13:27:00.004Z

Dug lugworm this morning from 7.30 til 9am. Boy was it bleak. Dull, overcast with a miserable easterly breeze. Even the seagulls looked unhappy today. They follow me and pick up worms that I have missed or discarded.
I dug about 80 worms today. Normally I would have got about 130 or so but the casts where hard to spot today. Good exercise anyway.
Once I get the worms home, I salt them down for later use or sale on eBay.

A few hours fishing on Sunday 2nd Nov 2008

2008-11-03T05:21:00.002Z

Well,finally the rain stopped and my Daughter Mickey and I went down to the Ha'penny pier for a few hours fishing. High tide was 2pm and we arrived at 10.30am. There was no wind and the sea was flat calm. See pictures.
Of course, I forgot to take my camera but I came back to Harwich Quay after we finished fishing to take a couple of pictures of the pier. You can see the container port of Felixstowe in the background.
For our bait, we used small shrimp and salted lugworm for bait. We stopped off at the boating lake on the way to go fishing to catch these small shrimp. I will try to take some photos of the boating lake this week.
There were a couple of fellas and their kids fishing next to us with mackerel strips and squid. They caught loads of whiting. We did not catch quite so many but I caught a Codling on the shrimp. Again most of the Whiting were throw back size but it was most enjoyable.

A spot of fishing with Lugworm bait

2008-10-25T13:14:00.003+01:00

Well, I managed to dig a few lugworm on Friday afternoon. It was quite difficult because the wind had swung round from a very strong south westerly to a north westerley and the tide started to chase me in 30 minutes before low water! See pictures of the beach!
I went fishing for one hour last night (Friday 24th) on the Ha'penny pier Harwich. I got there at 9pm, about 1/2 hour before high water. I fished two rods with my favourite bait lugworm on 2/0 aberdeen hooks. I had bite after bite after bite. Unfortunately most of these were throw back, undersized whiting. I caught about 4 which were 30 cm or so and a nice pouting about 32 cms. Not bad for an hour. I would have fished longer but once the high tide has turned, the water rips out again. I had some Lug left over which I have salted down. Hopefully we will have some decent weather and I can go again one night next week. Oh by the way, the pouting bit quite ferociously and really bounced the rod up and down!

A bit too wet and windy for fishing today.

2008-10-23T08:50:00.005+01:00

I was looking forward to a spot of fishing on the Ha'Penny pier in Harwich today but methinks the low tide will not go out far enough to dig those lugworm that the Codling and Whiting love. I might give it a go tomorrow. I'll take some more pictures if I do.

Sunday 19th October

2008-10-19T16:00:00.002+01:00

Where did the summer go? I took a stroll down to the beach last Monday evening and had a look in the rock pools at low water. The beach has changed dramatically since I was a kid. I am 51 years old. When I was young, the low water marks where full of whelks and in the sandy areas there were plenty of cockles to be gathered. Now, the whelks have all but gone and you are lucky to find a handful of cockles. Is this because we now treat the sewage and have a blue flag beach? The one creature that is in abundance is the oyster. These oysters are the rocky or pacific kind although you can find the odd native oyster. Again, there were no oysters here when I was younger. I wonder what I will find next time I venture down to the low tide!

Alvey Bait Pump

2008-07-08T11:49:00.006+01:00

Well, I have heard so much about the bait pump method of getting lugworm that I thought I would give it a try. I bought a slim line version off eBay and toddled off down to the beach to give it a go. I tried every which way having watched a couple of demonstration videos on how to use it. All I ever seemed to manage was the odd mangled worm. I then went back to using the fork! I know the bait pump works but ideally the sand has to be just soft enough and with no rocks and debris like we have here in Harwich. I put the bait pump back on eBay and sold it (one careful owner,....honest..)

Off to Dig Lugworm

2008-06-25T04:58:00.004+01:00

Hi All,
Summer is here. Went digging for lugworm again at my favourite spot down at Earlams Beach. Got some great specimens. There is an unusual object sticking out of the sand and I would like to know what it is. I think it might be a fuel tank of an old aircraft. I have posted some pictures on youtube for folks to look at: -

Beautiful low tide digging Lugworm

2008-06-07T19:56:00.001+01:00

Went down to the beach this evening to dig some more lugworm. The tide was out a nice long way and I easily managed to dig 100 lugworm. I will now salt these down and bag them up ready for sale. We (Dovercourt) beach have also been awarded the prestigious BLUE FLAG for water quality. It was truly a lovely evening for digging. lugworm

How I dig Lugworm

2008-02-20T15:22:00.006Z

How I dig Lugworm

I have always been fascinated by the beach at low water and learned from an early age how to dig Lug without too much effort. I only wish I were as good at catching the fish! This guide will help you to identify and dig a successful batch of lugworm for your fishing needs….

First things first, you will need a sturdy fork - one with 4 wide tines and a metal shaft will be best. Oh yes, and then a bucket (please do look for signs and/or check local byelaws to make sure you are allowed to dig holes on the beach). Try, if you can, to avoid digging where swimmers will be when the tide comes in. We don’t want toddlers disappearing into one of the holes you have left!

You will also need to find a piece of beach that contains Lugworm - sandy beaches are the best. The best digging will be found after low water when the tide starts to come in. The worms seem to be more active at this time (making wormcasts).

Now you need to look for the wormcasts and the associated holes. If you want to avoid too much digging with no results you really need to find the hole in the sand that belongs to the wormcast (See 1st picture.) The hole is usually between 6” to 15” from the wormcast.

Once you have identified the cast and the hole, stand behind the wormcast and look towards the hole, insert the fork halfway between the cast and the hole.

Remove the spoil and set to one side. Then move the fork back behind the cast and push the fork in all the way and then a further 4” to be nice and deep. See 4th picture.

Push the fork forward to loosen the sand. Carefully remove the spoil, turn upside down and put to one side. The worm should be easily spotted. See last picture.

Carefully pick up the worm and place in the bucket. Sometimes the worms will be found living deeper and you will need a third forkful to find the worm. The worms will usually be deep if the weather is really cold. I find that 9 times out of 10, the worms will be undamaged when dug using this method. Of course, there are times when the worm casts are numerous - if so, you can just dig a trench through them but I do not find them in this heavy concentration very often and you will get more damaged worms by just digging through the casts.

Note: - I tried using the Alvey narrow bait pump and had some limited success. It depends on the composition of the beach. The beach composition here at Harwich varies a bit too much between sand, pebbles and mud. I found that I got more worms with the fork than the bait pump.

I keep the worms in a bucket until I get home and then I sort out the undamaged worms and lay out on newspaper. If I am going fishing the same day then I will use the damaged worms otherwise I will feed them to my Koi! I then sort the healthy worms into groups of 20 and wrap them in dry newspaper and keep in the Fridge. The will keep up to about 5 days in this way.

I now have a fairly frequent blog on my fishing activities. You can find this at lugworm.org

A little bit about me: -

My name is Paul Good and I live in Harwich, Essex, England. I am 52 years old and am self-employed. I dig worms professionally but only on a limited basis. In addition I have a Caravan/Camping accessory business. I also buy and sell anything I like the look of! You can find my other activities on Ebay at either yumyumgoody, paulgood13 and paulscaravanparts

Are you looking for Lugworm?

Any questions email: - paul@paulgood13.wanadoo.co.uk

Good luck!!

P.S. I like digging worms in the summer but I don't get so many because the Ladies in Bikinis are a big distraction!

P.P.S. I also salt the lugworm. They make a great bait for seafish and carp. I have also made a short video on how I dig Lugworm. See below