The earthworm heads the list of baits because of it's attractiveness to practically all of our fishes.
This creature is important not only to the fisherman but to the soil, and so to the farmer and gardener.
Charles Darwin considered the earthworm so useful that he wrote a book on the subject, "The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms".
In it he describes how the earthworm adds humus to the soil through the disintegration of rocks and vegetable matter by means of humus acids which it generates.
He does not mention its great value to the bait angler, to whom it is a standby.
Look for earthworms where the soil is fertile, black loam being especially good.
If the soil is dry, the worms will be found deep where ground moisture still exists.
When such is the case, you will bring the worms closer to the surface if several hours before you go fishing you soak the selected spot with a few pails of water.
The worms may be kept alive and happy by placing them in a wooden pail or box filled with good garden loam and storing them in a cool, dark place.
When you store the worms for some time, they should be fed by scattering a little cereal, corn meal, chopped suet, coffee grounds, or bits of hard-boiled egg on the surface of the earth in the storage box or pail.
In use, hook the worm under the collar, then again through the head or body, leaving the ends to wiggle to attract the fish.
Discard dead or mangled worms.
Worms should be lively on the hook to be most effective.
Before you take them on your fishing excursion, it is well to let them scour and toughen by placing them in sphagnum moss, first soaking the moss in water, squeezing out the surplus and leaving it merely damp.
Nurserymen and florists make much use of this type of moss in preparing rooted plants for shipment, and the moss may be obtained from them.
Night Crawlers are the large and lively members of the worm family are nocturnal in habit.
Look for them on lawns.
To take them, equip yourself with a flashlight or lantern with a thin, transparent red cloth or red tissue tied over the lens or glass.
Red light is less alarming to this wary worm than white or yellow.
As they are sensitive to soil vibrations, don sneakers, walk softly, and sneak up on them.
When you see one it is likely to have its rear extremity anchored in its hole.
Seize it quickly.
If you pull on it at once you will probably pull it apart.
Keep a firm grasp on it.
The muscular effort of the worm is spasmodic.
When its hold in the soil appears to be lessened, pull it a little farther out of the soil, and then wait for another muscular relaxation.
Store Night Crawlers the same way as ordinary earth- worms.
Manure worms called redwoods by many, are found in manure piles.
In my opinion they are inferior to the other two kinds just mentioned, as they are softer and do not hold to the hook as well.
Hooked as described, all of these worms will live for some time and be lively on the hook.
I have found nothing better for a "worm bank'' than a compost heap.
I have a garden with both flowers and vegetables.
To bring up the fertility of the soil I have made a practice of raking up grass cuttings and dead leaves and putting them, with vegetable waste from the garden, into a flat- topped heap in a shady corner of the garden.
It takes from one to two years for the heap to disintegrate into rich mould like the leaf mould you find in forests of deciduous trees.
Worms find their way to the heap from the garden, aid the decomposition of the vegetable matter, and before long the pile is alive with them.
The process is helped by wetting down the pile with a hose several times during the summer.