We have caught 56 fish so far this month in April and it is only mid April. We have been using regular earth worms for fishing bait that we buy in the sporting goods department at a local store. Several years ago we had our own supply of earth worms. We found these earth worms near our creek in a pile of decomposing leaves, but since we now have chickens roaming our yard freely they have been eating the earth worms and thus it is not as easy to find the worms. So we have been paying about $3 for a container of about 15 worms at a local store. We use a container of worms for each fishing day.
Several people we know, who catch a lot of fish, have told us about the catalpa worm that they collect from the catalpa tree. They say that the catalpa worm is a good friend to all fishermen. They swear that this is the best fishing bait they have ever used, so we had been on the hunt for the catalpa tree in hopes of finding the catalpa worm.
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| Catalpa Tree |
The catalpa tree mainly grows in the eastern part of the United States. It is actually a beautiful tree with white flower blossoms. The catalpa worm can be found in a nest in the catalpa tree in the spring. The worm attracts fish because of the fluorescent green fluid that oozes out and smells sweet when placed on a fishing hook.
My husband needs to put a bumper sticker on his truck that says, “I brake for catalpa trees”. He has been coming to a screeching halt each time he sees a catalpa tree. He gets out of his truck to investigate if it has any catalpa worms. A lot of old timers are saying that the number of catalpa worms are down due to the drought of last year which put a big stress on the catalpa sphinx moth who lays the catalpa worm eggs. Finally, he found a few catalpa trees with worms.
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| The Catalpa Worm |
We have collected over 300 catalpa worms and now have a bountiful supply of natural fish bait. To preserve them for fishing we blanch them in boiling water for 1 minute and then pack them in Ziploc plastic bags with 15 catalpa worms in each bag. We add water to cover the worms and then we freeze them. When we go fishing we take out a bag and let it defrost before we use them.
We also found a little catalpa tree that we transplanted into a container. If the catalpa tree survives the shock of being dug up and transplanted I will replant it permanently to a sunny part in the pasture.
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| Our Little Catalpa Tree |
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