Still debating about what can make the best bait is for fishing early in the season? Of course, it still has to be worms. But if you’re one of those early fishers who want to have a leg up (or fish boot) ahead of your competition, you are going to be met by ice-covered lakes and be left with the only option of fishing at mouths of brooks. The water is still quite cold at this time and you are guaranteed to have pretty sluggish trout and have hard time fishing.

What kind of worms would be good to use, you ask? While the garden variety of worms still makes for decent bait, your best bet would definitely have to be the night crawler. True to its name, the night crawler crawls on the ground’s surface usually at night. If you are not familiar with this name, perhaps you know them more as dew worms. Yes, that also means you’d easily spot them when the soil is moist with either rain or dew.

It’s going to be a bit difficult at first to look for these creepy crawlies but let the weather warm up a bit more and you’d be able to conduct night-time searches for these worms. Night crawlers are general huge worms that can measure up to 10 inches lengthwise. You know you got the right worm when you see a dark-coloured end or the head where its brain is and its tail which is rather flat in shape and has a lighter colour.

While its surface feels quite smooth, it is, in fact, covered with a lot of tiny bristles. These bristles help the night crawlers move easily and anchor them to the ground. Expect to have a bit of difficulty pulling them out of the ground. They might not be able to hear you but they are quite sensitive to vibrations that happen in the soil. Walk up to it and you’d see them move away from you rather quickly. Also, you must remember that worms are without lungs so they get oxygen directly through their skin (that’s why it’s moist and slimy). Obviously if it dries out, the worm dies.

If you are sceptical about whether trout have encountered creatures like earth worms, they actually have and these worms play an important part of these fishes’ diet. When rain and high water flushes worms out of the soil and into rivers and brooks, that’s when they get eaten.