How to keep lobworms and worms alive

A lobworm's whole value is that it writhes. It is a large, high-scent, high-movement bait and a dead one is a limp brown object that has lost most of what made it attractive. Worms are also easily damaged in ways that are not obvious until they are on the hook — a worm that has been crushed, dried or chilled too hard goes soft and breaks up on the cast.

A deep container with a breathable lid, in the dark. Worms burrow, so depth matters more than surface area here — the opposite of maggots. A traditional wooden or polystyrene worm box works because it insulates and breathes. Plastic is acceptable if it is ventilated and kept out of the warm.

Cool and stable, and never near freezing. Worms tolerate cool conditions well and warm ones badly; a worm box left in the sun is a worm box of casualties. Cool is a principle rather than a number here, and it matters more that the temperature does not swing than that it hits any particular value.

No aeration, but the bedding must stay open and unpacked. Worms breathe through the skin and need damp, airy bedding rather than a compressed sodden mass. Bedding that has been squashed down into a solid block is effectively suffocating them, and the fix is to loosen and replace it rather than to add water.

Damp, not wet, bedding — shredded newspaper, coir, or a proprietary worm bedding. The test is that a handful squeezed hard yields a drop or two and no more. Too dry and the worms dehydrate and go stringy; too wet and the bedding sours and they drown. Removing dead worms promptly matters, because one decomposing worm will foul the bedding around it.

Weeks in good conditions and a day in bad ones. Worms keep considerably better than most live baits provided the bedding is right and the temperature is cool, and toughening them by keeping them in slightly drier bedding for a while before use is a long-established practice among anglers.

In the bedding, in a cool insulated container, out of the sun. Worms travel well if they are not shaken into a compacted mass and not allowed to warm up. Taking only the session's worms to the bank in a small tub, and leaving the main stock cool at home or in a cool box, keeps the bulk in good condition.

Worms are terrestrial and the direct pathogen risk to fish is small, but the bedding and any water associated with them are not sterile, and moving worms between countries or regions can move soil organisms with them. The rule that matters is the general one: do not tip bait, bedding or water from one place into another. Composted or commercial bedding kept separate from garden soil reduces the risk of moving anything unintended.

Worms are invertebrates, and proportionate care means not holding far more than needed, not letting a box dry out or sour, and not keeping stock indefinitely in conditions that are slowly deteriorating. Removing dead individuals promptly is both a welfare measure and the single most effective way to keep the rest alive.

Keep unused worms in their bedding for the next session — they store better than almost any other live bait, so disposal is usually unnecessary. Where worms must be discarded, put them in household compost or waste rather than into the water or onto the bank of a fishery.

Collecting, transporting, keeping and using live bait are regulated differently almost everywhere, and some of these baits may not be used at all in some waters. Restrictions commonly cover where and how much may be collected, whether live bait may be moved between waters, whether a species may be used as bait at all, and whether a licence or permit is required. FishingHQ does not state what any rule is or where it applies — check with the authority responsible for the water and the shore you intend to use before collecting or using live bait.