How to keep lugworm alive

Lugworm are a soft-bodied bait whose value is scent and mass rather than movement, and their condition determines whether they stay on the hook at all. A fresh lugworm holds together well enough to cast; a deteriorating one bursts and slides off. Keeping them well is largely about keeping them from breaking down.

Shallow trays or single layers wrapped in newspaper, not heaped in a bucket. Lugworm are thin-skinned and burst easily under the weight of others, and one burst worm accelerates the decline of everything around it.

Cool and steady. Like ragworm they come from cold intertidal sand and tolerate cold well; heat destroys them quickly. Warmth combined with their own fluids is what turns a tray of lugworm into a liquid mess.

No aeration when kept damp in paper. Lugworm are frequently gutted and salted or frozen rather than kept alive at all, precisely because keeping them alive is difficult and keeping them preserved is not — which is a legitimate alternative rather than a failure.

Damp newspaper, changed when it becomes wet or discoloured. Some anglers gut lugworm and dry-salt them for storage, which is a preservation method rather than a way of keeping them alive and should be described as such — a salted lugworm is a dead bait with a long shelf life.

Short — lugworm are among the least durable live baits and deteriorate faster than ragworm. Use them fresh where possible, and treat any batch that has been warm as suspect. Where longer storage is needed, gutting and salting or freezing is the practical route.

Flat, cool, and in as few layers as possible. Short journeys in a cool box do little harm; long journeys in a warm car ruin a batch. Take the session's worms to the water and leave the rest in the cool box.

Lugworm digging turns over intertidal sand and directly disturbs the habitat and the organisms living in it, which is why it is restricted or prohibited on many shores and inside many protected areas. Backfilling holes and spreading effort rather than working one patch reduces the impact. As with all marine baits, do not move worms between shores and release them, and do not empty bait water into any water body.

Dig or buy what the session requires. The main proportionate measures are avoiding crushing, avoiding heat, and not holding a batch for days in conditions where it is visibly breaking down. Where a batch cannot be kept alive well, preserving it by gutting and salting is more defensible than letting it die slowly in a warm bucket.

Put spoiled lugworm in household waste. Do not tip them or their fluid into the sea or onto the beach at a shore other than the one they came from, and do not leave trays or newspaper behind.

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.