Care of Crawlers

[Tomcat]

We're scheduled for a 9 day (20-29 Jun) fly in fishing trip (walleye and northerns) to Lac Hebert with Tamarac Air. There's insufficient frig space to ensure our crawlers (2 flats) remain healthy for 9 days. We'll have some ice with us on arrival and access to more ice mid way through the trip. I'd appreciate suggestions on how best to care for our crawlers. Thanks in advance.

[lew]

Can you somehow cover the flats and bury them in the ground and just take what you need each day ??

[mike rousseau]

I agree with Lew...

 

4-6 inches under ground is a lot cooler...

 

Especially in a shaded area

 

Or

 

Reconsider what needs to go in the fridge... Keep your beverages in the cold lake water maybe...?

 

Or (if your not at you weight limit) bring a cooler with ICE BLOCKS just for your worms... Ice blocks last a lot longer... I use those nice long skinny square apple juice containers... 2L

[dave524]

Evaporation is an effective cooling method, keep your flats in the shade, wrapped with a wet towel or such, airflow would help as well.

 

edit: I've always used damp spaghnum moss as the best medium to keep worms for a long time.

Edited May 16, 2014 by dave524

[BillM]

A decent cooler should be able to keep ice for a week. Open it once/twice a day for worms and that's it. Keep it in the shade and they'll be fine.

[esoxansteel]

They love wet spent coffee grounds, and definately below the ground, with moss

[solopaddler]

Pack them in a container with worm bedding, preferably the Frabil brand or something similar that's made out of shredded newsprint. (Not the Magic worm bedding, it's just as messy as dirt)

 

Make sure they're in a large enough container and not overcrowded. I use a small cooler to store my worms in on fly in trips.

 

Keep them in the shade and as Dave said if need be drape a sopping wet towel over the container. Evaporation works.

 

Bring smaller boxes for use in the boat and only take what you need each day from the big container.

 

I've been on countless fly ins and never once have I had to refrigerate worms or keep them on ice. And that includes many trips in the middle of summer when it's boiling hot and humid.

[Big Cliff]

They love wet spent coffee grounds, and definately below the ground, with moss

X2

 

When I lived in French River we use to use sphagnum moss for transporting and storing our worms. We would often use it in our coolers to help keep our fish if we were going to be out for a few days. Ice on the bottom of the cooler, (if you have it) otherwise

rocks from the shore line (in the water) will also be nice and cool and can be used in the cooler, a layer of moss, fish, and repeat.

 

The moss is an excellent insulator and holds moisture. In the French, we knew where there were springs that use to freeze into beautiful water falls in the winter, we could often still find ice there in July and in Elliott Lake we knew where there were some old mine shafts and could often find ice in them (I am not suggesting you go into ANY old mine shafts) but we knew where there were some that held ice within a few feet of the entrance.

 

As lew said if you can bury them in a shaded spot that will help too but you have to be careful, they do need air so don't bury them in a small sealed container.

[dave524]

Just a note, you want sphagnum moss like the florists use to keep flower arrangements fresh for a long time, not the sphagnum peat moss that is available in compressed bales at garden centres, that stuff is a fine, dark brown and powdery and quite acidic, worms don't do well in it longterm.

[Tomcat]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions/recommendations. I should have included in my original post that each boat will have something similar to a Frabill Crawler Can to keep each day's crawler supply. I had thought about burying the crawler flats in a shallow pit (shaded area) covered with some moss. While I was not on last year's trip to Hebert, I heard from a few of the guys that they lost their crawlers (stored in a cooler) by day 5. I'll be taking along a large old terry cloth towel to capitalize on the evaporation technique (thanks). The other fellows in our group for this trip are from the USA and they will bringing the crawlers into Canada in bedding. Mike and Dave - I'll find out what kind of bedding we'll be getting with a view to changing it out.

Edited May 17, 2014 by Tomcat

[Big Cliff]

Just a note, you want sphagnum moss like the florists use to keep flower arrangements fresh for a long time, not the sphagnum peat moss that is available in compressed bales at garden centres, that stuff is a fine, dark brown and powdery and quite acidic, worms don't do well in it longterm.

Good point, I didn't think of that, we use to just go get our own in the bush!

[Oggie]

Take a good look at them part way through the trip. Make sure to take out any IFFY ones as one dead worm soon turns into a container of dead worms in about a day. Even in the fridge they'll go bad if there's a dead one in the container.

Dan O.

[grimsbylander]

Newspaper works great as a disposal cover to protect and cool the worms. About 6-10 layers thick, soaking wet and lay it across the top layer of dirt making sure it's tight to the container edges.