"You must not every Worm promiscuous use."--GAY.
The best for Spring fishing are the Marl or Meadow worms, the Gilt
Tail, the Squirrel Tail and the Brandling, are excellent in Summer. A
Lob Worm well scoured is a good bait early in the morning, either in
Spring or Summer. When you fish with the Brandling, it is a killing way
to have two on your hook, letting the head of the second Brandling hang
a little way over the tail of the first, or you may put heads and tails
together; always procure your worms, and put them to some good moss,
some time before you want them; after three or four days, by adopting
this method, they will be clean, bright and tough; a glazed earthen jar
is the best thing to keep them in, and in Summer set your jar in as
cool a place as possible; by attention in changing your moss every
fourth day, or so, you may preserve and keep your worms a long time.
Moss from heaths and waste lands, is the best you can get; always be
careful to pick from the moss all blades of grass, leaves, or dirt
adhering thereto. Put your worms into water if you want them scoured
quickly, and let them remain in it for twenty minutes or half an hour,
they come out in an exhausted state, but soon recover on being put into
good clean moss. Bole Armoniac will also scour them very speedily. As
to gum ivy and ointment put to worms to entice fish, such practises I
hold to be mere matters of fancy, and I do not deem it necessary to
give instructions in reference thereto. It is my opinion only time and
trouble thrown away, and you may depend upon this as a fact, that if
fish will not take a bright clean worm, the addition of unguents will
be found useless. As I have observed elsewhere, it is the eye and not
the sense of smell (if they have any) which guides, influences, and
directs fish in their choice of food.
You may breed worms in abundance by the aid of decayed vegetables and
leaves, mixed with marl or any kind of soil; the Brandling or Red Worm
are found in Pig's and other dung, also in Tanner's bark.