Collecting your own fresh bait has many advantages. Martin Dekker explains how to get your hands dirty by digging for two of the essential go-to baits for sea angling: ragworms and lugworms
Over the years we have seen a lot of changes in the sea angling world. It seems nearly everything has been modernised: rods, reels, leads, rigs and entire arsenals of new equipment developed over the years and which now populate our tackle boxes; not to mention boats and the equipment that we find on them! Where one person may think we are going completely mad, the other eagerly makes use of these ingenious developments. Remarkably, one of the most important aspects, the bait we use, has not really developed for the simple reason that it is either not possible, extremely difficult or simply too expensive.
Attempts have certainly been made. Think of our always “fresh” and very agile king rags from France and even Korea: A nice attempt, but not really successful. The only thing that has worked out well is breeding of the common red rags. There is a lot of fishing done with these, but in addition to the fact that we are very dependent on one grower there is one major disadvantage to these: just like with everything that is farmed – seabass, eel and trout – their smell and taste differs greatly from the wild variant.
Yes, our farmed king rags certainly catch fish, at times even very successfully; yet, the use of rags and lugworms found in nature make a very big difference. In terms of smell, taste, mobility and even colour, natural worms are a much more natural snack for most fish species. This is also the reason match anglers almost always dig their own bait: not only will they have the best bait, but they can also select the best and most beautiful lugworms and rags among them.
There have been very few developments in the field of digging bait. The only progress that has taken place is a very limited amount of bait dragging where boats in Poole Harbour use dredges with tines to catch ragworm as they drag them across the seabed. As recreational anglers, we depend on our local tackle shops. They have agreements with bait collectors, hence fresh bait is always available. Those who order in advance are almost guaranteed to get the best bait.
GETTING TOOLED UP
Just like match anglers, we can of course also dig our own sea bait. It’s actually not that difficult at all. All we need is a flat-tined fork, available at most local hardware stores, a bucket and possibly a sieve. In a relatively short time you can collect enough bait for an entire day’s fishing. Most are found towards the lower reaches of the intertidal zone, mostly from sheltered beaches where the ground consists of a mix of sand and mud. At low tide the area dries out and during high tide they are submerged. So, you
