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Angling Baits: Lugworm Written by Mike Thrussell IDENTIFICATION ![]() A selection of lugworm.
LOCATION - BLOW LUG Blow lug leave a tell tale round cast with an adjacent blow hole within a few inches. The worm lives in a U shaped burrow directly below and between the cast and blow hole. These casts over a dense worm colony are an easy give away for location. Such areas uncover with every tide, including the smallest neaps. ![]() Left: Typical lugworm ground. Right: Typical lugworm casts.
COLLECTION - BLOW LUG There is a right and wrong way to trench. The wrong way is to indiscriminately dig long single fork width trenches or to dig round shaped holes. This leaves a savage scar on the mud flats and can upset other non angling estuary users. The correct method is basically the same as when digging the garden. Start by taking a fork of sand out and turning it back into the same hole upside down to reveal any worms. Work a trench across in front of you for a few feet, then go back to the original end and start a new trench directly behind the old one. In this way the flooding tide will flatten off the turned sand and over a few tides no evidence of you ever being there will exist. It pays when trenching to select the slightly lower wetter areas of sand rather than the higher and drier areas which may have plenty of casts on, but the worms here will be much deeper down. ![]() Trenching for Lugworm, one angler digs whilst the other picks.
TIDES WEATHER EFFECTS Periods of high pressure are less good for digging than low pressure systems ie, those surrounding unsettled weather patterns. The higher the air pressure, the deeper the worms go. STORAGE - BLOW LUG ![]() Left: Pack the worms as soon as they have been dug. Right: Worms ready to be wrapped in paper.
LOCATION - BLACK LUG ![]() Left: Pumping worm on the low water line. Right: A typical black lugworm cast.
COLLECTION - BLACK LUG To dig black with a spade means walking the low tide line until you spot the black cast. Place the spade about 6" in front of the cast and take out a spade of sand about 8" deep. Now take another cut directly behind the cast an d as deep as you can. The worm is usually in this second cut. Some diggers prefer to make three cuts starting further in front of the cast with a shallow cut, then another just in front and the last deep one just behind the cast to reveal the worm. Many diggers have now forsaken the spade in preference of the bait pump. This requires a similar techniques to extract the worm. Put the pump base over the cast and take a core of sand only about 6" deep out. Back down the hole and go as deep as you can with the second pump. As you lift the pump free of the hole pump out the core flat on the sand and the worm should be visible. Occasionally, and it's worth doing anyway, break open the core to reveal any hidden worms. Black do not always conform to this vertical burrow habit and in some areas, especially those where sub surface stone and pebble exists, will burrow at a slight angle causing some worms to be chopped off. ![]() Pumping sequence from left to right
TIDES WEATHER EFFECTS The air pressure effects them though, with low barometric pressure being better than persistent high pressure. Having said that, high pressure systems tend to push the tide further out than predicted and expose sand that rarely gets the opportunity to be pumped. STORAGE - BLACK LUG Try not to handle black lug with your bare fingers, it's the heat of your fingers that burns their skins and makes them explode. You'll notice that if handled with wet industrial gloves far fewer worms suffer from expansion of the body ending in their quick demise. ![]() Lugworm spread over a newspaper sheet ready for wrapping
PRESENTATION ![]() A perfect bait for winter cod. ![]() Julian Shambrook made full use of the Lug/Crab Combo bait at the 2008 British Open.
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