There is only one venomous biting worm in the world, and it lives in the mud flats of the Northeast.
On a recent episode of the OTW Podcast, Andrew Burke, described his experience filming and producing videos for Brave Wilderness, a nature-based YouTube channel known for subjecting its hosts to the bites and stings of animals around the planet. One of the gnarliest stings he filmed happened up in Maine, where Brave Wilderness host Mark Vins felt the sting of the bloodworm.
Bloodworms are a very popular bait for early season stripers, winter flounder, and weakfish, as well as for croakers, spot, and kingfish in the summer. Most of the bloodworms that end up in tackle shops along the East Coast come from Maine, where the extensive mud flats and extreme tidal swings create ideal habitat for marine worms. There, fishermen like Wayne Bishko (who shares his bloodworming adventures on his YouTube Channel) wade through the mud at low tide and dig for worms using a specialized hand rake.
View this post on Instagram
If you’ve ever fished bloodworms, you’re familiar with the head (proboscis) that erupts from the front of the worm brandishing four hooked fangs (which are largely made of copper). This helps the worm dig through the muck, but is also essential to how it feeds. Bloodworms are predators, moving through the mud to prey on another familiar bait, the sandworm. Sandworms also have a fanged proboscis, but theirs has only two fangs and no venom.
The bloodworm’s venom incapacitates its prey, and, as Mark Vins found out, can deliver a nasty sting.
Fishermen using bloodworms for bait have little to fear. I handled tens of thousands of them while working at a tackle shop in my early 20s and never got nipped. By the time the worms have been packed in seaweed, refrigerated, and shipped to your local B&T, they are pretty lethargic, and don’t pose much of a threat. Even if you do get bit, the danger level is more like a bee sting than a box jellyfish. Just shake it off, get the bait on a circle hook, and serve it to some spring run stripers.
View this post on Instagram
Listen to the full podcast: