Where do you get the best worms?

Big red barn - not so red anymore - picture from Sue McConaghy

One of the best things about living on the creek was there was always a place and time to fish.  We could go about 400 yards and be at our favorite fishing hole on Beaver Creek.  This particular place was wide enough you could not throw a lure all the way across the creek, as if that is what we fished with back then.  It was located right where the creek turned back east and it was deep enough that I never stood on the bottom and in fact never swam there either.  It was our fishing hole.  We could catch bass, perch and catfish.  Now I know that most folks call perch, blue gills but we had more varieties than that like sun fish. Anyway we loved to fish and this was one of the best, however Soup's fishing hole was incredible but it was a lot farther to walk to and you did have to walk because there was not an easy road there.  If you don't remember Soup and Litha Wade were two of the finest from the Osage.  They use to farm across the creek across from where Neal and Sue live and close to the big red barn.

We will get back to the worms but let me tell you about Soup's fishing hole.  There are three things I remember about this hole that were significant.  One is that this is the first place I saw beavers on Beaver Creek.  Second it is the only place I fished and caught a fishing pole.  It was a funny event as Dad and Mom, Larry, Debbie and me were all fishing together late one evening when I got this tremendous fish on my pole.  I could hardly pull it in but to find only that is was an old cane pole.  The third was the time I was using a cane pole which is about the most unsophisticated fishing apparatus you can find and I hooked the largest bass I have ever caught.  I really don't know how big it was but it still seems today to be the largest bass I ever caught and I caught it on a WORM!  This should tell everyone that you don't have to spend a lot of money to have a good time and it ain't about the pole it is about the worm.

So tell me about the worms you ask.  Well, when you live on Beaver Creek in the Osage you fish with one of three things:  worms, grasshoppers or minnows and the minnows are NOT store bought.  Well we did not call our worms night crawlers they were just earth worms.  When you are looking for good worms you gotta know what you are doing.  First off there are just a few really good places to dig and yes we dug for ours not just look under something or wait for the worms to come out at night (night crawlers). The first place to dig for the really big ones is go down by the septic system and look under a rock then start digging.  This was always the best place as the worms were bigger and fatter and there were plenty unless it was too wet.  If it was too wet the worms would go down too deep or move to another place temporarily.  So in this case you would go find a shady place close to the barn and either underneath some hay or beneath a rock or board.  There you would look for worm holes and then dig.  The worms were not as big but you could always find some worms.  The last place but an excellent place was in the cattle pens underneath a rock.  This was because the worms liked all the manure and grass and hay that piled up over the years.  They especially liked under a rock next to a water tank in the cattle pens.

Now I don't know how smart you are but have you figured out that you should always look under a rock or board and the best places is close to manure (s__t)?

So what do you learn in the Osage?

•  Treasure is hidden under a rock
• The best treasure is near s__t/Manure
• The moral of the story is if there is a big pile of manure there must be a worm somewhere
• Last of all if you ever hear someone say that a person is full of BS then there are worm holes in their story

Thanks for listening,
gary@thepioneerman.com