Catalpa Worms

The most deadly bait for bluegills is the awesome catalpa worm. Down South, there are lots of catalpa trees. This broad-leafed tree grows to the size of an oak and attracts moths that lay their eggs under the leaves. When the eggs hatch, larvae emerge and begin to feed on the leaves. These larvae develop into beautiful black and chartreuse, longitudinally striped caterpillars that can get six inches long and a half inch in diameter.

Rare is the bait shop that sells catalpa (pronounced cat taw' ba) worms; most of them come from private stocks. Some lucky person owns a catalpa tree that the moths happen to lay eggs on, so this person is worm-wealthy and, perhaps, will give a few to his friends.

With catalpa worms it is feast or famine. Most trees aren't blessed with worms, especially in the city; but on those blessed trees that do get visited by the moths, there are thousands of worms. These larvae are hungry devils and completely strip a full-grown tree of all its leaves. A stripped catalpa tree is a sad sight with its shredded leaf stems; it's sad because, if you only find it after it’s already stripped, the worms are all gone. What you want to do is catch the worms half or three-quarters the way through their feeding cycle, when they are still there in numbers and are really big and fat.

Fishermen who are lucky enough to get some catalpas, hoard them and keep them fresh by putting them in the refrigerator, in boxes with holes in the top. A Southern woman isn't a Southern woman until she has some worms in her refrigerator.* The women don't like it, but they tolerate it because they know better than to set up a choice between spouse and catalpa worms.

A fisherman cuts the head off a match stick and carries that in his pocket. When time to bait hook, he cuts the catalpa worm in half and uses the match stick to poke one end or the other and turn the worm inside out, exposing the yellowish-green, juicy insides. The only thing that loves catalpa worms more than the fishermen are the fish. Bluegills, crappie, and even bass go crazy over them, hence the reverence for these "worms." Hail to the awesome catalpa worm! For pictures and info on catalpa worms, see http://www.catalpaworms.com/ David Orr

* A note on the apparent sexism in this article. I used “he”, “his,” and “fishermen” in this article, even though we all know that women are perfectly capable of fishing. I’ve just never seen a woman be affected by catalpa fever or turn a catalpa worm inside out, hence the male gender references. I expect to be corrected. Oh, and I don’t REALLY think a man would choose the worms over his wife (unless maybe the bluegills are bedding in the spring.)