# Speaking of worms and summer nights...



## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

The Haslam Account

Warm summer nights are something even young knucklehead boys like us loved. After a long, hot, summer day filled with sweaty work like playing army, digging tunnels in the field, or throwing green apples at the chickens from up in the tree hut that overhung the chicken run, a warm summer night was the final course to the seven course dinner we called summer vacation. 
The one thing that could fill a summer night, something that we did quiet often, something that required both skill and agility, something one could take pride in, actually count one's success, was catching worms. It would all start with a nod from Post(that’s what we called my dad) that we would be going fishing on Saturday and we needed some worms. We'd water the lawn and then wait until dark. Huddled around the single flashlight we would head out. Lined out, gingerly placing our feet so as not to disturb the worms, our hands would strike like lighting and then slowly, ever so slowly extract our prey and drop him in the can. Now one might think that all worms are created equal, but I am hear to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth than that. Some worms are slow and fat, some are dumb and some are smart and some, some are just plain fast. Seemed that every summer there would be one wise old boy that you simply could not catch. He would never completely leave his hole, his tail securely fastened at one end, he could react so fast and disappear so quick you'd swear he must have had radar. I remember making some of these heroes a personal challenge. I'd try every trick I knew...never shine the light directly on him, never attack from the front, sneak up barefooted, leave him until last...nothing worked...it was always the same.. zip, and he would be gone. I guess it was nature's way of preserving the species or something, all I know was that it was pretty **** annoying.
As you would expect in America, our talents must have an economic value and so we tried many summers to establish a “worm” business. Signs would go up around the neighborhood..”Worm's, 5 Cents a Doz”.. and all we had to do was sit back and rake in the profits. Some summers we actually made a few bucks but most summers after a few weeks we lost interest, the worm supply would die and we would be back to playing army and diggin' holes. But we could always count on the one big sale (sometimes two) that would put us over the top, buy us enough bubble gum and pudding for a month of Saturday morning cartoons and ultimately convince us that the worm business was in fact good. I refer to the Joe Haslam sale. Joe Haslam worked with Post at Kennicott Copper Co. and was a great fisherman with worms. Joe would actually “order” his worms in advance. Dozens and dozen of them. His order could reach as high as 20 dozen worms at a time. In todays world I guess we would call it the “Haslam account”. So valued, so needed, so anticipated that without it I can scarcely imagine our summer being complete without it. This account was so big it needed a broker to complete the deal. Post would bring in the order...”Joe needs 10 dozen for this weekend” ...we would smile and rub our hands, hardly believing anyone would need 10 dozen worms. 10 dozen worms! I often pondered “what did Joe do with all those worms?” How did he know that would be enough? But alas, we would fill the order, Post would deliver the order, and Joe would pay for the order. Childhood in the 50's was great. 
I still enjoy a warm summer evening about as much as anything in life and sometimes I can still envision that speedster worm that you never could quite catch, laying stretched out full length, glistening from the evenings moisture, just laying there, right over there in my garden.


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## AF CYN (Mar 19, 2009)

I love this post. I have a good friend who was in the worm grubbin' business when he was a boy, as well. He spoke fondly of those pursuits. 

Thanks for sharing.


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## one4fishing (Jul 2, 2015)

Cool post BP. 
Growing up fishing with my dad we’d always find the kid in town selling night crawlers. Or we’d water the lawn real good the day before and “hunt for worms”. 
Later on my dad started selling worms all around the state. He’d pay us kids a nickel a dozen to count em and cup em. 
My uncle was the minnow man. We’d often go help him trap and fish for carp to be made into cut bait. 
Neither of them are in the business anymore. It’s kind of sad nowadays when you ask a clerk at a convenience store if they carry night crawlers and you get “huh?” Anyways I’ve got a lot of memories involving the acquisition of bait. Thanks for stirring them up.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Did anyone use those electric worm probes where you stuck two steel rods into the ground that were connected to a power cord and then plug it into 110 volts? 

I never did actually buy one but I did make one once. It worked pretty good, worms were popping up all over the place. They didn't live long but it worked.


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## one4fishing (Jul 2, 2015)

Critter said:


> Did anyone use those electric worm probes where you stuck two steel rods into the ground that were connected to a power cord and then plug it into 110 volts?
> 
> I never did actually buy one but I did make one once. It worked pretty good, worms were popping up all over the place. They didn't live long but it worked.


Ha ha I forgot about those. They work quite well.


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## BG1 (Feb 15, 2013)

one4fishing said:


> Cool post BP.
> Growing up fishing with my dad we'd always find the kid in town selling night crawlers. Or we'd water the lawn real good the day before and "hunt for worms".
> Later on my dad started selling worms all around the state. He'd pay us kids a nickel a dozen to count em and cup em.
> My uncle was the minnow man. We'd often go help him trap and fish for carp to be made into cut bait.
> Neither of them are in the business anymore. It's kind of sad nowadays when you ask a clerk at a convenience store if they carry night crawlers and you get "huh?" Anyways I've got a lot of memories involving the acquisition of bait. Thanks for stirring them up.


Was your uncle Verlo Ottley? Bought many worms and minnows from his pop machine at night!


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Not to get off of the worm subject but how many remember Ed's Pokey Bait up in Provo Canyon? I can still smell the anais oil

Sent from my SM-J737V using Tapatalk


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Critter said:


> Not to get off of the worm subject but how many remember Ed's Pokey Bait up in Provo Canyon? I can still smell the anais oil


Oh yea, lol.

Henry Street from Alpine used to make some Pokey bait that was the bomb at Deer Creek as well. My dad, Henry and a few others were fishing DC together down by the dam when old Henry fell over stone dead.

As my dad tells it, they rode around in the truck for hours trying to decide who had to tell his wife... and who got to keep the remainder of his Pokey bait. LOL

Max Brown of Alpine used to have some stupendously good scent he made up for use at Strawberry. That stuff was unbelievable, but sadly he took that recipe to the grave with him. He was one of a couple guys that used to sink rotting roadkill deer in the lake in spots and fish around it. LOL

Man, I haven't thought of those guys in decades... Max told me a few other "tricks" that still work to this day. That guy was super creative when it came to fishing, and he caught BIG fish consistently.

I miss the old timers

-DallanC


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## bowgy (Oct 10, 2007)

Pretty cool memories, I had a worm business growing up, I had a lot of steady customers and even supplied the small store at Duck Creek with worms. I'm sure he had many kids doing that.

It was my first experience with business, I remember having to raise my price from 25 cents a dozen to 50 cents when the price of flashlight batteries went up. I think I was up to 75 cents a doz before I felt I was too old to do it any more. I went through a lot of batteries. Also learned to move the light slow as to not hit the worms with a direct beam or the would shoot back into the ground.

We had a couple of electric ones, the first one my grandfather made out of a pitchfork,
then my dad made one out of two WWII bayonets.

It was also my first experience learning about electricity, where you only tied one leg of the AC to the rods in the ground and if it didn't work in a few seconds you had to turn the plug in the wall over. I do remember getting a tingling from the AC when pulling on a worm too close to the rod in the ground.

Sometimes when I was short on worms with a big weekend coming up I would go to the city park or the school on the days that they were watered.


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## one4fishing (Jul 2, 2015)

BG1 said:


> Was your uncle Verlo Ottley? Bought many worms and minnows from his pop machine at night!


No but Verlo was one of the few heavy hitters in the worm biz. When my dad was short he'd buy worms from Verlo or vice versa.


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## Ifish (Aug 22, 2008)

Critter said:


> Did anyone use those electric worm probes where you stuck two steel rods into the ground that were connected to a power cord and then plug it into 110 volts?
> 
> I never did actually buy one but I did make one once. It worked pretty good, worms were popping up all over the place. They didn't live long but it worked.


My Grandpa made one, too! As a kid I thought it was his own invention and he had to be the smartest man in the world! There was nothing better than the anticipation of hunting worms so we could go fishing in the morning!


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

When I was a kid, I made one too, out of a power chord from a small appliance and two coat hangers. It kind of worked to get a few worms, but mom put an end to the experiment when her boy was getting "tingled" by his device. 


The summer nights before a fishing trip catching nightcrawlers were very fond memories of my youth.


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## pollo70 (Aug 15, 2016)

I remember catching night crawlers at night my DAD would water the lawn, with flashlights in hand waiting patiently for it to get dark we had a big tin coffee can filled have way with dirt and some shredded up newspaper that we put the night crawlers in, its rare to see night crawlers for sale signs in the neighbor hoods .


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

I saw a Dirty Jobs show once where they drove a stick into the ground and ran a file across it. It made vibrations in the ground and the worms come to the surface. Looks interesting and a "real thing" apparently.






-DallanC


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

Few of you are old enough to remember the old Utah State prison located on the corner of 1300 E 2100 S. in Salt Lake. Pre-I80, 2100 S was the only road out of town up Parleys Canyon. On any given weekend there would be several kids set up alone that great big prison wall selling night crawlers. Fisherman heading for Deer Creek and Strawberry provided brisk business.


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