Bloodworms & Sandworms
The Atlantic coast's premium bait worms - pricey, wriggling, faintly biting - and worth it: spring stripers, whiting, spot and flounder treat them as non-negotiable.
Dug commercially from Maine mudflats and sold by the (expensive) dozen, bloodworms and sandworms are the Atlantic's aristocrat baits - the default for spring school stripers in the bays, the answer for whiting and spot in the surf, and the flounder drifter's dressing. Yes, a bloodworm can nip you with its odd eversible jaws; yes, they're worth the price on the days they're THE bait.
What it catches
School stripers (spring bay tradition), whiting/kingfish, spot, croaker, white perch, winter and summer flounder, porgies.
Getting & keeping it
Coastal shops in season (they're money - treat them like it): refrigerated in their seaweed, dry-ish, days of life; bait-saver trick: salt leftover pieces for the next trip.
How to rig it
Pieces (2-5 cm) threaded on long-shank or bait-holder hooks, hi-lo surf rigs, fishfinder rigs for stripers; a little goes far - whole worms are for showing off.
When it shines
Spring striped bass in tidal rivers (the classic bloodworm bite), surf panfish summer-long, cold-water flounder when scent must carry.
Field tips
The nip is a venomous bite, not just a pinch - a medical case report describes it as feeling much like a bee sting, with numbness and swelling that came back a week later, though such bites are not known to be dangerously venomous - so grip behind the head; artificial blood-scented strips backstop when shops sell out; small fresh pieces out-fish big washed ones.
What wastes good bait
Gobbing a whole expensive worm where a piece fishes better, warm storage (soup), and skipping them on principle during the exact spring weeks they out-fish everything.
Bait-fishing kit
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