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Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | I'm not sure if I shared this little tidbit of info with you guys last summer or not. But with the change in the forage base and ecosystem on Saginaw Bay, yours truly has been forced to use more crawlers on my charters.
I was never happy about doing so, being I run 8 to 10 rods on every trip. And the mess left in a white fiberglass boat after a day of crawler guts and black peat moss bedding getting smeared around, well, sucks.
So in my quest to find a technique and bedding that keeps the crawlers happy and the boat clean, I stumbled onto this formula. I simple cut some newspaper strips and put it through our home paper shredder. I then soaked the paper under the kitchen faucet, hand squeezed it out and put it into a 2 quart plastic pale. I then purchased the crawlers in 4 to 6 dozen numbers, washed them all off in a pale of water and put them into the plastic pale and shredded bedding nice and clean.
To my surprise they not only lived quit well in this shredded paper environment, but thrived and "initially" plumped up/grew bigger in it. I always keep the pale in a cooler on the boat when not in use, and in the refrigerator at home after use, so they were always kept cool. But finding and using them from the pale was both easy and clean. I did try to replace the paper shredding about every 3 weeks or so, to replenish the nutrients that simple paper contains, and to keep the crawlers happy and up to snuff.
Edited by walleye express 4/13/2006 8:27 AM
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| What your describing is pretty much exactly what is presented in the book Walleyes Love Night Crawlers.
Your right on the newspaper shred both making crawlers plump up nicely, and get a little lively. Not sure exactly what it is that causes them to get more lively, always suspected it may have something to do with the ink in the newsprint.
If you haven't read the above book, pick yourself up a copy. It's an interesting read, considering it was written a long time ago. I think it was one of those books written before it's time, and with an amazing ability to still be relevant to us anglers many years later. |
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Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | Youngster - 4/13/2006 10:34 AM
What your describing is pretty much exactly what is presented in the book Walleyes Love Night Crawlers.
Your right on the newspaper shred both making crawlers plump up nicely, and get a little lively. Not sure exactly what it is that causes them to get more lively, always suspected it may have something to do with the ink in the newsprint.
If you haven't read the above book, pick yourself up a copy. It's an interesting read, considering it was written a long time ago. I think it was one of those books written before it's time, and with an amazing ability to still be relevant to us anglers many years later.
Yup, thats a good book Youngster.
You might also look up an old book called "Walleye Wisdom" writen by some good biologists about the scientific habbits, temperature preferences in Lakes Rivers and Reservoirs, walleye vision research data, cycles and know phenomina of walleyes. Also some ancient secrets and contributions in there by some of the first old MWC tourney guys. 
Edited by walleye express 4/13/2006 5:06 PM
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Member
Posts: 104
Location: Laona, Wisconsin | The original book was called "Lunkers Love Nightcrawlers" that was written by the editors of Fishing Facts Magazine. Two other great books about nightcrawlers are:
"No Angle Left Unturned: Facts About Nightcrawlers" written by George Sroda, the Worm Czar and "The Nightcrawler Manual" written by Ray Edwards.
Books written by my late great friend, Bill Binkelman, about fishing with nightcrawlers are:
"Night Crawlers Secrets" Books 1 & 2, "Nightcrawler Magic", "Are Conditioned Crawlers Worth The Effort", "Nightcrawler Fishing 1974", "Catching Walleyes", and one about fishing with minnows, "Minnow Methods".
Another great book penned by Al & Ron Lindner & Bill Binkelman called "Catching Fish" still has methods I use to this day for walleye fishing.
I have all of the books and still read through them when I have some spare time during the winter.
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Location: Lincoln Park, Mi | Been doing that for a few years now. Works great! You can put food dye in there to color your crawlers also  Works much better than trying it with bedding. |
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Location: Westland, Mich. | i bought a flat to share with my brother and i was going to have to make a decision soon on what to do for bedding. i hate the dirt all over the boat too, so your suggestion was just in time. those critters are now fresh and clean and playful in their new environment.
thanks dan
Edited by JAKE 4/14/2006 8:52 PM
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