About Meal Worms as Fish Bait

Meal worms are a small worm that is actually the larva of a beetle. Meal worms are ideal for fish bait because they attract a wide variety of fish, and they are simple to raise or cheap to buy. If you are going to use meal worms as bait, make sure that the fish that you are trying to catch like to eat them.

  1. Function

    • Meal worms are the larvae of beetles. When beetle eggs hatch, meal worms emerge. Left to their own devices, meal worms will eat decaying leaves and sometimes plants until they eventually metamorphose into beetles. When used for fishing bait, meal worms are attractive to fish because they are long, tender and--apparently--tasty. They also move alluringly under the water which helps get fish's attention.

    Types

    • Meal worms are often bred to be fish bait. You can get regular meal worms that are just plain old beetle larvae, but you can also buy "super" meal worms that that are twice the size of earthworms. They can be purchased live or "cooked." Cooked meal worms are steamed in the can to retain their juiciness and flavor, but they last indefinitely because they are already preserved before you purchase them.

    Benefits

    • Meal worms are great fish bait because they are a natural food for fish. Many fish appear to recognize meal worms and prefer them to lures, which often do not even look like real fish food, and to earthworms and night crawlers. Meal worms are also inexpensive and can be stored if you do not use them all at once, unlike live bait which must either be used or returned to nature.

    Time Frame

    • If you wish to raise your own meal worms to use as fish bait, you will need to be sure that you allow time for them to mature to some extent before you bait your hook with them. From the time that you start out with your meal worm eggs, It will take about a week for them to hatch. However, you will not see the larvae for an additional week. From this stage, it will take nearly ten weeks for the worms to near maturity. If you plan to just use them as bait one time, then you can "harvest" them at this point. If this is an ongoing project, however, you will need to let your first batch turn into beetles so that they can mate and lay more eggs.

    Misconceptions

    • Many people think that meal worms are a type of worm. Actually they are not a worm at all, but baby beetles. If you allow a meal worm to mature, it will become dark brown in color and develop a hard shell.

    Identification

    • You can identify meal worms by their coloring and their length. Young meal worms are the length of the diameter of a quarter or less and pale white or cream in color. As they mature, their outer skin darkens and they grow thicker and longer. Their segments are clearly visible. When they are light brown in color and appear slightly hard on the outside, they are perfect for fish bait.