Re: [Killietalk] Killietalk Digest, Vol 52, Tubifex and Blood worms

["apistomaster at excite_com" <apistomaster at excite_com>]

I used to collect real Tubifex from a local stream that meandered through a cattle feed lot. Then sold them in my old fish shop and distributed them to other shops in my region. My source dried up once the Clean Water Act and EPA began to have an effect.

In the process, I became sensitized to them. I discovered that when I dropped a container of worms that was going bad and was splashed all over my arms and hands. I developed almost instant welts, hives, where ever I was hit. The offending substance was something they contain internally and is released if broken or they die. 



I have never tried frozen Tubifex. The very idea and knowing that they would become nothing more than mush never made any sense to me even try freezing them let alone marketing them.



I have been surprised that so many people are also allergic to frozen blood worms but I think as far as fish are concerned, the worries over their safety are unwarranted. I think most fish related problems reported are related to batches that have been mishandled and allowed to be thawed and refrozen. This is different than anything intrinsically wrong with them as a fish food.

Chironomid larvae, which is what blood worms are, or their pupal stage form as much as 50% of of the diet of many wild fish, especially the slow or still water species. There is a species sized just right for every fishspecies everywhere in the world. It is a huge family of insects. 

As a fly fisherman, I tie flies that imitate them. They are the single most productive fly fished for trout in lakes of the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. What Chironomidae lack in size they make up for in numbers. I have caught hundreds of trout 20 inches and up on imitations no larger than 1/4-inch long.

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