sandworm n
[. . .]
2 The larva of a crane fly n, often used as bait. scattered Missip-Ohio Valleys
1936 Plattsburg Leader (MO) 6 Mar [6]/2, Fred Williams has been looking longingly out of the window at the bank the past week. . . This usually starts each spring just eight days before the fish begin to bite on sandworms and liver. 1952 South Bend Tribune (IN) 29 June sec 3 3/6, Right now, angleworms, sandworms or grubworms are best, but in late summer switch over to catalpas and crickets if you are looking for sunfish. 1960 Herald–Press (St. Joseph MI) 26 Jan 8/8, A fairly big bait is needed to entice rainbows and the largest sandworms you can get are producing the most. 1995 MO Conservationist Aug 14, “Sand worms” and “green worms” found along river banks in sandy soil have a distinctive odor and are excellent summer baits [for channel catfish]. 2003 in 2020 DARE File—Internet cnIN, We use[d] to fish with sandworms for gills, eyes, and perch. . . They look life [sic] the white larvae that you find when you are digging in your garden, but they are brown and have whiskers on the nose. They feed only on oak leaves and can be found where oak leaves have bunched up on the edge of streams and rivers. 2011 Ibid MI, When I was a kid (1960’s) my father and I would go to slow moving creeks, stick a pitchfork in the bottom, turn it over, and pick what we called “sandworms”. . . They were a dark olive green plump worm, 1.5”-2” long, had a tough hide like a catalpa, had no legs, and we used them for panfish. . . After a lot of searching and looking at pictures . . I’ve narrowed it down to the Crane Fly . . larva. Ibid IA, There are green worms around the river banks here and there. I used to dig sand worms fairly regularly and would run into these on occasion along the Skunk River banks. 2020 DARE File—Internet cKY, Go devils (sandworms) were a favorite bait in the spring and early summer. Rummage through the gravel, rocks and leaves in a branch or small stream and you will find them.