Washington Fly Fishing Forum banner

Here is A rare treat for you

2K views 18 replies 13 participants last post by  mtskibum16 
#1 ·
Found this fishing the Hood Canal a week ago. we did not land any fish and got blown out. but after finding food sources including some sandlances and shrimps in the sand we found this. a 3ft+ polychete Worm. normally I find them at 6-12in for a normal average but this guy is massive. it was nice to find all those food items for giving the guy in the picture a lesson on SRC diet
Glasses Water Sky Goggles Vision care
 
See less See more
1
#5 ·
That's cool, gross and huge,

The other day while rocklifting with my kids at Golden Gdns saw we the tail of one at ~1", we dug dug it out thinking it would be 3-4 " and it ended up ~12" but nothing like the one pictured. One thing that was bit odd was I was expecting a big pair of pincers to come out of it's mouth whne handling it, while a big polychaete worm it was fairly benign in terms of this. The white/silver and especially king ragworms as I knew them in my bait fishing days in the UK were a real challenge trying to feed/rope onto your hook. Unsurprisingly they didn't like it at all and would have these pretty big jaws that would shoot out of the mouth (an eversible proboscis) and try to pinch your fingers trying to stuff their head over the hook or down the shank; the king bites could hurt a bit.

Dave
 
#6 ·
That's cool, gross and huge,

The other day while rocklifting with my kids at Golden Gdns saw we the tail of one at ~1", we dug dug it out thinking it would be 3-4 " and it ended up ~12" but nothing like the one pictured. One thing that was bit odd was I was expecting a big pair of pincers to come out of it's mouth whne handling it, while a big polychaete worm it was fairly benign in terms of this. The white/silver and especially king ragworms as I knew them in my bait fishing days in the UK were a real challenge trying to feed/rope onto your hook. Unsurprisingly they didn't like it at all and would have these pretty big jaws that would shoot out of the mouth (an eversible proboscis) and try to pinch your fingers trying to stuff their head over the hook or down the shank; the king bites could hurt a bit.

Dave
as far as the polychetes mouth they shoot out almost like a leach and a round mouth. from what I have seen.
 
#8 ·
Definitely a worm of some kind but is it a polychaete? The usual descripition of a polychaete worm includes a pair of parapodia (fleshy lateral projections at each segment) each parapodium equipped with several setae (bristles, hence the common name bristle worm). Here's a picture of an 18-inch polychaete from the beach at Indian Island.
Plant Tree Wood Automotive exterior Recreation
 
#11 ·
Definitely a worm of some kind but is it a polychaete? The usual descripition of a polychaete worm includes a pair of parapodia (fleshy lateral projections at each segment) each parapodium equipped with several setae (bristles, hence the common name bristle worm). Here's a picture of an 18-inch polychaete from the beach at Indian Island. View attachment 26582
that looks like a polychete. the sides give it away hay it looks like it has a lot of little hands that it uses to move fast in the water.
 
#9 ·
Cool "worm"!

As I recall there are literally several hundred (400 to 500) of the so-called "ribbon" worms found on marine beaches world wide. While most of those species are of the size that we typically associate with "sand worms" some species can achieve significant lengths. One such species produced an individual that was something like 175 feet long.

Have no idea which species you found.

Curt
 
#10 ·
So we should rename the San Juan worm the Hood Canal worm and use a 3foot version?

We used to catch those on ones like Preston has on surf beaches. You'd take a fish carcasses and tie a rope to it and swing it in the receding surf, like a 1/2 to 1/4 inch of water in the mid-tide zone. You'd see the worm's head pop up for an instant and then sneak up to about where it would be. Upstream you'd wag a much smaller piece of bait and if you were lucky the worm would arch up out of the sand and grab the bait. You had to be super fast to grab it's head without it pulling back, and if you were lucky, you'd get one out. It's really tricky to do. They have beautiful iridescent sheens on them and very strong too...probably a great bait for Surf Perch
 
#12 ·
So we should rename the San Juan worm the Hood Canal worm and use a 3foot version?

We used to catch those on ones like Preston has on surf beaches. You'd take a fish carcasses and tie a rope to it and swing it in the receding surf, like a 1/2 to 1/4 inch of water in the mid-tide zone. You'd see the worm's head pop up for an instant and then sneak up to about where it would be. Upstream you'd wag a much smaller piece of bait and if you were lucky the worm would arch up out of the sand and grab the bait. You had to be super fast to grab it's head without it pulling back, and if you were lucky, you'd get one out. It's really tricky to do. They have beautiful iridescent sheens on them and very strong too...probably a great bait for Surf Perch
I made a few. I took a full rabbit strip and made 4. now I am going to video fishing them and see if I can catch a src. I bet you if I do the fly will be bigger lmao
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top