Ragworm Dragging - I've never seen this before!

Hi Graeme That is a site we see right through the summer and winter here in Poole harbour, it takes place all over and is a common way of dragging for rag worm. Holes Bay is the site that you often see them doing this, and as it is many people complain about the practice that live close by holes bay, as they believe that it is making conditions bad for Sea birds and there food supply. As it is carried out on the deeper parts of the bay the only birds it might hamper are waders but only on sprig tides. The rakes used break up the surface mud which in turn catches the worms on the arms like a big fork tines, slightly rounded which slides them up to catch point you see when the rake is hit down on the board. The mud in the bay moves around with the tides and breaking it up means more worms can move in to the cleaned area over the next few tides giving them a plenty full stock of them year round. If you had the ability to dig for the worms the professional diggers would dig the area bare of worms in a few weeks, dragging for rag worm is a better way forward and the smaller rag worm stay unaffected by it. Michael from Poole.

I guess you could say that those two are "master baiters". Love the outdoor bushcrafting channel as well. Cheers.

you always make me smile Graham, your enthusiasm on all your videos is unfailing love all your videos on the TA channel

The 'hooks' are bait drags,it's a technique unique to Poole,it's the only place in the world where it's shallow enough and the mud soft for it to work. Bait dragging has been carried out in holes bay for about thirty years,the main harbour for roughly fifty. There used to be fifteen to twenty boats regularly working now there are just six, relatively static bait prices against steadily increasing costs of mooring and maintaining a boat being the main culprit for the demise.

You learn something new every day. Great video.

theyve been doing it for years. It started when boats sometimes pulled ragworm up on the anchor blades. didnt take long to adapt it to a coupla large hooks

great stuff great video please do more videos like this and sea fishing video tx keep the good work up

never seen that before great spot graham ,imagine that spot after a storm 👍

That is mental! What an effective way of collecting stacks of bait!

bait sellers tend to get half of what the tackle shops sell it for, here in Weymouth it's £15.00 a pound, those guys are earning a good living, but I've never seen Rag Worm collected that way either .. Nice one Graeme

amazing video

I have seen it being done near Hook, Southampton

to me watching this, it looks as if he is doing a modern version of the course anglers idea of collecting blood worms and joker where we used to use a broom handle and a stainless steel blade to slice the layers of mud, his version is just larger with a boat

This has been my job since 8 years old I'm 27 now , Very grateful to have a father who is a fisherman of Poole

A lot of damage worms just fall off the hook when dredging for worms. it also puts a slurry muck on top of the ground in clay silt mud, Poole harbour has a lot of sand mix in the mud so it less of a problem

That's the natural clockwise torque of the propellers right hand turning

use some for carp in late spring , all through summer, totally awesome bait, pun intended, but yeah carp seem to love it

I used to do this when I was a teenager in Poole harbour it's very hard work

Its exactly the same as scraping for bloodworm. The constant force against the blade holds the worm on...

intersting stuff for sure. I was thinking like you, where are the fish? there should be shoals in there. The other thing is, is there any point using them for bait in that area because the fish don't seem to want them. The only reason I can think of is they are very deep but it doesn't look it. Food for though. thanks