My dad used to freeze Catalpa worms, but it has been too many years since he passed away and I have forgotten what he did. I have heard of blanching them and then freezing them in corn meal and have heard about freezing them in salt water. Looking for experience and suggestions from folks on here. Thanks.

I blanch them for a minute in boiling water, then drop in a sink of ice water till they are cold. After drying for a bit, spread them out on wax paper on a cookie sheet and set them in the freezer. Next morning they'll be ready to put in a ziplock bag. When fishing keep the bag iced down and take a few out and put in water to thaw. Long as they stay cold you can refreeze the bag for another day of fishing.

Good info. I don’t see nearly as many catalpa worms as I used to. Wonder why ?

Brings back a memory here.

Thanks for the thread.

i had a bait shop bak n the day...i'd take the dead menners and lay'm out, salt them...would salting the catalpa work the same???...make'm tuff and stay on the hook

Have been watching videos on different ways to preserve them. On the next batch on my trees, I will be doing the triple water bath purge, dry and vacuums seal on some. I will also try a few bags of the hot water bath then freeze on a cookie sheet and bag them along with putting a few in a bag with corn meal. I will try at least a dozen in the saltwater freeze method. I am also going to build me a live box similar to a cricket box, but it will be about 1' square. That is how my dad took live ones when we went cat fishing Caddo Lake when I was a kid. Going to go get some screen wire today if I can find some.

I think maybe I used too many in 1979. That may be why I can't find them anymore. I now have several catalpa trees here growing, but still no worms. I recall one night on the Trinity River, that is all we did, run lines constantly, till we had to clean bookoodles, fried some (I think we fried just 9), then keep pulling them in all night, until about Noon. We were tuckered out And of course ran out of worms. Mostly Blues, a few channels running from 1 to 4 pounders.

I blanch mine then freeze them in just enough water to cover then. Do they go bad in the freezer? Not for me I pulled a bag that dated 2015 on them and they caught 23 channel cat yesterday.

Ok that’s cool taterpop!