Selling Leeches, Worms On The Internet

Selling Leeches, Worms On The Internet 33-5-8 The Jewell family has run a wholesale bait business for more than 25 years. Son Mark recently launched the Jewell Outdoors website to sell leeches and night crawlers to fishermen who order online. "We can sell them a lot cheaper online," says Jewell. How does the Jewell family trap leeches? "We take a 12-gauge sheet of aluminum that's about 3 ft. long and 2 1/2 ft. wide," explains Mark. "The next step is like making a paper air plane. First, fold the sheet in half. Then, fold one side back on top of itself, and do the same to the other side. This leaves you with three folds in the aluminum. We then put a hog ring in one end of the trap, pinching the folds together. Tie a string to the ring, and a bobber of some kind to the end of the string. The string is usually 5 to 6 ft. long. Your bait (beef liver or ground up fish carcasses) goes inside each of the folds (just a little bit). The leeches will come to the scent of the bait in the water, and stay inside the folds until the bait is gone." After the leeches are rounded up, they're cleaned and sorted into various sizes. When the orders come in, the leeches are packaged for shipment. "Leeches are packed inside a plastic bag which has enough water and oxygen for a two day shipment on SpeeDee Delivery or UPS. They will arrive inside a cooler, which is packed securely in a cardboard box. Leeches and Crawlers are kept at a comfortable temperature by placing ice bottles in the cooler. A customer's geographic location dictates which company we ship with." Mark blogs regularly on his website and encourages fishermen, and women, to share their fishing stories. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Mark Jewell, Jewell Outdoors, 29911 220th St., Long Prairie, Minn. 56347 (ph 712 790-4630; www.jewelloutdoors.com).

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