Dendros or brandlings.

[Phil Arnott]

Dick Walker quote "The much-belauded brandling I have never found of much use for any species of fish." Still Water Angling page 152.

He wasn't right about everything however. It's possible it depends what they have been feeding on. Mine are feeding on household fruit and veg waste.

The biggest I ever found were in my local sewage works but piles of horse manure are also a prolific source. They quite like grass cuttings but if you want true redworms and gilt tails use only leaf litter.

[Duckett]

Dick Walker quote "The much-belauded brandling I have never found of much use for any species of fish." Still Water Angling page 152.

He wasn't right about everything however. It's possible it depends what they have been feeding on. Mine are feeding on household fruit and veg waste.

The biggest I ever found were in my local sewage works but piles of horse manure are also a prolific source. They quite like grass cuttings but if you want true redworms and gilt tails use only leaf litter.

Interesting thought Phil. My Dad provided brandlings as my very first fishing bait. He and my Mum’s father were keen allotment holders and maintained a manure heap, the current years fertiliser heap (only veg waste) and the previous years fertiliser heap. Dad only ever took brandlings to fish with from the fertiliser heaps. I’ve followed his example when I have access. That could explain my experiencing no difference with Dendra.

Phil

[Coral Maestro]

I generally prefer dendros especially when grayling fishing. Like Olly I'm not keen on the smelly yellow liquid that they exude when hooked. The problem I have with dendros when grayling fishing is the number of trout I catch!

[John Milford]

I must confess to some confusion concerning the different worm varieties!

It is very rare that I buy worms, usually digging any I need when deciding to use them.

Looking online it seems that 'redworms' and 'brandlings' are the same thing, according to many sources, just alternative names for Eisenia fetida? I like finding those.

The only worms I find instinctively unappealing are the little greeny-yellow ones that sometime turn up while digging common earthworms. I've just discovered the green ones are Allolobophora chlorotica - even the name sounds unappetising!

[Ian]

A pond I used to fish had a cow manure heap very nearby. I would dig a tub of brandlings from the heap and use them to fish the pond. They were deadly, and I would even say better than any other bait. The perch loved the yellow goo. Thinking about it, cow manure is in effect well chomped grass.
No matter where I used brandlings they were a great bait.
My friends parents grew tomatoes and where the excess were dumped produced the biggest brandling worms I had ever seen, three inch long and as fat as pigs. The trout couldn’t resist them. Maybe they were sweet tasting from eating the rotten tomatoes. Dendros don’t really ooze anything, at least not the ones I have used.

[Homer Simpson]

A pond I used to fish had a cow manure heap very nearby. I would dig a tub of brandlings from the heap and use them to fish the pond. They were deadly, and I would even say better than any other bait. The perch loved the yellow goo. Thinking about it, cow manure is in effect well chomped grass.
No matter where I used brandlings they were a great bait.
My friends parents grew tomatoes and where the excess were dumped produced the biggest brandling worms I had ever seen, three inch long and as fat as pigs. The trout couldn’t resist them. Maybe they were sweet tasting from eating the rotten tomatoes. Dendros don’t really ooze anything, at least not the ones I have used.

I have had the same thing after piling windfall rotten apples into my compost heap, you could scoop the worms up by the handful.

[MWithell]

Ignorant question, but...
I never heard of dendros when I was a kid. It was redworms or brandlings. Are dendros a rebranded or GM redworm, or a Chinese import, or what?

[Danesman]

Brandlings for me, I remember as a child digging into the compost heap at the bottom of my parents garden for the perfect perch bait.

[Coral Maestro]

Here's some info about Dendrobaenas:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrobaena_hortensis