Goldenrod Grubs for Winter / Summer Panfish

Photos follow to help focus this discussion:

This fall I've gone back to my younger years and picked a large quantity of Goldenrod galls / grubs. Searching the internet there few good articles on their collection, opening, storing, and use. Fallow farm fields and road and railroad ditch lines yielded most of my harvest.  I found that picking the galls before mid-October was a challenge as the stems are green and woody and the galls are often hidden by plant leaves. Ideal picking was the last two weeks of October when stems are dry and much of the plants leaves have fallen. By November 1st birds had pecked out many of the biggest galls. Speaking of size, I found that it does NOT pay to pick galls the size of a dime or smaller as grubs very seldom exist in them. "Smaller then a dime - Leave them behind" Pick only larger ROUND and DARK BROWN galls. Elliptical shaped / non-round or any gall other then dark brown color are almost always empty, so don't waste the effort on them.

Storing galls in 5 gallon buckets was a mistake as they mildewed and got somewhat moldy. Best storage was in paper grocery sacks and burlap bags and they could dry out better. 

Opening Galls: Various suggestions are out there about how best to open the galls to get the large BB sized grubs. I found resting ea. gall on a 2X4 plank and striking a hammer on a old kitchen knife was as fast and effective as any. See photo. Any way you open them, you are going to cut or squish several.

 I estimate the success rate of getting a usable grub from a gall is about 1 in 4, taking into account those that you damage, empty galls or small sized grubs.

Time Saver: It is easy and quickest to cut open the galls and IF the grub is NOT immediately coming out, place opened galls in a cardboard tray or similar and place at room temperature for a few days and the grubs will crawl themselves out of the opened gall for easy harvest (see photo).

Storing grubs: You may know as I recalled, and I have now again experimented with, putting the grubs in ground cornmeal, then put them in a bait container in fridge or freezer. Bottom line is you can repeatedly freeze and thaw goldenrod grubs from fridge to freezer and back again without harming them. Its reported that the grubs have glycol-like body fluids that allow them to survive these changing conditions. I try and fish FROZEN grubs as they thread and hold better on a jig hook.  Its NOT without time and effort. A paper grocery bag of galls = 1 and 1/2 times a 5 gallon pail) and takes 2-3 hours to pick in the field and another 5 hours to open them. All the while anticipation builds for the fishing fun to come with self harvested bait.

Welcome your goldenrod grub experiences.

Found a field of these yesterday and picked a small area of them.  Picked 2 dozen that didn't have any holes in them and probably at least that many did have holes in them - a good sign that they're there though.  Can't wait to start using some of these for bait.  Storing them in a prescription bottle with some corn meal has worked well for me.  I still have some left from last year.  I thawed them out for a while the other day and they started moving again (very slowly!), so I know they're still good.  I'm going to use these more often this season.  They always catch fish!

I'm starting to see all of the goldenrods blooming now.  Another 2 months or so I'll start looking for the bulbs.  One of my favorite baits to use.  They may only catch one fish per grub, but I've caught some of my biggest bluegills on them.

Man those goldenrods last a really long time!  I stored some in my freezer in a small container and in cornmeal.  I used some of them this past weekend and they just thawed out and went on the hook just fine! Caught a dozen bluegills on them when nothing else seemed to be working!

I just picked some more over the weekend, can't wait to see how many have a grub in them!  Typical is about 1 out of every 3 has one in them.  A few that I didn't pick had holes in them which is a sign that the birds got to them first.

Ha, Goldenrod & Susies! This post brings back memories! Yikes, 50+ years ago that's all we had for ice fishing. My dad and I used to pick big bags of goldenrod, dry in mesh sacks, and cut open for bait. Very tedious work, would store in cornmeal. Those little galls would always produce fish, no bait shops back then. I think the last time I saw them for sale was over 10 years ago, a bait shop in McFarland and they were $0.25 apiece! I would love to get some again, these days it's the usual good spikes from D&S. Something about a goldenrod grub that will get finecky fish to bite. My guess is no one sells them online anymore? 

Back when I spent time panfishing thru the ice, I found that those tiny grubs on a micro jig were quite attractive to gills when they were being picky and shunning typical spike/jig combos.

Actually, pretty magical at times.  When watching on camera, fish that were ignoring or even shunning a standard offering would stop, nose up, and then the game was on....

If I were a hardcore bluegill ice fisher, I would always have some with me...at least until I was satisfied I had better options.

Tried some other fields the other day and almost every one of them had grubs in them. Used some for bait today and caught 2 bluegills and a sunfish. So they're worth the time and effort in my opinion to collect them. 

Picked 50 of the bulbs yesterday after work. Opened them all up, 10 had grubs in them. It's a lot of work but well worth the time, in my opinion.

That is really cool. I wish I had more time to spend on stuff like this in my life. Anytime spent outdoors doing anything for me anymore is a plus. 55-60 hour work weeks for me don't leave much spare time for me. What spare time I have is spent fishing or sleeping, and I fish ALOT. So I get what seguar is saying, get it delivered and fish. That's what I do. Plastic is fantastic for me.....dont have any time to go find live bait anymore, be it from nature or paid for.

Like seaguar said...Spend the 30 dollars stay indoors and sit in front of your computer all day with a big bowl of chips and salsa...you will feel better.

That seems to be more effort than it's worth by a wide margin. Is this something you did to get back in touch with your younger days? Because that I completely understand but for like $30 you can have a ton of bait delivered to your door. I long for simpler days also.

I picked some of these today for the first time. I opened a few of them. Found one full sized one and three tiny grubs. I picked about 100 of them, so it'll be interesting to find out how many have grubs in them. Now I know what to look for!

Easiest way to open a grub.

Use a sharp pocket knife.  Cut about 1/3 into ball, give the blade a quick twist and the ball will open to the grub.  Tap the half of the ball with the grub on it on your open hand and the grub will fall right out.

The best time to pick them is in the fall after the frost has killed the plant.  If you are bending and twisting the plant, you are too early.

I have no problems storing buckets full of the balls in the garage.  Your problem is you are picking them too early and the stems are not dry.

I carry a good sized garden clippers along with me to clip the balls off.  I have not hunted for years but when I did I always filled my pockets with the balls when I found them in the woods.

The grubs don't eat their way out of the bulbs until spring time.  Birds usually do not start using them as food until there is snow on the ground.  Prior to that, there is a lot of other protein available to them.

If you find a good patch in the woods, leave a few grubs to replininsh the quantity.

I like your comment about using frozen grubs.  Something I never thought about. 

You need a very tiny hook.  I have some 1/64 and 1/80 jigs I use.  Much easier to use a tiny jig and tail and add the golden rods if that does not work.

Wow, give you credit arctic armor. I've opened a few goldenrod galls through the years. Hard work, you really put your back into it. Kudos!

I use a diagonal pliers to open the galls.  My favorite pliers have relatively thick blades.  The thickness of the blades split the gall open nicely.  Also helps to apply the pliers with the stem of the plant, not across the stem.

A few more goldenrod photos: