lugworms

anyone know how many different types/species there are?
i reckon theres at least 3 or 4. :?

anyone know how many different types/species there are?
i reckon theres at least 3 or 4. :?

aye.. black, blow(common lug) and yellow tail...

I am pretty sure that there are only two types of lugworm. The blow lug or common lugworm that lives in a u-shaped tube is the one that has a latin name called Arenicola marina. The yellow tail as anglers call it is simply an adult version of this lug. The other species is called a black lug or Arenicola defodiens and lives up to 3 feet down in a straight tube. You can tell which is which by the cast at the top of the tube. Common lug has a large sqiuggel that you normally associate with lug and black lug has a very small usually c-shaped cast/squiggle with a visible hole where the squiggle meets the sand. Black lug (defodiens) are usually not found in the same areas as common lug. They can be found on very exposed beaches but are very far down the shore usually only uncovered at low spring tides. Because of the exposed nature of these shores its rare to see casts unless you look very hard.

Caz

There are two types only. A Black Lug or when breeding known as a yellow tail and Blow Lug.

Matchmen alike will call Black Lugs - Seweys, Yellow Tails, Wraps, Stickys and so on depending on what state they are in, .i.e gutted, fresh, stale etc.

The Black lug is straight down usually around 2feet on average and is very hard to keep fresh unless its breeding and then they seem to keep well in water for up to a week if well looked after. They secrete yellow dye as a defensive mechanism unlike their cousin the blow lug who only secrete a small amount of yellow dye which is easily removed from your hands. If you have a yellow tail (breeding black lug) then the stains are extremely hard to remove :)

From a fishing point of view the main difference that the you will notice when both types are fresh is that the blow lug will go onto the hook and remain soft and occasionally burst where as the black lug will go like a rock and branch like on the hook.

This is a good one! It's like one of those what's a storm beach/surf beach arguments. Here is my understanding of it...

There are only two types in my world common lug and black lug. :-)

The common lug live in a U shaped burrow with the cast and the hole a few inches apart and blacks which are much larger and rarer live in deep vertical burrows and usually just the cast is visible. (If you look closely you will often see a tiny little blow hole in the middle of the cast). The fact that blacks live in these vertical burrows is also the reason why they can be pumped and commons cannot.

Black lug are referred to as yellowtails when fresly dug/pumped as they secrete iodione which is difficult to get off the hands. When the yellowtails are removed from their deep burrows they try and expand and with no pressure from the sand around them any more they burst or blow. This is why they are called blow lug also. One solution anglers use is to gut these larger worms for freezing purposes and this is where the term black lug comes from. These gutted yellowtails/blacks are as robert said referred to by other names depending on the decomposition of the worm - - Seweys, Yellow Tails, Wraps, Stickys. Some people swear by 3 - 4 day old blacks (now stickies) for some species such as dabs

That's my two cents worth!

Liam

Interesting pics of a full blown yellow tail and a black. I have only ever seen that shade of yellow tail from the UK lads when the travel over to fish matches here. The left picture is typically the ones we would get.


http://www.totalseaangler.com/lugworm.html

There are a couple of Scottish sea lochs I know where you can dig king rag and black lug as big as a horse's d*** in the same stony muddy ground. These are the same black lug which normally live near the low water mark on sandy beaches, but in a completely different habitat.

we get the odd yellow tail like that robert down here but only at the extreme lw mark.also get blacks up ta 12-13 inches at times but i aint gonna be telling where dat is

as far as i know from digging , you can get yellow tails all year round , can only dig them in single digging , ie , ones with the squiggel and round hole , common lug you usually get from trench digging , you also get blow lug cant get them in numbers and they usually explode , and black lug which are much easier to get in England

The only lug i ever get are yellow tales, did them on sandy beaches in my area!!