I was heading out to do some walleye fishing a while back and stopped into the local convenience store to pick up a couple dozen worms. I was slightly shocked when my worm bill came up to almost six bucks, including what I assume was a worm tax.

Doing some quick math told me my latest worm purchase worked out to just under 25 cents per worm! Man, inflation really has hit everything. I can remember as a kid paying 75 cents for a dozen nightcrawlers and we thought at the time that was highway robbery. But sometimes when you are in a hurry to go fishing and you just have to have worms, you will pay almost anything.

It used to be that we never bought worms for fishing.

My grandpa used to dig his own worms. He would go out into the back garden where, at just about any given time, he could take a shovel, turn the soil a few times, and within a few minutes he would have all kinds of worms wriggling in the dirt at the bottom of an old Folger's coffee can.

To me, as a fairly small child, it was amazing he could always pick just the right spot to dig for the worms. It never dawned on me he knew where he had been keeping the soil nice and moist to attract the future bait.

As my friends and I got older and the need for fishing worms became greater, we would go out at night and get our own nightcrawlers.

The average non-nightcrawler-needing person might be surprised to find out their lawns are full of these slithering, underground-dwelling worms. But, if they were to venture out into their yard one of these summer nights, and look with a flashlight at where the sprinkler was set earlier in the day, there is a good chance they would see dozens and dozens of nightcrawlers poking their slimy heads out of the grass.

Of course, as any nightcrawler hunter knows, you just don't wander over and start picking the worms up and putting them in a container. Nightcrawlers are stupid, but they are not that stupid.

There is an art to picking nightcrawlers.

First, you will need some form of light to help see the nightcrawlers in the black of night. Experienced nightcrawler pickers will use a headlight. Flashlights will work, but a headlight will free up both hands. Plus, if you use a flashlight, there is a tendency to use your mouth to hold the light at certain times during the night, and most of the time that need to stick the flashlight in your mouth will come right after handling the light with a freshly slimed nightcrawler hands.

After you spend an evening of picking nightcrawlers and spitting gritty nightcrawler flavored slime out of your mouth, you will remember to use a headlight.

Once you have spotted a nightcrawler you want to pick, you don't just stomp up to it and bend over and pick it up. Again, nightcrawlers don't look to be the smartest of all creatures, but they seem to have enough brain power to know the footsteps making the earth move close to them might be coming to do them harm. This puts the nightcrawlers at full alert and as you reach down to pick them up, most have an uncanny ability to shoot back into the hole from which they came, the instant before you can grab them.

Stealth, when picking nightcrawlers, is advised.

Let's say you're sneaky enough to get close to a nightcrawler. There is a need to take a second and analyze just which direction the nightcrawler is going and where it is emerging from the ground. This is important because you need to grab the worm as close to its exit/entrance hole as possible or there is a very good chance it will escape.

Even then, because of their amazing quickness, and because of their foul-tasting slime, nightcrawlers can slip through your fingers and be gone in a flash.

After some trial and error, most nightcrawler pickers will get the hang of it, and before long you can have several dozen fat, juicy nightcrawlers sitting in a container for your next fishing trip.

A word to the wise, though -- do not, I repeat, do not leave the container of nightcrawlers in the sun. And, even though you may have this uncontrollable desire to open a container of nightcrawlers that has been left sitting in the sun to see if the worms are still alive -- resist the urge. The gaggingly awful smell that will be emitted will be one you never forget.

Of course, if you do need worms for your next fishing trip, you can always go to the bait shop or a local convenience store to pick up a dozen or two. Just know they can be a little spendy -- and not near the challenge or as much fun as picking them yourself.

* Rob Phillips is a freelance outdoor writer and partner in the advertising firm of Smith, Phillips & DiPietro. He can be reached at rwphillips@spdadvertising.com.