'Worm Girl' Brings Science To Bait

Somewhere along the Maine coast, a man trudges through thick mud as the tide forces the river to retreat toward the ocean. Slicing the mud with his tined, handheld hoe, the digger’s eyes scan the scene beneath him for his squiggling adversary — Glycera dibranchiata, the common bloodworm. Spying one on the move, he plucks it from its hidey-hole and plops it into a holding bucket.

- Gary Reich

Millions of bloodworms are harvested each year in Maine and Canada, then wind up at tackle shops, where they’re divvied up by the dozen and sold to eager anglers as bait. However, few worms receive the loving care that Dee Tochterman, of Tochterman’s Tackle in Baltimore, gives her bloodworms. Her reputation for having some of the best worms on the East Coast has earned her the nickname “Worm Girl.”

Situated in the heart of Baltimore, Tochterman’s Tackle has been in business for 101 years. Tommy Tochterman started selling bait out of his home here in 1916, and today his son Tony and Tony’s wife, Dee, run the show. Bubbly and cheerful, Dee started working at the shop in 1993 and soon took over worm duty for Tony’s mother. She noticed almost immediately that the shop was throwing away hundreds, if not thousands, of worms.

“We were tossing out as many as half the worms we got in,” Tochterman says. “Times were too tight to throw away all that money, so we had to figure something out.”