Herbie Donaldson picks a lot of worms to use for fishing outings, but the 5-foot night crawler he found Sunday tops them all.
"You can feed a lot of walleyes with that," said Donaldson, owner of Rutland Oil Co., in Rutland, N.D., about 55 miles southwest of Wahpeton.
Donaldson spotted the crawler during a morning walk with his dogs on a rarely used road a couple of miles northwest of Rutland. He figured he'd need a tape measurer and a witness to document the oversized worm, so he got a friend to share in the sighting.
"I do a lot of fishing, and this was just unbelievable," Donaldson said.
The worm had been run over, so after snapping a few photos, Donaldson left it on the road. But after his friend told a few buddies, one of them, Jerry Sapa, picked it up and brought the worm home.
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Donaldson said he
doesn't know what Sapa will do with the crawler, which has dried up to about 4 feet, but it might go well with the stuffed three-legged mallard duck Sapa already owns.
"He likes his odd things," Donaldson laughed.
As for Donaldson, he said the night crawlers he's used to are 7 to 8 inches long, though he's heard they get to 3 or 4 feet in other parts of the world.
"They say we have big crops this year, so I guess the crawlers might as well be big, too," he said.
