Catalpa worms

My extended family had some property on the Mermentau River and they had some Catalpa trees on their property off of the river in a swamp. As a kid fishing on the river, these worms were MONEY! Seriously, I can remember picking a jar of these and catching fish until we had as much as we wanted to clean. As far as if they are all dead or not now....its been years since Ive been back there.

My grandparents lived on the Bogue Chitto river in Sun, and we ran the river looking for Catalpa worms all the time. She had a dozen are so trees planted in the yard that we would transplant worms to. She even had an old crock that she would put leaves and some worms in and cover it with cheese cloth and wait until they built their cocoons then put the mothes on her trees. She would freeze her worms in cornmeal until she needed them( when the grand kids came to visit). When the worms thawed out they would be black and tough as boot leather. You would have to cut the skin off the hook to rebait the trot lines.I sure miss those days.