You have not lived until you have experienced the worm gruntin' festival held annually in Sopchoppy Florida. When I first heard about this festival I had mental images of locals on stage with a microphone grunting like a worm, (does a worm grunt?) not unlike the pig calling contests I have seen on the news. Far from it! First off, My wife had to tell me it's worm gruntin' honey, NOT worm grunting! Worm gruntin' is the art of earth worming - using tools with names such as ropping iron, wooden stob, gallon can and croaker sack. you use these tools to create a vibration by moving back and forth the rooping iron across the wooden stob - the vibration moves the little fellas from under the soil to topside for easy pickings to be used for bait.
At the festival, I found the worm gruntin' master-Gary Revell. His family has been doing this for many, many years. Gary owns a bait shop in Sopchoppy and was very excited to show me his "catch" from his recent gruntin' activities.
Gary is a very happy man and loves what he does with a passion:
I appreciated that more than anything else at the festival, how passionate Gary was to his trade and how he enjoyed telling us what he does and how he enjoys doing it. It's a family tradition. The closest thing I ever came to doing something like this up east was to dig for hours in my backyard when I was a kid and could only find those darn Rolly Polly bugs that curled up into a ball when you touched them. The bottom line of the festival was just as much about the people than the worms,good people celebrating an old art....love it!!
