I've seen this done successfully in the Ozark mountains of Arkansas. The way it was done was to saw off a small tree about 2 inches in diameter with a hand saw

I've seen this done successfully in the Ozark mountains of Arkansas. The way it was done was to saw off a small tree about 2 inches in diameter with a hand saw to leave a stump about a foot high. Pretty sure it was a dogwood or maybe a maple, though the type of tree probably isn't important. Then saw into the top of the stump. The ground was fairly damp at the time. Worms were coming out of the ground all over the place, probably a hundred or so. This was probably 40 years ago though, so my memory is pretty sketchy, maybe it only seemed like a hundred to 10 year old me. Plenty of worms though, more than enough for a day of fishing.