If you ask even the most inexperienced fisherman, what the best bait to use for fishing is, what do you think that their answer will be? Without really thinking about it you would automatically say a worm, am I right? Of course you would say that worms are the best (or at the very least the most popular) bait that can be used while fishing and this is with good reason. Worms, whether you are talking about earth worms, night crawlers, or red worms, have always been known as a great bait to use for catching almost all manners of freshwater fish, but the problem is that most anglers go about using worms for fishing in a manner that is less effective than it could be.
I know this fact is true because live worms have been my fishing bait of choice for more than a quarter of a century, and in that time most of the fishermen that I encounter on the water are using worms in a manner that is not as productive as it could be. The first thing to consider is that almost all most fishermen use a fishing hook that is entirely too large, size 2,4, or even larger, when they are fishing with worms as bait and then they "bait their hook" in one of two ways.
Either they hook the head of the worm and try to "thread" the body of the worm onto the shank of the hook, thus leaving 3/4 of the body of the worm dangling in the water or they just hook the body of the worm over and over again and create a little "ball of worm". While both of these methods will result in bites and caught fish from time to time, it is by no means the best or most effective way to go about using worms for fishing and usually results in a "dead worm" before anything else.
More than twenty years ago when I was introduced to fishing with live worms on the rivers and streams of Central Pennsylvania I was introduced to something called a set of gang hooks. A set of gang hooks was simply a pair of small fishing hooks that were tied onto a leader made out of light fishing line. This set up enabled worms to be hooked just once by each of the fishing hooks, which made for a much more life like presentation of the worm that was being used as bait. I quickly discovered that this set up was a great way of using worms for fishing and also enabled the worm to remain "alive" for a much longer period of time.
This fishing hook setup was more effective for a couple of reasons. First, as I just eluded to the worm that you are using as bait is being presented in an extremely natural and lifelike manner and second since the worm was being hooked only once be each of the small fishing hooks the worm tended to stay alive much longer than it does with either of the other methods of hooking a worm. Both of these reasons meant more bites from hungry fish.
The bottom line is that while using live worms for fishing certainly couldn't be compared to quantum physics, there are certain little things that can be done that will make the fishing experience much more enjoyable and productive and using a set of gang hooks for rigging your fishing worms is no doubt one of those things.
Trevor Kugler is co-founder of JRWfishing a website focused on river and stream fishing with a focus on fishing for trout. He has more than 25 years experience fishing for all types of fish, and has spent much of that time fishing in small rivers and streams.
Extremely Effective Worm Rigs - http://www.jrwfishing.com/gang_hooks.asp
Article Source: @Trevor_Kugler