As a person who’s bait of choice when it comes to fishing is a worm (and I’m of course referring to live worms such as nightcrawlers, red worms, mini nightcrawlers, etc.) I have always found it interesting that a majority of anglers that also prefer to use worms for fishing go about rigging said worms in entirely the wrong manner. This simply shouldn’t be the case and below I will draw upon my three or so decades of experience to outline how to rig a worm for fishing so that you can use this information and start catching more fish.
The first thing to consider is what a worm looks like to you the fisherman. It is an long, thin creature that wriggles and contorts it’s body when taken out of it’s normal environment, which is a cool, dark place, often under the ground, am I right? Then why in the world do a majority of fishermen who use a worm as bait when fishing, rig said worm by wrapping it around a hook or otherwise “threading” said worm onto a hook? This makes a naturally appearing long, thin creature appear completely unnatural to the fish that are trying to be caught, which as you can imagine simply isn’t as effective as it could or should be.
I mean, sure this way of rigging a worm for fishing will result in bites and caught fish, but it also results in a ton of lost worms and missed fish because this “old” way is not the way to rig a worm for fishing. Rather than doing what was just outlined, what need to be done is the implementation of a set of gang hooks into the situation. A set of gang hooks is simply a pair of small fishing hooks (usually size # 8 or # 10 for worm fishing) that have been tied back to back on a 12-24 inch leader (often made of monofilament fishing line).
What a set of gang hooks does is give you the ability to hook the flesh of your worm one time with each of the fishing hooks, which presents your worm in an outstretched and natural manner to the fish that you are fishing for. This natural presentation, combined with a second fishing hook that isn’t visible to the fish, results in more hook sets and many less “stolen” worms when fishing. As you can imagine, this is a a good thing and a great reason why gang hooks are how to rig a worm for fishing.
The bottom line is that when it comes to rigging a worm for fishing, gang hooks need to be a part of your fishing arsenal. The sooner that they are the more success that you will experience anytime a worm is being used as bait when fishing.