Rigging A Worm – How To Rig A Night Crawler For Fishing

One of the most popular baits that can be used for fishing is the night crawler. As a matter of fact anyone who goes fishing has probably used a night crawler as bait at some point in their “fishing career”. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is the fact that these worms are so readily available and easy to find in most fishing areas. In this article I will outline how to rig a night crawler for fishing so that you can catch more fish on your next fishing excursion.

When it comes to rigging a worm as bait for fishing, most anglers don’t give the process nearly enough thought and just hook their worm onto a hook over and over again and call it good. While this might be the way fishermen have been rigging a worm for decades, it doesn’t mean that it is by any means the most effective way to accomplish the task. If you want to know how to rig a night crawler for fishing you need to try “thinking like a fish” for a moment.

When a worm is hooked onto a single fishing hook over and over again, what happens? Basically a “worm ball” is created and “worm balls” certainly don’t appear at all “natural” to a fish. To make this “worm ball” appear a bit more natural many anglers leave a portion of the night crawler unhooked and hanging from the hook itself. While this method will catch fish it is by no means the most effective way of rigging a worm for fishing and doesn’t appear at all natural to the fish.

More than two decades ago I was introduced to something called a set of gang hooks, which is simply two small hooks tied back to back which enable worms to be presented as bait outstretched the way that they appear in nature. There is no question that gang hooks are the way of rigging a worm for fishing. When I was introduced to these hooks some twenty years ago, we used them for fishing in rivers but I have since learned that they are effective in almost any situation where night crawlers (or other live worms) are being used as bait.

When rigging a night crawler for fishing while using gang hooks it’s important that the worm itself is pinched in half before being rigged onto the hooks (especially when using small gang hooks such as size #10). By doing this it makes for a much more natural presentation, leaving only a small portion of the worm “hanging” from the end of the second hook for finicky fish to “steal”. Doing this is also nice because it effectively doubles the amount of bait that you have to use on a given fishing trip.

Gang hooks are tied on a piece of fishing line known as a “leader” and are attached to your fishing line by using a barrel swivel that is equal to the pound test of the fishing line that is being used. A barrel swivel as the “union” between the two pieces of fishing line is not only stronger than a knot, but the swivel prevents your line from becoming twisted as well. The bottom line is that rigging a worm is quite simple, and if gang hooks are employed, quite effective as well. There is no doubt that gang hooks are how to rig a night crawler for fishing.

Rigging A Worm For Fishing