Before I even get this article kicked off, not that kind of worm. I'm not speaking of some three inch long piece of rubber made in the color of a child's play toy; no I'm speaking of the kind of worm that lives in the ground. Or, as Hank Hill calls them, "The good old American worm". Do you really know how to properly fish a live worm? It's not a difficult thing to do, yet most anglers have no clue how to do it properly.
The first thing I want to cover is the fact that you want your worm to look as natural as possible. Imagine standing along a river and throwing a live worm into the water. What would it look like? How would it react? As a matter of fact give it a shot. Toss a live worm into a clear water river or lake and pay attention to how the worm reacts. In a perfect world, this is how you want the worm to look when it's hooked up to your fishing line. The bottom line is that you want your worm to look as natural as possible.
On many occasions, in my travels, I've seen anglers employing the old "worm ball". The "worm ball" is simply a worm that has been threaded onto a large hook. We've all seen this technique, and probably ever used it from time to time. Well, no more. After reading this article, you will never attempt to use a worm ball again. When you begin fishing a worm properly, that is to say naturally, you will also begin to get more bites and thus catch more fish.
In order to fish a live worm properly, you need to use small hooks, not large ones. I personally prefer size 10 hooks. I take two size 10 hooks and make a gang hook. What's a gang hook, you may be thinking? Well, a gang hook is simply two hooks tied in tandem. This way both hooks can be placed into the live worm, thus creating a very natural presentation. And with size 10 hooks, they are barely even visible to the naked eye! Don't you think this would be a bit of an advantage to the angler?
In order to fish a live worm properly, you need to use a gang hook. There're fairly easy to tie yourself, just do a search for fishing knots, and you'll be on your way. Or you can go somewhere like JRWfishing and buy some that are ready to go, the choice is yours. The important thing is that you begin using gang hooks as soon as you can. Once you begin fishing live worms the way they were intended to be fished you'll be very pleased with the results.