I realize that while fishing with a live worm is probably one of the more popular ways to fish on this planet, I also see very few people doing it properly. Most anglers do one of two things. They either use a hook that's entirely too large and attempt to "thread" a worm onto said hooks or they take the same worm and hook it over and over again, thus creating what I like to call a "worm ball". While smaller and inexperienced fish will bite such a thing, larger and more experienced fish won't. Besides, how natural do either one of the aforementioned presentations look? By natural I of courser mean, how much do either of these two methods look like what naturally appears in a fishes' environment?

The two methods mentioned above don't look in any way like what naturally appears is a fishes' environment, and that's the problem. My fishing mentor came up with a simple solution to this problem more than 20 years ago, and I want to pass it along to you. The solution to rigging a live worm is called a set of gang hooks. What is a set of gang hooks? A set of gang hooks is simply two small hooks, tied in tandem, and are the best and most natural way to rig a live worm. They are fairly simple to tie yourself or you can buy them, it makes no difference. The point is that if you fish with live worms, a set of gang hooks is the only way to rig them.

You rig the worm by hooking the head of the worm through the top hooks, then stretching the worm out and hooking the second hook into the body. That's it, rigging a live worm is that simple. When rigged this way the worm looks completely natural while in the water. Truth be told, I actually break my worms in half and use half at a time. The bottom line is that there is no better way to rig a live worm for fishing.

When you add in the use of a bait bag to carry your worms while fishing, your fishing just became a ton easier and more effective. A bait bag is simply a small bag that hangs off of your vest or belt that carry's your live fishing worms. How does this make you more effective? Simple. The more time that you can spend with your offering in the water, where the fish are, the better. Not having to fumble around for your bait gives you more time with your offering in the water, which naturally increase your odds of a hook up. Having your live worms literally hanging at your fingertips is amazingly convenient.

The bottom line is that now you know hoe to rig a live worm properly. You'll be amazed at how many more and bigger fish you catch by simply using a set of gang hooks rather that a single hook. Remember what Steven Wright said of us anglers, "There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore looking like and idiot". Eliminating the "worm ball" from your fishing arsenal will help with the looking like an idiot part of the equation, I promise you that.