Hooking worms

[mikench]

I suspect over the years the question of how to fish with worms has been featured a lot. I have never had much success anywhere or with any species and regularly try them. I either put a whole dendrobaena on the hook or pieces. I have hair rigged them and even tried a bait band. I do get bites but they are probably small fish plucking at the worm. If I strike there is nothing there but the worm has reduced in size. Gradually the worm is eaten away until what's left is too small for the hook. I have clumped a few together but still no joy.

Are they best used with a feeder or on the float and how should they be hooked?

 

[tommos16]

Mike, I have the same issue. Commenting so I get the notifications. I had one on the maggot feeder yesterday and every bite was worm gone, no fish. With maggots the hook up is nearly 100%. Thats when it’s effectively a bolt rig. I always see them being heralded as great baits and no doubt they are, but unless I’m fishing for Perch on the dropshot my hookup rate is 0%


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[bullet]

I generally leger them, as find that better than fishing them on the float.I'm talking whole big lobs here, and river fishing.
Most reccomend hooking them through the saddle, but i prefer to nick them through the head on something like a size 8.
I've had pretty much everything that swims on them one time or another.
On a canal I used to fish, smaller worms could be very good for the Tench, fished over a bit of groundbait and maggots.
I would love to do that again, but unfortunately they have decided to make the canal more ' inclusive' for the general public, which equals boats all the time when there were none, removing virtually all the lillies, and bucket fulls of dog shite in every swim....not to mention the cyclists!

 

[chevin4]

Nowadays I tend to use sections of lob worm ie head and/or tail on a hair using a quick stock either (Drennan or Korum) to keep the sections in position I put a bit of rig form either side of the sections. The rig is either a paternoster or helicopter rig. I have found the helicopter works well on a short hook length with the bait popped up.

 

[Paste paul]

If I use worm for bream fishing on the feeder I like to use small worms and sometimes a cocktail with maggots.......you usually need to sit on your hands and wait while the tip pulls round if you strike at knocks on the tip there will be nothing there.......
If carp fishing I use as big as worm as I can and I cut it in half and hook both bits on the hook at the cut end........ sometimes I use a full worm
But just nip the end of and hook it there ......
The fish attack the worm where the juices are.....
If carping worm works well with ground bait in the margins.

 

[Ray Roberts]

You can hair rig them using a small pellet band. Push a crochet type baiting needle through the worm and hook the band, stretch the band and then slide the worm onto the hair. This is handy on barbless only waters.


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[mikench]

I'll try some of those methods next time out for perch.

 

[103841]

When I’m perch fishing I will feed the swim with maggots, it does reduce slightly the interest in the worm, it also attracts a greater number of fish which in turn hopefully alerts the perch. Float fishing can be frustrating with all the little knocks so I prefer a light leger.

As for attaching the worm, I thread mine on, a method I learnt from Steve.

 

[markcw]

Worms can wriggle off barbless hooks when hook directly, A way round this is to hook a small piece of elastic band on the hook after hooking the worm. Or cut a bait band up and use a piece of that.
When I have put a worm on the hook I always snip the top of the worm at the hook, this allows flavour to leak out and the fish in theory will go for Hooked end of worm and not tail end.
If I fish chopped worm and caster, I chop the casters up with the worms, and will change from worm to caster on hook now and the to keep the fish coming.

 

[mikench]

I might give the Dyson rig a go; I could clean up.

 

[Paste paul]

You can hair rig them using a small pellet band. Push a crochet type baiting needle through the worm and hook the band, stretch the band and then slide the worm onto the hair. This is handy on barbless only waters.


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Good idea ?
You can also use a quick stop on an hair ...... just push the quick stop through the worm....
It is a bit grizzly though

 

[David Rogers 3]

I usually hook big worms at both ends, which might reduce the visual attraction a bit, but does help to reduce the number of screaming, un-hittable runs caused by small perch grabbing the end of the worm and attempting to get as far away from their shoal mates as possible. I also find that fishing 2-4 small worms in a Medusa-like bunch helps.

 

[Richox12]

I've never had a big problem using worms on float or feeder. Both work really, really well. My first gambit is to break a worm in half then hook the broken end by putting the hook point in first and then threading some of the worm around the bend and up the shank. Then pass the point back out of the side of the worm. Then I take it from there. If i'm getting really annoying 'bites' it's usually small perch which cannot get the worm in their mouths. They keep 'bobbing' the float (hence Perch Bobbers) but don't take it under, or they just move the float across the surface or you just strike at thin air - even after counting and waiting 3, 4, 5 seconds. If that happens I just change to a small piece (10mm - 15mm) on an 18 and that catches the culprits. Once they're out of the way you can go back to the bigger pieces and be left alone for a while.

You just need to keep ringing the changes. Don't forget that as far as perch are concerned they are hunters and hunt by sight. Move the bait, make something happen. Fishing off bottom - or with a very slowly falling bait fished at depth/over-depth - is often much better than nailing the bait to the deck. Even fishing for bream & skimmers lifting the bait and slowly dropping it works very well. A seemingly dead swim can actually 'come alive'.

 

[mikench]

Worms definately merit further attempts. Snipping off ends to create smells is a good idea and not one I’ve purposely tried.

 

[103841]

Worms definately merit further attempts. Snipping off ends to create smells is a good idea and not one I’ve purposely tried.

cut them in half and double your bait quota!

 

[Keith M]

There used to be a big mound of horse manure that had rotted down in the field behind our estate lake which was full of lively redworms, and before a match I would spend just five minutes filling a tub with them; which the Tench and Crucian actually loved.

But as the mound rotted down further there started to be more and more brandlings amongst the redworms until they were nearly all brandlings which I don’t rate as a bait at all. The yellow bands on a brandling I’m told are very bitter to the taste and the fish don’t like them very much at all, except for the very small fish.

But for a good six months the redworms won me several day and night matches. Redworms are slightly smaller than brandlings and dedrobenas and are vivid red and very lively and small enough to hook on a size 16 up to a size 10 hook or thereabouts.

Plus the Tench in our estate lake absolutely love them. Out of all of the worms we used on the lake the Redworms were the most consistent.

Keith