Who among us doesn't or hasn't fished with live bait? I would venture a guess that almost anyone reading this article learned how to fish with live bait. Well, didn't really learn how to fish live bait, but caught their first fish while using live bait. And not only live bait, but more than likely worms. Am I right? Live worms have long been seen as what people use to catch fish. What's perplexing about live worms and using live worms as bait, is that the techniques that anglers use hasn't changed much since the first hook was introduced to the marketplace. Most anglers buy a container of worms, some hooks and sinkers, maybe mix in a bobber, and go fishing. When they get to the water they intend to fish, they thread a worm onto the hook or create the popular "worm ball", cast it out and wait. This is how many anglers fish live bait, and especially worms.

This is all fine and dandy when were eight years old, but there are much more effective ways to fish with live bait, and especially worms. When we're using live bait, our goal is obviously to present an offering to the fish that they would normally eat anyway. The only difference is that when we fish we have a hook in the bait to attempt to catch a fish. The bottom line is that when we fish with live bait we want it to appear as natural as possible. This can be a difficult task with a live worm.

Sure, it's easy to just thread a worm onto a size 4 hook, but how natural does it look? Not very natural at all. When fishing with live bait, especially worms, a set of gang hooks should be employed. What's a set of gang hooks? A set of gang hooks is simply two small hooks tied in tandem. This enables the angler to present a worm in an outstretched and natural manner. A set of gang hooks eliminates the need to thread a worm onto a hook or simply hooking a worm over and over again, thus creating the 'worm ball'. With a set of gang hooks, the angler simply hooks the head of the worm with the top hook, and then hooks the second hook into the body of the worm. This presentation makes the live worm look completely natural.

With practice, the angler can then cast this worm into the moving current of a river and have it bounce along the bottom as the worm travels downstream. Obviously split shot sinkers are used to keep contact with the bottom on the drift. As you can imagine, this natural presentation is deadly for fishing in moving water, and it can't be accomplished without the help of a set of gang hooks. Gang hooks are also effective for other types of live bait such as: minnows, leeches, hellgrammites, and they're even great for power bait. The bottom line is that fishing live bait is every bit the art form that flea flickers claim their technique to be, it's just that most anglers don't fish live bait properly.

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