11-26-2003, 12:02 PM
And I thought I was an avid fisherman!! I've been hit by a couple yellow jackets and don't think I can bring myself to voluntarily get close enough to one to put one on a hook!! Have you tried any of the imitations, particularly Rebel's? Do they work? I've picked a few up but haven't tried them yet.
Going back the DrownedDeserRat's original question, with nightcrawlers, I start the hook (a baitholder that has barbs on the shank) just above the collar and run the hook through the body to load, but not pack the entire hook. The hook's main barb is then just passed back out of the body to better ensure the crawler stays on the hook. A small part of the head end and a lot of tail remains free.
When the fish are small, I pinch the crawler in half and only use a half at a time. I use the tail half first because the head end will survive -- even grow a new tail if left long enough! I start the hook right into the cutoff portion of the tail half. The head half is put on as if it were a whole crawler.
A friend of my Dad's put garden worms on his hook by starting right at the head end. He'd run the hook in a little ways, bring the hook back out and start the hook back in a little ways down the body creating a loop in the worm's body. He'd repeat this several time until the entire worm was loaded on a #8 hook. He'd end up with what could best be described as a "worm ball". He was a successful fisherman.
On the other hand, a friend of mine, who's the best stream bait fisher for trout I've seen often tells of times he was out of new bait and kept catching fish reusing the remaining parts of his last worm until there was nothing left!! I know this works because I've been in the same situation a couple times and got hits when I had less than a 1/4 inch piece of crawler hanging on a #7 hook!!
Everything I've been talking about is from stream fishing for trout. I don't know if it's the same when the fish have time to swim around and examine the bait as they would in a lake.
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Going back the DrownedDeserRat's original question, with nightcrawlers, I start the hook (a baitholder that has barbs on the shank) just above the collar and run the hook through the body to load, but not pack the entire hook. The hook's main barb is then just passed back out of the body to better ensure the crawler stays on the hook. A small part of the head end and a lot of tail remains free.
When the fish are small, I pinch the crawler in half and only use a half at a time. I use the tail half first because the head end will survive -- even grow a new tail if left long enough! I start the hook right into the cutoff portion of the tail half. The head half is put on as if it were a whole crawler.
A friend of my Dad's put garden worms on his hook by starting right at the head end. He'd run the hook in a little ways, bring the hook back out and start the hook back in a little ways down the body creating a loop in the worm's body. He'd repeat this several time until the entire worm was loaded on a #8 hook. He'd end up with what could best be described as a "worm ball". He was a successful fisherman.
On the other hand, a friend of mine, who's the best stream bait fisher for trout I've seen often tells of times he was out of new bait and kept catching fish reusing the remaining parts of his last worm until there was nothing left!! I know this works because I've been in the same situation a couple times and got hits when I had less than a 1/4 inch piece of crawler hanging on a #7 hook!!
Everything I've been talking about is from stream fishing for trout. I don't know if it's the same when the fish have time to swim around and examine the bait as they would in a lake.
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