Suggested hook size for small lobworm

[sampras43]

Hi all,

I'll admit to not spending a whole lot of time using worms but want to change that. I've got a float session coming up in the next few days where there are a fare amount of tench in the water and I want to try something different to my usual, which tends to be red maggot, sweetcorn and casters. I will be bringing these but want to try worms too.

What's the smallest hook size I could get away with to use say half a lobworm?

I'm usually on a 14 or 16 for the above baits and have good success with using small pellets over the top as loose feed.

Tench in this lake go to about 10lb.

 

[David Rogers 3]

I wouldn't go below a size 10 and would prefer an 8 - smaller hooks tend to result in missed bites or the end of the worm being nipped off.

 

[sampras43]

I wouldn't go below a size 10 and would prefer an 8 - smaller hooks tend to result in missed bites or the end of the worm being nipped off.

Thanks, although this water does have carp I usually tend to target the tench and some of them are a decent size. I'm rarely on anything more than 5 or 6lb straight through.

 

[binka]

I think it depends on how you're hooking the worm, either nicking it right in the end for maximum movement or threading it up the shank and burying much of the hook with the point still clear.

If you're burying the hook you'll be able to get away with larger and I prefer wide gape patterns to keep the point clear, if you're nicking it in the end I would go smaller and possibly nick a slither of rubber on once the worm is hooked, to stop it coming off.

Hard to give an average but I would say a 12 if nicking it and anything up to a 6 if burying it, as a general guide when burying it you're looking to hide the hook but still leave the point nice and clear so choose whatever that would take depending on the size of your bait...



If you're targeting Tench I would also consider a medium sized maggot clip, hair rigged with a dozen or so 1cm pieces of chopped worm on it, something along a finer version of this...



If you really want to get the best out of worm then finely chop plenty of free offerings until they are almost pulp and feed them, Tench love to tear up the bottom for the tiny pieces and the finer they are chopped the more they will flavour the water.

You mention float fishing so don't dot the float down, leave a good inch of tip and don't strike until you get something really positive... Fish can be quite clumsy with large or larger pieces of worms and will often blow the bait back out before taking it properly, until they get a feel for the size of it.

 

[David Rogers 3]

The other thing I do if I'm experiencing fish biting off one end of the worm is to hook it at both ends. This obviously reduces the wriggle attraction, but I haven't found it affects my catch rate noticeably - and it certainly helps with the hook-up rate!

 

[binka]

The other thing I do if I'm experiencing fish biting off one end of the worm is to hook it at both ends. This obviously reduces the wriggle attraction, but I haven't found it affects my catch rate noticeably - and it certainly helps with the hook-up rate!

I do an awful lot of worm fishing but that's something I've never tried, but I quite like the idea and I must give it a try.

I usually trim down the size of the worm if I'm missing bites, or delay the strike or vary the hooking method.

One thing I forgot to mention earlier, when feeding finely chopped worm...

Mix it with riddled seed compost or mole hill soil so that you don't leave the best of the scent to drift away in the upper layers of the water... Your feed will drop like a stone and the juices that it contains will be released from the deck, where your hookbait is.

 

[Another Dave]

I do an awful lot of worm fishing but that's something I've never tried, but I quite like the idea and I must give it a try.

This is really interesting - it's never occurred to me to do this but it would be great when i'm going for chub and perch and summer tiddlers keep chewing off the end. To answer the OP, i been using size 4 for big lobs, down to an 8 for like a 5 or 6 inch worm, but that's chub/perch where even a 12oz fish has a bigger mouth than a tench.

 

[Ray Roberts]

Have you tried hair rigging lob worms? I've done this and it worked ok. You can pop them up too by injecting air into them. I use a pellet band on the hair. I pierce the worm with a baiting needle stretch the band and pull it through.

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[Another Dave]

Ray, do you use a hair stop or somehow pull the band round the worm?

 

[peterjg]

Binka, I am interested in your photo of how you hook a lobworm - with the tail pointing downwards? I thought fish (usually?) take the head end first so I have always hooked lobworms the other way round. I use worms quite a lot but am I hooking them incorrectly?

I now mainly fish for roach, have you found a best way of hooking worms for them? Thanks in advance, I have a feeling that I need to experiment more?

 

[Ray Roberts]

Ray, do you use a hair stop or somehow pull the band round the worm?

I’ve tried banding them but they wriggle out, lol.

No, I tie a pellet band to the end of the hair, then push a baiting needle through the worm’s body, then pull the band with the needle to stretch it, slide the worm off of the needle and onto the hair, the band regains it’s shape and the worm is held firmly in place, in effect the band is the hair stop. I use the same method when live-baiting for perch as you can use a barbless hook and keep the bait on.


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[binka]

Binka, I am interested in your photo of how you hook a lobworm - with the tail pointing downwards? I thought fish (usually?) take the head end first so I have always hooked lobworms the other way round. I use worms quite a lot but am I hooking them incorrectly?

I now mainly fish for roach, have you found a best way of hooking worms for them? Thanks in advance, I have a feeling that I need to experiment more?

I love using worms for Roach (and just about everything else that swims lol), the picture I posted earlier was whilst I was Perch fishing and the main aim was to have the hook sitting somewhere around the centre of the worm... I honestly don't think it matters which way it's pointing in that situation.

For Roach I tend to nick the last inch or so of the tail end and thread it around a wide gape in a similar fashion to the picture but the hook is sitting at the nicked end where the juices are coming from and is still hidden nicely, except for the point.

I'm off to do some worming later today so if I think on i'll take a few pictures of the various ways I hook them, I'm using dendras but many of them are along the lines of lobbies size wise.

 

[binka]

I don't think I'm doing anything different to most people here but I did say I'd post a couple of examples of how I hook nip ends of worms so I took these yesterday...

 

[sagalout]

I use a hair rigged quick stop. Simples.