I have an older friend who bought a starter kit to raise nightcrawlers this year, in early spring. These have turned out to be fat, thick crawlers, some reaching 4" long. He's caught a good number of bass over this summer on them. Here's his rigging methods: over deeper water, he hooks the crawler once near the front. A splitshot is placed 15' up the line. The retrieve is a slow, stitching style, moving the crawler along inches at a time. He also hooks his finger under his line as part of the retrieve. This has worked well over humps channel bends etc. The second style involves a worm blower, again hooking the crawler once, and adding a splitshot on the line. Injecting a shot of air in the crawler makes them float off the bottom, and wiggle around. Any bass that's nearby will find this hard to resist. Lastly, he tips marabou jigs with a 1/4" piece of crawler, as kind of a float and fly rig for LM bass. The floats are weighted, and made by Comal tackle. The jigs are 1/8 oz, and made with a good quality hook, sized for bass. On the bottom crawler rigs, he pinches down the hook barb slightly, which helps with unhooking a bass. His main thing with this is to set the hook quickly after any sign of a strike. Doing this helps to hook the bass in the outer part of the mouth, making for an easy unhooking job. I've heard and read all the negatives about live bait for bass. Many bass anglers would never consider using it now, but I think live bait has its own set of skills also. Fishing a minnow, a live crawfish, or in this case, a big nightcrawler has accounted for scores of bass over the years, and some big ones too. Nightcrawlers( especially raising them yourself) are inexpensive, and, for fisherman who can't afford many lures, can be a good way to go. I fish with lures 99% of the time. But after seeing the results my friends had with his live bait, I may take to stitching a big crawler along the bottom myself, especially on the tough days. Live bait isn't just for beginners, and, it could be one more thing to add to your skills, and help you catch more bass. At the end of the day, that's our ultimate goal.
