# Lunkers love nightcrawlers



## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

My brother bought the book of that title in the 70's. Short summary, we now use #8 aberdeen hooks hooking the crawler once though the nose when we're still fishing for smallies and walleye's. Never had a problem with hooking fish ever with that tiny hook - it looks like a perch hook...The first year using it he caught a 5 1/2 smallie in Parry Sound Canada...Anybody out there use this stretgy or how do you fish crawlers?


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## jmenchhofer (Jan 12, 2007)

I've caught a bunch of largemouth fishing ponds using a #6 or #8 aberdeen hook with a 1/16 oz. worm weight and hooking the worm through the nose, just as you said. It's pretty effective this time of year, before the weeds get going. We also used to sometimes replace the worm weight with a split shot a foot or so in front of the hook and inflate the work with a worm blower to keep it floating above the bottom. I've also caught a few creek smallies in the fall using this technique.


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## Smallmouth Crazy (Apr 4, 2006)

I used to have access to a pond in southern Ohio(family member sold the property ) but my son used to kill the LM in there on crawlers, couple years back he caught a LM 3+lbs on a crawler, he was as excited as he could be..me to for that matter


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## Blue Pike (Apr 24, 2004)

Yep, Charmer. Like your brother I bought a copy of Lunkers Love Nightcrawlers back in the 70&#8217;s.

To this day, some 30+ years later I still use the Mustad Aberdeen #3261 Bronze hooks and 4 to 6 pound test line for fishing crawlers using this system of fishing.

But what really made that $2.95 book with the jumping bass on the cover worth every penny I spent for it back in 1974. 
Chapter 19, Structure is where the fish are.
That one chapter in that $3 book got me into fishing places that I never would have fished, drop offs, weed lines, humps and bumps, points and so on. That chapter in that book sent me on a never ending quest to learn as much as possible about fishing, 

It&#8217;s been a fun ride.


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

My brother was not much of a reader back then. That book "Lunkers love Nightcrawler" may have been the first book he read for fun. Well he devoured that and many fishing magazines and before we knew it, He went to BGSU, got an accounting degree , later a masters, and it currently teaching college in S.C.. All because of a love of fishing got him to read for pleasure and knowledge...His son didn't fall far from the tree and in now at Hocking Tech majoring in wildlife mgmt.He's suppose to be working with ODNR this summer...

I'm going to dust off that book and give it a quick re-read...I had forgotten about some of the other lessons in there...


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## WPM (Jun 9, 2006)

What a great book! We loved it back in the 70's
(Some of it is a BIT over-the-top. We used to chuckle over the intro chapter where the author takes a rookie fishing - imagining what it would be like to have the expert tossing your bait over the side and snapping your knots with two fingers.)
Seriously, though, tons of good info (where would we be without structure fishing?) Have you tried _back-trolling _with nightcrawler secrets? I dusted _that_ off a couple years ago at Highlandtown and got 4 or 5 LMs in the middle of a sunny day.
Let's see, I've got a supply of walking sinkers, now where did I put that "worm blower"?
NDG


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