Ear plugs work well. You need to age the mallow before you use them. You don't need much nitecrawler. I never use a hook larger than a 4. Size 6 most of the time. First slip on the mallow and then pinch off about 1/2 inch of nitecrawler and thread it lenghtwise on your hook. Often times I can catch 2-3 fish on one chunk of nitecrawler as it slides up the hook when the fish bites. I've found it doesn't matter what order you put the mallow on. If you catch a fish slide the chunk of crawler up the line and put a mallow on. Slide it back down and away you go.