As far as I know, you don't finger pick the bass the same as you would the guitar. I don't know too much about guitar finger picking, but on a bass you pick with the side of your finger - almost so that your finger slides off the string. When I see guitarists finger picking, their hands are directly over top of the strings and they're 'plucking' the strings. As a bassist I'd ... pulse the strings with the sides of my fingers.

(that means pointing your picking fingers towards the bridge of your bass, however ackward that may feel at first. now that i read this over it doesn't say much about maintaining your fingernails. cut em off, i say.)