When to Set the Hook
By: "The
Bass Coach" Roger Lee Brown
How
many times have you made a cast, reeled in your slack line, and then
all of a sudden you feel a bump, then BAM! You try to set your hook
but you miss the fish? Sound familiar? Trust me; this happens to anglers
all the time. I can’t tell you how many times this occurs, especially
while observing my 3-day students and charter clients. Most of them just
can’t figure out why they keep missing fish when they’re
getting the strikes. Don’t feel bad if this sounds like you, but
I was also an angler that did exactly the same thing for many years,
in fact I was probably the worst at pre setting a hook.
Setting the hook
to early and missing fish don’t just happen when
fishing plastics on the bottom either. How many times have you thrown
a top water lure, then all of a sudden a fish jumps on it and you JERK
THE ROD! Just to miss the fish again )-: hey, it happens all the time,
especially on the surface because it’s visual and probably the
most exciting way to fish for bass.
There are certain
times when using different baits that you want to set the hook immediately,
and then on the other side of the coin, there are certain times when
you don’t want to set the hook too quickly.
In this article I will try to help you understand a little more on the
hook setting techniques when using a variety of different baits.
Since top water fishing
is the most exciting to most anglers I will start with this type of
fishing. One of my favorite top water baits happens to be a Zara Spook.
This bait is probably (in my own opinion) one of the best “big bass” baits that has ever been made. Problem:
Unfortunately, the only problem that I use to have with this bait is
that I would make a cast, watch it hit the water, then as soon as it
hit the water, immediately a fish would jump all over the bait (before
I even had a chance to start working it) and seeing this happen I would
immediately SET THE HOOK. Wow, I can’t even try to tell how many
fish I would loose by doing this.
Remedy: Now, after
several years later and hundreds of fish missed by doing this I finally
realized what I was doing wrong. I was just too impatient and way to
quick on the draw when it came to setting the hook. I found that if
you let the fish take the bait and wait until you feel the pressure
of the fish before setting the hook you won’t loose
a fraction of the fish that you would miss otherwise. This technique
will apply to most all top water baits including; poppers, prop baits,
floating worms, jerk baits (hard and soft), and the best of all of course,
the Zara Spook. Now, there is an exception to this rule if using certain
baits such as a buzz bait, sometimes frogs (while swimming), or any action
baits that you normally would work with a steady motion you would set
the hook quickly.
Next, we will cover
the “in-between” (sub
surface, but not bottom) types of baits like the spinner bait, crank
bait, swimming plastics, and action baits.
First, let’s cover a crankbait. I have missed a good many fish
in the past while fishing a crankbait because I wanted to set the hook
to quickly (nothing wrong with that?), but what I didn’t realize
was that I wasn’t using the right tool for the application. What
I mean when mentioning the right tool is that, I was using a rod that
was to stiff, and when I would try to set the hook I would usually miss
the fish because I didn’t have enough flex in my rod causing the
bait to break loose. You have to remember that most (not all) but most
crank baits have little treble hooks, and these little treble hooks don’t
allow a lot of penetration. So after losing many fish over the years
fishing crank baits I finally thought to myself “DUH! Use a more
flexible rod” so I decided to get myself a very flexible rod for
fishing a crankbait with them little treble hooks on them (they do make
rods, especially for crank baits you know) and the problem was solved.
Spinnerbaits are
a story of their own. When fishing a spinnerbait, keep in mind that
it (normally) has only one hook, and usually the hook is a big one.
This means that when fishing with a spinnerbait and using the “Chunk and Wind” (or cast and retrieve) technique, when
you feel a fish hit the bait you need to SET THE HOOK! Quickly to penetrate
the hook into the fish for a good hook set. The best rod for this type
of application would be a medium heavy action with some backbone. When
using lighter action rods with single hook baits the stronger set the
better because the lighter actions have much more flexibility and you
need to penetrate the hook as best as you can. Now, most anglers prefer
the “Chunk & Wind” technique when using a spinner bait,
but what they don’t know is that a spinner bait can be worked at
least six different ways (very successfully) than just the “Chunk & Wind” technique.
A couple of these techniques really don’t require a very quick
set, but again that’s another story.
When swimming plastic
baits and using action baits with single hooks, again, use a stiffer
type of rod and set as soon as you feel a strike. Action baits along
with spinner baits and swimming plastics are all quick reaction bites
and you usually won’t get another chance to set
once a fish grabs it.
Let’s move
on to some of the bottom fishing baits. Plastic worms, crawls, centipedes,
just to name a few, are normally fished with single hooks either Texas
rigged, Carolina rigged, Mo-Jo rigged, Mo-Wak rigged (which happens
to be my own technique I came up with), the Drop Shot rig and the Wacky
rig. This means once again that you may want a stiffer type of rod
and a good hook set because of using the single hook. The best way
I learned to successfully set the hook using some of these baits is
to let the fish pull a little pressure on your line before setting
the hook. This technique is where most of my former students and charter
clients have had the worst time catching fish because they had the
attendancy to set very quickly as soon as they felt a bite. After teaching
them to reel in the slack and lifting the rod tip just putting enough
pressure to feel a fish, and then setting the hook, most of them have
been much more consistent and successful at catching instead of missing
the fish. One very important thing I must mention is that when lifting
your rod tip for the feel of the fish, NEVER! EVER! Tip the rod down
and back up when setting the hook. This causes a quick slack in your
line and more times than not you will loose the fish by doing that.
That’s enough for now, and I sure hope that this helps many anglers
who have the habit of doing what I used to when setting the hooks. The
right way, the wrong way, your way, which’s to say? All I know
is that it has made a big difference to me as well as many anglers who
had the same problem as me in the past, and now we’re all happy
campers!
If you feel you may wish to learn more about bass fishing with my 3-day
bass fishing school, or just want to charter a day on the water, please
feel free to call me at (518) 597-4240 or go to my website at www.basscoachfishing.com or
just drop me a email at rlbrown@capital.net. Until next time, take care & God bless! “Always”
Until
next time, take care & may God bless you “Always!”
"The Bass Coach'
- Roger Lee Brown
www.capital.net/~rlbrown