Pkfish49

This afternoon, in Boynton Beach, Florida, I was fishing with my nephew in a small community lake targeting Largemouth Bass, when the kid landed this. What is it? I believe it is a non-native Mayan cichlid.

Everything you said makes sense. I was using 15 LB braid.

These aren't intense fights. Just small Bass falling off the hook at the bank. Now that I'm thinking about it more, this has to be crappy hooksets because the point of failure is at the end when I'm starting to lift the fish out of the water. The hook is secure enough to reel the fish in, but not secure enough to withstand the extra force of gravity at the end.

I was using a plastic worm (either a 5 inch Senko or equivalent) Wacky Rigged to this hook: Tsuyoi Weedless Wacky Hooks 4/0. I've had the same issue with normal EWG 4/0 hooks as well. Your point #3 hits home. I've only been losing the littler ones and my technique isn't magically any better when I set the hook on heavier Bass. I can try some 3/0 hooks and see how it works out.

Ty - I've already been criticized for weak hooksets. The problem is that when I try and pull up faster or harder, I usually lose the fish right away. I'll take Glen's advice and try the slack hookset.

Ty - I'm the kind of guy who won't stop putting his hand on the stove until it gets burned. My technique worked for a while, but I'm losing too many now. So far, no big deal. The one in the vid wasn't more than 1.5 pounds and I haven't lost any big ones at my feet yet. I'll have to remind myself to practice your advice next time out.

This is part of a pattern with my shore fishing. At least a few times each session, I lose a fish at the end; the part when I'm starting to lift it out of the water. Why did I lose this one? Must be either a bad hookset, bad technique, or a combination of both. I can't think of anything else I could be doing wrong. Ty https://i.imgur.com/eCwg8Hw.mp4

The Cotton Cordel wally diver is one of my favorite lures. The problem is that if I throw something with treble hooks a lot, eventually I'll get a deep hookset that I won't be able to remove without killing or harming the fish. This wasn't a problem when I was upstate New York fishing and all legal catches were going into the frying pan, but now, I'm exclusively catch and releasing Bass and am not going to take the risk. I know the local Bass are attracted by the Wally diver as I've caught a few with the lure, but stopped when I remembered some problems removing trebles in the past. I'm not too handy, but had a friend replace the trebles on my shiny mepps with single weedless hooks. He told me that the rings on the wally divers were different and he was unable to replace those trebles. If there are single hook diving crankbaits, can somebody send me a link? Ty

I spent $29.95, and as I am out of my mind, spent $11.00 for UPS 2nd day air, so I could get the hooks before next weekend.

Ty - I'm $40.95 poorer now, but if I can catch Bass in the Lili Pads, it will be well worth it.

I've now been Bass fishing in South Florida for the past six weeks and my favorite setup is a plastic worm on a #4 EWG. Works great without weeds or Lili pads, but in cover, gets snagged more often than not. I found what I was looking for on Amazon, but $11.03 for one hook seems a little pricy to me: https://www.amazon.com/VMC-WWK-0BNPP-Wacky-Weedles/dp/B00AU5TUEM Can somebody please recommend a reputable vendor with a better price? Ty

I know it's not a race and I'm not practicing to be a pro. I think my main problem is that I don't instinctively trust the hookset and think that the longer the fish is in the water, the more chance it has of jumping off the hook. I'll try and take your advice next time I hook something that isn't small.

Ty 4 the advice. Will do in the future.

#15 Braid - with that information, does this still sound OK?

This fish weighed in at 2.58 pounds. I get this sound when I reel in fish at least 2.0 pounds, but not with the smaller ones. What is this sound from? Is this the sound of my drag not set correctly? Too loose? Too tight? Is the sound normal, or do I need to adjust something with my setup? I'm not always paying enough attention, but I believe I usually have the drag set not too far away from the tightest setting. Edit - the hosting site may mute the audio be default, but you can enable it from the volume icon. https://i.imgur.com/ycXVgZB.mp4