When I first started bass fishing, I read an article that stated when you feel a tap on a plastic worm to wait, and let the fish swim off, taking out slack, then set the hook. This worked only part of the time. Some bass would pick up the bait, and not swim off, leaving you waiting. Others would slowly swim off, then drop the bait, again leaving you with no chance of hooking the fish. Many times I never felt a tap, but realized a fish had the bait when I lifted the rod to move the bait. Bass are too unpredictable. Some days each strike is slightly different, some with a " tap tap" feeling, others with very little feel at all. Now I never wait. If I feel anything out of the ordinary on a retrieve I set the hook. Because of this, I've set the hook into water, weeds, wood , rocks and everything else on the lake bottom, but my notes through time show an increase in fish hooked by not waiting. Strikes on soft plastics can vary from day to day, even the same day on the same lake. But that "tap " is an addicting thing. Is it as exciting as a topwater strike? I think so. You feel what you perceive as a strike, your addrenillan is up right away. Is it a good bass or a small fish? You know only when you set the hook.My own notes through the years also show another recurring thing: almost all of the better bass I've caught struck the bait with a lighter strike than smaller fish , sometimes very little feel in the strike at all. What's your preferred method for hooking bass on soft plastics? Do you strike quickly or wait? After all these years I've become addicted to the "tap". In fact, I pretty much live for it.
