Strikes During The Fall (Of The Lure)

[Shewillbemine]

I've often read about bass taking lures on the fall (esp. Senkos and jigs).

I've never personally had a bass do this or at least never detected it.

1. What are the most common ways to detect a strike on the initial fall?

2. Do you reel in the line to lock the spool release button once the lure hits the water surface? I often see fishermen do this. Is this the equivalent of "letting it fall on a slack line"?

3. How should my pole be positioned in anticipation of detecting the bite on the fall?

Thanks for any help.

[Bluebasser86]

Watch your line as your bait is sinking. If the line twitches or jumps it will usually be because a fish has inhaled the bait. Sometimes you will see your line stop sinking for a moment then it starts again, this is a fish eating your bait and then swimming off. If the water is shallow enough you can engage the spool immediately but if the water is very deep you can't engage the reel when the bait hits the water or you'll pull the bait back towards the boat on an arc as it sinks and if may never even hit bottom if it drops fast enough. If I detect a bite as my bait is sinking I'll usually engage the reel and set the hook immediately. If I can't engage the spool I'll put my thumb on the spool so my reel doesn't backlash.

Hold your rod in a position that you can set the hook very quickly.

[Jig Man]

Since I fish jigs and plastics a lot most of my strikes come as the bait is falling. As soon as my bait hits the water or just before it hits the water I engage my reel and get my rod in the 10:00 position. When I see line move or feel a strike I set the hook immediately before it can spit out the bait.

As I am fishing the bait back to me I try to keep in touch with it as much as possible. I also try to keep the rod working from the 9 O'clock to the 12 O'clock position. That way I am always in position to set the hook.

[jhoffman]

More often than not the line will just take off to one side then you cross their eyes.

[Bass Junkie]

I make the cast and let the lure fall as vertically as possible. If the water is deeper where I'm fishing I let the reel free-spool to achieve this vertical fall without having to deal with the pendulum effect. The strike usually comes as either a "tick" on the line, or the line moving sideways. I tend to follow the line with the rod tip to keep it semi-taunt, and then reel down and set the hook when I detect a strike. Just the way I do things, but it works for me.

[wademaster1]

i let the bait sink and give it a few seconds to get to the bottom (watch the line, keep a good feel on your rod) if i don't get hit then, i'll very slowly pick my rod tip up and barely pick/drag the bait until my rod is basically straight up, after this if i don't get hit, i'll work the bait as usual back to me

[Bankbeater]

You need to find fish that will hit it the bait on the fall and try to get some practice with them. I still have a hard time telling when I get a light bite in heavy cover.

[bassguytom]

I use braid or flourocarbon line. You can feel a pick up much easier than mono. If you use these you will notice a big difference in feel and land more fish.

[CPBassFishing]

I fish a lot of wacky senkos and they nearly always hit it on the fall. The line twitches, wait a second, set the hook.

[ww2farmer]

All good advice above, just make sure you pop them when you see the line tick or anything else. I fished with a guy once who was getting bit all day long and I could tell just by watching his line he was getting bit. He was not paying any attention or didn't know any better. Missed alot of fish that day, and gut hooked more in one trip than I do all year by not knowing what was going on. Wasn't an equipment problem, as he was using my stuff, and he has been fishing for alot longer than me as well. Had it been a tournament I would have back boated him on purpose the rest of the day rather than have him miss fish or put gut hooked fish that might have died in the livewell.

[CPBassFishing]

All good advice above, just make sure you pop them when you see the line tick or anything else. I fished with a guy once who was getting bit all day long and I could tell just by watching his line he was getting bit. He was not paying any attention or didn't know any better. Missed alot of fish that day, and gut hooked more in one trip than I do all year by not knowing what was going on. Wasn't an equipment problem, as he was using my stuff, and he has been fishing for alot longer than me as well. Had it been a tournament I would have back boated him on purpose the rest of the day rather than have him miss fish or put gut hooked fish that might have died in the livewell.

set the hook at once? I use 1/0 octopus hooks and I have to wait a second after they bite or else I miss them.

[ww2farmer]

set the hook at once? I use 1/0 octopus hooks and I have to wait a second after they bite or else I miss them.

I don't use circle hooks, so IDK.......that might be different ballgame. But other wise yes, I see my line tick, go slack when it shouldn't, or start moving off I hit them. I don't wait to "feel" them out or anything like that, thats a good way to miss a fish because if they feel you first they can spit it out.

[CPBassFishing]

I don't use circle hooks, so IDK.......that might be different ballgame. But other wise yes, I see my line tick, go slack when it shouldn't, or start moving off I hit them. I don't wait to "feel" them out or anything like that, thats a good way to miss a fish because if they feel you first they can spit it out.

lol no they are not circle hooks. Just normal wacky hooks (gamakatsu weedless wacky).

[ww2farmer]

Whoops mis read on my part, I have used those hooks..........I don't anymore, way too many missed fish for me. I know what your talking about with having to wait with them. I know guys that do like them, but I don't.

[wademaster1]

Seems that when I user larger plastics that I have to give the fish time to actually take off with the bait before setting the hook at times. If not, some bass will pick up half of the bait and you'll miss the fish just because he doesn't have the hook in his mouth. Smaller plastics are different however, most of the times, they'll inhale these no matter the size of bass.

[Addicted to Smallies]

Shewillbemine, I've been fishing for many, many years and I STILL have some trouble detecting a light strike on the fall. I think this is one of the hardest things for the non-pro to master because it just takes lots and lots of time on the water.

To me, I have the best luck on the 4th or 5th cast so that I can first get a feel for what the current and depth are like and what the line "should" look like as the lure falls. Then, after I've got a feel for the water, I hit anything that seems a little bit "off" from the norm. I'm sure I've lost a lot of fish over the years, but I do OK with this method it seems. I used to just watch my line for twitches, but I know that I've lost a lot of big fish that may have sucked it in but didn't move off with it, so now I hit anything that feels different -- like they say, hook sets are free, and no one will make fun of you (too much) for setting on a phantom fish. I also switched to a high-viz line (PowerPro yellow) and that helps some, too. The slightest twitch is easier to see.

I also agree with the Circle Hook comments. I use circle hooks on my Senkos and other worm-like plastics when I wacky rig, and I've had many fish "hook themselves" where I would have missed them if I'd had to make a hard hook set with a traditional worm hook or jig. The problem of "waiting" with Circle Hooks is a real one for me too, but when I'm expecting a fish to hit on the fall (deep water, suspended fish, etc.) then I find that I manage to hook more than I lose when using a circle hook. I still prefer a worm hook, but circle hooks do have their place, and one of those places is when you are having trouble detecting a strike, IMHO.

Just my two cents -- hope this is helpful. I know it's a little different than what other folks say, but so far it's worked OK for me and has helped me to better handle the on-the-fall strikes.

[wnybassman]

I think once you learn to detect those strike on the fall, you'll realize you're missing about 80% of the strikes you get.

[CPBassFishing]

All good advice above, just make sure you pop them when you see the line tick or anything else. I fished with a guy once who was getting bit all day long and I could tell just by watching his line he was getting bit. He was not paying any attention or didn't know any better. Missed alot of fish that day, and gut hooked more in one trip than I do all year by not knowing what was going on. Wasn't an equipment problem, as he was using my stuff, and he has been fishing for alot longer than me as well. Had it been a tournament I would have back boated him on purpose the rest of the day rather than have him miss fish or put gut hooked fish that might have died in the livewell.

what hooks do you use?

[Addicted to Smallies]

I think once you learn to detect those strike on the fall, you'll realize you're missing about 80% of the strikes you get.

Agree 100%! I hate to think about all of the strikes I've missed before I started working on this part of my fishing game. I bet a lot of those "no bite Saturdays" would have been more like "3-4 fish Saturdays" if I'd known what I was doing.

[retiredbosn]

I'm a line watching addict, I've learned that no matter how light the hit the line reacts, whether it move slightly or just vibrates. Reel out the slack and set the hook. Hoooksets are free, so I'll set it, though sometimes its my bait hitting cover on the way down, I may look silly setting the hook on nothing but more times that not its a fish.

[retiredbosn]

. Wasn't an equipment problem, as he was using my stuff, and he has been fishing for alot longer than me as well.

That's funny right there

[tanner]

This may seem kind of "noobish" but another thing you can do is once the bait hits the water put your finger actually on the line and pull it up just ever so slightly. shouldnt even move the line, just put pressure on it. you can feel very light taps this way. As previously posted "Jerks are free, may as well get one"

[WRB]

I have no idea what happen to the post I made on this topic?

Bass are sight feeders and have eyes near the top of their head to take advantage of prey on or near the surface or in front or above them, they don't see what is underneath or behind them. The basses other primary sense is detecting water vibrations via their well developed lateral line. The combination of sight and vibration detection (underwater sound) gives the bass an advantage over their prey.

When a bass is in shallow water, water less than 8' deep, bass tend to be within a foot or so off the bottom, so almost everything they eat is in front or above them. When your lure hits the water within 20' they know it is there via the lateral line or sight or both. If the lure is falling down through the water column and they have enough time to react and are active feeding, they may strike the lure. 3' of water isn't very deep, so the faster the lure falls, the less time a bass has to react. In shallow water you want lures to fall slower to give bass time to react. If the lure hits the bottom before the bass can react, the only option for the bass is to swim over to the lure and strike it on or near the bottom. Bass are not normally bottom feeders due to they way the eat prey; bass engulf prey by vacuuming in the criter, then closing the mouth and crunching to kill it. The heavier the weight, the more difficult it is for the bass to engulf a lure off the bottom.

To effectively detect strikes with a jig, you must concentrate on what is going on; you must watch the line where it enters the water and feel the line to detect any strikes. Very few bass anglers are good jig fisherman because they rely on the bass to hit a jig so hard the line movement pulls on the rod tip, these strikes are rare.

If you are not detecting strikes on the fall, you are missing a lot of strikes or fishing lures to heavy for the depth of water.

Tom

[ww2farmer]

what hooks do you use?

Check your PM, I would rather not say, I do feel it's still one of my "dirty little secrets" LOL

This may seem kind of "noobish" but another thing you can do is once the bait hits the water put your finger actually on the line and pull it up just ever so slightly. shouldnt even move the line, just put pressure on it. you can feel very light taps this way. As previously posted "Jerks are free, may as well get one"

Not "noobish" at all, I do it often. Especially if the winds blowing.

[slonezp]

The strikes that take me longest to detect are when the bass grabs the bait on the fall and swims towards the boat. There is an akward pause in my brains communication with my hookset. Solution...If it doesn't seem right, reel in the slack and set the hook. Otherwise, was others have said, watch your line and feel your line.

WRB

Very few bass anglers are good jig fisherman because they rely on the bass to hit a jig so hard the line movement pulls on the rod tip, these strikes are rare

Do you really believe this to be true? I think alot has to do with brand of jig. Some jigs have a higher hookup % than others. With the right rod line and jig, there is NO reason one cannot detect a jig bite no matter how light it is.