Trouble Feeling The Bite

[KentuckyDave]

What are some ways that you can work on feeling a bite particularly with plastics and jigs? 

 

Also, if you were having big time trouble being able to detect a bite would you throw anything else until you felt like you a solid grasp of what a bite feels like?

 

Thanks for the advice

[gripnrip]

Hold your line.  When fishing plasitcs and jigs cradle your reel and hold your line at the same time.  Or hold your line with your free hand/fingers.  I also line watch.  It jumps set the hook.

[Teal]

Grip was right, watch your line. Get used to watching the slack as the lure falls. Learn what it feels like and what it looks like. Alot of times you will be able to see the strike before you feel it. And when you do feel it and see it ...remember what that feels like. Train your hands with your eyes.

Something else, try fishing a jig or t rig at night... this will def tune you up to feeling a bite

[Crappiebasser]

Going to braided line with or without a leader helps a lot with contact baits too.

[WRB]

What are some ways that you can work on feeling a bite particularly with plastics and jigs? 

 

Also, if you were having big time trouble being able to detect a bite would you throw anything else until you felt like you a solid grasp of what a bite feels like?

 

Thanks for the advice

What type of tackle are you using and what presentation or technique are you using?

Rod, reel, line, type and weight of jig, style of jig or hook and worm size.

Tom

[KentuckyDave]

Thats awesome advice everyone I appreciate it....Tom I am using a Lew's reel 6:4:1 rod is 7' MH 10 lb mono line and if its a t-rig most of the time a EWG 2/0 or 3/0 hook with a 5-7.5 in worm...jig sizes will vary but most of the time I will use a football head jig in the 3/8 to 1/2 ounce range

[Comfortably Numb]

Well there is your answer. You are using mono.

 

Switch to braid or braid and a short flouro leader and you wont believe the difference. You will feel the fish breathe on the lure.

 

I personally feel holding the line is pretty old school when line and rods were inferior. A good modern graphite rod with braid or flouro should transmit taps and vibration much better to your reel

 

Someone here once mentioned to tie your line to something like a tree and stretch your line out. Have a friend tap a pen on the line. That is what many bites feel like.

[slonezp]

When using finesse presentation, I let the line rest on my index finger. Using braid or flouro really helps with the sensitivity.

[WRB]

Thats awesome advice everyone I appreciate it....Tom I am using a Lew's reel 6:4:1 rod is 7' MH 10 lb mono line and if its a t-rig most of the time a EWG 2/0 or 3/0 hook with a 5-7.5 in worm...jig sizes will vary but most of the time I will use a football head jig in the 3/8 to 1/2 ounce range

Thanks, that helps to eliminate heavy cover, flipping and pitching.

So you are more than likely casting your T-rigged worms and jigs in light or sparse cove using 10# line.

Mono line isn't a game breaker, tens of thousands of bass have been caught using mono line. Both braid and mono tend to float, whereas FC line tends to sink, sinking line reduces the belly or lose of contact on bottom bumping lures like jigs and T-rigged worms. FC line is a better choice, but not necessary.

Line watching takes practice as does line feeling, you need to know what to look for and feel.

If you keep the line tight between the rod rip and lure, the bass usually feel the tension and drops it. The key is keeping a slight mount of controlled slack. When you move the lure the line is tight, when the lure I falling through the water column the line has some slack. You can feel strike when moving the lure and it's more difficult when in the water column or sitting still on the bottom with slack line.

To control slack you need to know how the weight feels, we call this weighing the jig or worm by feeling the line with your index finger having line from the reel run over the finger. The T-rig with a 3/16 oz bullet weight with a 6" worm feels different than a 1/4 oz weight with the same worm and with practice you can tell the difference. Same thing with jigs, each weight feels different. When you are fishing and the weight feels different it is usually because a bass has the lure in it's mouth, or it's going over something and it will not be in the basses mouth very long, so set the hook, swings are free.

The classic aggressive strike is a definate tick or line moving, most strikes are slight weight changes.

I watch the V the line makes as it cuts through the water as the lure sinks. When the line stops or the line jumps before it hits bottom is a strike.

The pace or speed you move the lure along the bottom should be controlled and slow so you can feel the weight of the lure and bottom structure. If you can't feel the weight or the bottom, increase the weight of the lure, or slow down. Wind affects the feel for example and so does distance of the cast. Start out with shorter cast between 40' to 60'.

Tom

[Comfortably Numb]

_{I am visually impaired and cant see the line so fish by feel. Try to braid and you can thank me later}

[Blues19]

Grip was right, watch your line. Get used to watching the slack as the lure falls. Learn what it feels like and what it looks like. Alot of times you will be able to see the strike before you feel it. And when you do feel it and see it ...remember what that feels like. Train your hands with your eyes.

Something else, try fishing a jig or t rig at night... this will def tune you up to feeling a bite

I think the idea of fishing at night really would help. When I was first starting off, I fished at night quite a bit and I feel like it helped me alot. I feel like i grew alot as a fisherman because i fished at night. I would suggest in the summer trying some night fishing.

[SirSnookalot]

I personally feel holding the line is pretty old school when line and rods were inferior. A good modern graphite rod with braid or flouro should transmit taps and vibration much better to your reel

There are probably dozens of fisherman on just this site alone that were catching tons of bass back when the equipment was not near as good.  Old world philosophy coupled with modern technology is a big plus.

[Hyrule Bass]

pay more attention and focus on what youre doing. your equipment(line, rod, reel) isnt the problem.

[Darren.]

I'll echo the comments suggesting braid - and Red Earth's comment to focus. All great advice.

 

The more you fish, the better sense you'll get at what's happening at the terminal end of your line.

[Dwight Hottle]

I'll echo the comments suggesting braid - and Red Earth's comment to focus. All great advice.

 

The more you fish, the better sense you'll get at what's happening at the terminal end of your line.

 

 

Good advice. The learning curve with braid is shorter. PMP. Practice makes perfect.

[SudburyBasser]

One more vote for the braid. Switched to it last year in that application and my detection rate went up. If only I didn't have the reaction time of a corpse :-)

[Darren.]

One more vote for the braid. Switched to it last year in that application and my detection rate went up. If only I didn't have the reaction time of a corpse :-)

 

That last sentence is hilarious. I suppose you're talking about the corpses in The Walking Dead and not I Am Legend?

[SudburyBasser]

That last sentence is hilarious. I suppose you're talking about the corpses in The Walking Dead and not I Am Legend?

 

Most definitely The Walking Dead, ha ha.

 

When the zombie apocalypse hits I'll be like those poor zombies in the mall in Dawn of the Dead, aimlessly shuffling around...except I'll be on a lake and watching line coming off my reel with a blank look on my face. Not much different from now-a-days :-)

[Will Wetline]

The toughest bite for me to detect is when I'm swimming a tube for smallies, just moseying it along the bottom. The smallies swim up and inhale it and - eventually - I'll feel extra weight or "something different" and then set. Problem  is that by that time, the tube is in the fish's gullet and it's very difficult to remove without harming the fish.

Two ways this stubborn, old-school fisherman will be approaching this problem this year: first, I'm going to switch to fluorocarbon for it's added sensitivity  (I've been pleased with the performance of Berkley Sensation for years and years), and secondly, I'm going to change my presentation. Last year, my first full year of dropshotting, I fished the same areas with the same slow retrieve. I got as many bites if not more with the ds and more important, I can recall only one fish that was hooked deep.

Regardless of line or bottom bouncing bait for that matter, never forget the Zen master's advice to his disciple: "Attention, attention, attention!"

[livetofish28]

Definitely go with braid. Feel so many more strikes now that I use it.

[WRB]

When I began bass fishing mono line was new, we used braid (Dacron) and felt adventurous adding a mono leader, this was the '50s. Soft plastic worms had not been introduced to bass fishing, we only had hair jigs for bottom lures.

Fast forward to the late 60's , soft plastic worms are here; Creams, Mann's and Strembridge and mono line.

During the next 20 years millions of bass are caught using mono line and continues today. Bass fishing hasn't changed, the bass are the same and can be effectively caught using premium mono line.

I started using Fluorocarbon line in the early 90's, long before most bass anglers heard of FC line. Also tried super braids and combination of braid and FC leader, just like in the '50's and had knot issues with FC line.

Keep in mind I pride myself as a very good at knot tying and FC line is difficult to tie good knots consistantly.

Braid is not the panacea to feeling bass bite worms or jigs. Fishing at night is a nightmare for a new bass angler, everything is harder to do at night; cast accurately, tie knots and land bass when you do hook them.

It's a lot easier to close your eyes if you want to feel the strike. It's true bass strikes are more aggressive at night and it's a good for an experienced bass angler to sharpen skills, not a new angler.

The only time I bass fish with braid is in heavy cover presentations, never in deep clear structure lakes with light cover. If braid would improve my catch rate, I would use it, it doesn't!

Learn to watch and feel your line and you will become a better bass angler.

Tom

PS; I use and recommend FC line for both worm and jigs, knots are an issue nd FC line isn't essential to feeling strikes.