Eye-Opening Observation

[Preytorien]

I was able to get out the past couple of days and fish some local ponds here by my house. Since the weather was nice and sunny, and the water was clear, I was able to see the fish quite easily with my polarized glasses. Not wanting to spook the fish, I stood back off the bank about 20 feet, which also meant I went up and incline in doing so. That resulted in my height being about 10 feet higher than the water. It was pretty neat to be able to clearly see my lure, where I was fishing......and when fish took my lure.

 

The creepy part was, when I used a T-Rigged Rage Craw, jig, or weightless fluke/senko.....I could see the fish take the lure, mouthing it a bit before it did, then ingest the lure.

 

All the while, I felt nothing.....no tick, no jerk. Nothing. I was using braid - pretty sensitive stuff. I was using a Crucial rod - definitely not junk. The only way I knew I had a fish on was seeing the lure disappear in the fish's mouth, then I could set the hook.

 

Makes me wonder in other circumstances how many times I've had a fish with my lure in its mouth, while I stood there unaware, admiring the scenery.......

[Marty]

 

Makes me wonder in other circumstances how many times I've had a fish with my lure in its mouth, while I stood there unaware, admiring the scenery.......

 

Maybe a lot, it depends. I've caught a lot of bass on soft plastics without feeling anything. The only way I knew i had something was seeing the line move off to the side, so I had to watch the line very carefully. That's not so easy since I started using green braid, but that's another story.

[Catch and Grease]

Today I was just having a conversation with the person in the boat and I was bouncing my worm of the bottom directly under the boat in like 4-5 feet if crystal clear water when a bass came up and grabbed it before my eyes... Its was awesome! I hardly ever get to actually see the bass take my lure besides topwater.

[einscodek]

Alot of times when using soft plastics the fish set the hook themselves and I barely felt it so yea I often wonder how many I miss where I never feel a thing either.

Many other times they hit and spit it so fast I barely have any time to set the hook.

[flyfisher]

I saw a show with Doug Hannon one time and as most people know, he spent as much time under the water observing bass as he did above.  Anyways, he said anglers would be shocked if they know how many fish tried to eat their lures and how many did and you never even knew it.

[Jrob78]

Braid is only sensitive when the line is tight.   If you get another opportunity, you should try it again with another line type and see if you get different results.

[Catch and Grease]

If it was a completly slack line then you will feel nothing with braid, with a semi-slack line you will still have some feel but not as much as a fluorocarbon.

If your not watching your line always try to keep your line semi-slack so you can still feel bites.

[geo g]

That's why you have to be a LINE WATCHER to get the first indication something is playing with your lure.  Feeling the bite is great and should be an attuned  sense, but before you feel it the line will jerk, jump, move off, or just vibrate a little even on a slack line.  If your not concentrating on that line, at the furthest spot it enters the water,  you will not be aware of a subtle  bite.  Use all your senses, and sight is the one that will happen first, under day light conditions.

[WRB]

It's all about be able to detect strikes or strike detection. No rod or line will make you a better bass angler until you learn to detect the slightest strikes by feeling you lures weight or line resistance change.

I have repeated this many times; try sight fishing if you think you can detect a strike using your rod. If you want to be a better bass angler feel your line between the tip of your thumb and index finger...and fish at night.

The biggest bass are the hardest to detect strikes, their massive mouth makes very slight line movements.

Tom

[Raul]

 

 

All the while, I felt nothing.....no tick, no jerk. Nothing. I was using braid - pretty sensitive stuff. I was using a Crucial rod - definitely not junk. The only way I knew I had a fish on was seeing the lure disappear in the fish's mouth, then I could set the hook.

 

Makes me wonder in other circumstances how many times I've had a fish with my lure in its mouth, while I stood there unaware, admiring the scenery.......

Surpise !!! How many times it has happened ? More than you wish never happened.

[Catt]

I'll repeat again!

Night fishing will force you to stop watching your line & force you to feel your lure.

While no one feels 100% of their bites night well increase your strike/hookup ratio.

I aint talking two or three night trips but for a year or two.of nothing but nights. Now after night fishing your day fishing will vastly improve.

I'll guarantee y'all your sense of feel, awareness, & productivity will sky rocket.

[Sam]

Is your finger always on the part of the line as it comes off the reel while fishing your bait?

Do take up as much slack as possible?

Your rod tip at 11 or 12 o'clock?

IF YOU FEEL ANYTHING DIFFERENT OR SEE THE LINE MOVE OR STOP MOVING SET THE HOOK!

A bass can pick up your bait and swim slowly away without you knowing it.

Concentrate on the feel every second your bait is in the water. You will be surprised at the number if light hits you can get and totally miss them.

[Raul]

Catt´s advice is good but you don´t need to go out at night, just close your eyes and "feel" the bait. For me it´s easy, I don´t even need to close my eyes I just take off my glasses and I can´t see squat  , I´m legally blind without them.

 

The catch is that you simply have to learn to watch the line, to feel the bait and the rate of fall of the bait, if it ain´t falling at the speed it should then something fishy is going on, hooksets are for free.

[WRB]

At night all your senses heighten because it's usually quite and you can't see well so you become more aware.

The other factor is the bass are often more active at night and less aware of our presence, it all adds up to better "feel" of what's going on underwater. You must concentrate to feel you lure without outside interference, hard to shut out the sun and daytime distractions.

Tom

[Avalonjohn44]

Watch the documentary Bigmouth, (it's on youtube). It's a bit dated, but there is one underwater segment showing a fellow fishing and the bass mouthing his lure, including cranks, and then spitting them out. The angler was shocked, having not felt a single thing. Sometimes it happened multiple times per cast. Watching that video and others, I had the same eye-opening experience you did.  Sure, line watching might help, keeping your line taut might too, but I don't think anyone (despite much boasting to the contrary...) can feel/see every single bite.

[SudburyBasser]

Avalonjohn beat me to the punch but I've seen videos of bass inhale and exhale lures so quickly that no one would have detected it and set the hook. Any amount of slack on that line and you could use spider webs and not know a bass had investigated your lure and found it wanting.

[Catch and Grease]

Watch the documentary Bigmouth, (it's on youtube). It's a bit dated, but there is one underwater segment showing a fellow fishing and the bass mouthing his lure, including cranks, and then spitting them out. The angler was shocked, having not felt a single thing. Sometimes it happened multiple times per cast. Watching that video and others, I had the same eye-opening experience you did. Sure, line watching might help, keeping your line taut might too, but I don't think anyone (despite much boasting to the contrary...) can feel/see every single bite.

For everyone that thinks bass "hook themselves" on crank baits, you need to watch this video, bass have no problem inhaling an entire crabkbait and spitting it back out.

Crankbaits still need a hookset! Sweep and reel!

[geo g]

It is ridicules to eliminate any of your senses when fishing. To think you should only fish at night is ridicules as well. Use all your senses, and during daylight fishing you will see movement in the line before you feel it. Now if you want to fish entirely at night without a moon, then close your eyes and play blind. To give up the importance to sight while fishing is just plain stupid. Using all your senses is the only thing that makes any sense at all, that includes sight, sound, feel, smell, and any other sense you may have mastered. Anything less makes absolutely NO Sense!!!!!

[Catt]

It is ridicules to eliminate any of your senses when fishing. To think you should only fish at night is ridicules as well. Use all your senses, and during daylight fishing you will see movement in the line before you feel it. Now if you want to fish entirely at night without a moon, then close your eyes and play blind. To give up the importance to sight while fishing is just plain stupid. Using all your senses is the only thing that makes any sense at all, that includes sight, sound, feel, smell, and any other sense you may have mastered. Anything less makes absolutely NO Sense!!!!!

Example of what I said

I have taught, coached, mentored dozens of anglers at every level of experence & 100% noticed a dramatic increase bite/hookup ratio.

When one does fish daylight they experence another percentage increase from the addition of sight.

Once you gain that level of "feel" you'll not lose it by no longer night fishing.

[WRB]

On this topic Catt and agree, we don't on lot of things, night bass fishing helps. Most jig anglers miss a lot of strikes due to not detecting them. Plastic worms give you more time to detect strikes because the bass will keep it in their mouth longer, it feels and taste like food. For whatever reasons bass reject a jig faster than any other lure.

The angler in Big Mouth was Homer Circle a highly skilled and experienced angler. Homer stated he learned a lot from watching the film and paid more attention to his lure movement improving his strike to hook set ratio.

At the end of the day that is all any of us can do, improve strike detection and hook set ratio with artificial lure.

Like Catt, I have tutored a few other bass anglers in the art of detecting strikes using jigs. Very few good anglers are good at detecting jig strikes until they learn to keep in touch and know what exactly is going on all the time.

The misconception is big bass hammer a jig or worm, small bass hammer the lure, big bass engulf it with ease and reject it quickly most of the time.

It's up to you to detect these subtle strikes.

Tom

[speed craw]

For everyone that thinks bass "hook themselves" on crank baits, you need to watch this video, bass have no problem inhaling an entire crabkbait and spitting it back out.

Crankbaits still need a hookset! Sweep and reel!

Here ya go

[desmobob]

I got to see a nice bass eat my wacky-rigged Senko today.  He hovered next to it for a few seconds, then very slowly moved up and sucked the whole thing in.  I was using flouro line but the Senko was on the drop - there was slack in the line.  I was surprised at how slowly he moved up to eat it.  And he never moved after he sucked it in (until I set the hook....).

 

I find the reason that I don't always care for fishing wacky-rigged Senkos is that it requires so much concentration... I'm staring at the line the whole time.  Sometimes I just want to relax and chunk-and-wind a crankbait or spinnerbait/chatterbait, but today, the bass wouldn't play nice and I had to pitch the Senko.  

 

The darn Lake Champlain pike, on the other hand, were loving my crankbaits. I got tired of spending five minutes per pike getting them unhooked!  I got one 8.5-pounder that required me to pull the crankbait out of his left gill cover, unclip the bait and pull the line back out through his mouth.  At lease I didn't loose any lures to them today.  They usually cost me about ten bucks a day in tackle. 

 

Tight lines,

Bob

[speed craw]

Seeing is believing. ...

[Jrob78]

Awesome video.  I've never seen that before.

[speed craw]

I like to go to streams and catch crawdads and salamanders and watch bass eat them and watch their reactions its amazing . They are like little cats with their quirks.