Lost a nice fish

[INbassMAN]

While fishing a jig, I hooked what felt like a monster. He darted straight for the surface, so I stuck my rod down in the water to try to keep it from jumping and spitting out the hook. When I did, it got off before it jumped. Looking back, I must not have had a good hook set, so when the fish went up, I was pulling down and that made the hook come out. So, my question to everyone is this: What do you do when a bass is going to jump? I've done some Tarpoon fishing and was told that when they jump, bow toward the fish to take the tension off of the line. It seems like with bass if you take off tension, they will "spit" out the hook.

[Netfish and Chill]

If it was really as big as you say it was, there isn't a sure fire way to keep it from jumping. You can try keeping the rod down like you did, but you also don't want him to try to stay down and hang you up on anything. I would say get a good hookset, let him come up, and then when he does jump, put your rod tip down and to the side to tip him back to the water so he can't throw the hook. If you don't get that solid hookset, you're holding on for dear life!

~ Mr. Netfish and Chill 

[Bluebasser86]

Keep the line tight and try to pull back against the fish, not with them. Do everything right, I can guarantee you 100%, you're still going to lose fish. 

[Ski]

2 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Keep the line tight and try to pull back against the fish, not with them. Do everything right, I can guarantee you 100%, you're still going to lose fish. 

This !!

R/ Chris

["hamma"]

thats why when i set the hook i do so in a manner that crosses their eyes,.. all the guys i fished with in tournies told me i set the hook harder than anyone they've met ,reason i do this is i lost a huge fish in a team tourney because i didnt "cross his eyes"my partner and i would have won with that fish...but that aside,    when you stick the rodtip into the water to keep them from  jumoing,  keep tension on them as well,..at least ,.. i do.,. i reel in asap when i see that hes coming up for a jump, which does 2 things,.. keeps tension ,..and ,..if he does jump close to the boat i just haul him right into the boat with his own momentum

[bigbassin']

12 hours ago, INbassMAN said:

 I've done some Tarpoon fishing and was told that when they jump, bow toward the fish to take the tension off of the line. It seems like with bass if you take off tension, they will "spit" out the hook.

From what I've heard, you bow to tarpon because they gain momentum as they exit the water (air provides less resistance than water) so their speed combined with their size will put too much force on your line and snap it in most situations. With bass being much smaller, this typically isn't an issue, so your best bet is to keep the line as tight as possible and put your rod tip low to the water in my experience.

[Darren.]

Feel your pain. Have had some lunkers
spit the hook in my face and dance back
to the depths... happens more often than
we'd like.  

[IndianaFinesse]

13 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Keep the line tight and try to pull back against the fish, not with them. Do everything right, I can guarantee you 100%, you're still going to lose fish. 

What he said, plus don't point your rod toward the water and keep the rod pointed up.

[N Florida Mike]

When the line comes up when the fish is about to jump I lower the rod and sweep it in a motion away from the fish to keep the line tight.

[J._Bricker]

14 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

When the line comes up when the fish is about to jump I lower the rod and sweep it in a motion away from the fish to keep the line tight.

 I'm gonna agree with N Florida Mike on this.  

As for a monster hook set... I've found the unofficial breaking point of my line on more than one occasion.  And then to have that cross eyed 8lber come up out of the water to throw my hook as I'm trying figure out was it the line or the knot...  Good news is I found sharper hooks don't require as much effort... Good fishing everyone 

[Bankbeater]

I put the rod tip down as the bass is coming up.  I try and swing the rod in a half hearted hook set.  I am not trying to keep the line tight, I am trying to break the fish's momentum.  Sometimes it works and sometime it doesn't.

[senile1]

11 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

When the line comes up when the fish is about to jump I lower the rod and sweep it in a motion away from the fish to keep the line tight.

I've read about sticking the rod in the water and keeping it low and tight to stop a fish from jumping and I think it helps at times.  I do this too but sometimes if you react too quickly when lowering the rod and jerk when sweeping away I think it just makes the hole bigger where the hook entered.  It has to be a controlled motion.

Here's a pretty good article from Mike Long about the subject.  

http://www.mikelongoutdoors.com/jumping-bass-agony/ 

 

 

[everythingthatswims]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AWlnKrBNLF0

start at the 7 min mark, and look at how many times I change direction on the fish so that I'm always pulling against it and not with it, like bluebasser said. It looks ridiculous but she never got her head above water, and that was a 4lb plus fish on a short line.

[Afishionado]

On 3/22/2016 at 9:17 PM, bigbassin' said:

From what I've heard, you bow to tarpon because they gain momentum as they exit the water (air provides less resistance than water) so their speed combined with their size will put too much force on your line and snap it in most situations. With bass being much smaller, this typically isn't an issue, so your best bet is to keep the line as tight as possible and put your rod tip low to the water in my experience.

Actually what usually happens with the poons is a pulled hook when they jump.. Bowing to the king gives you some extra shock absorbtion when they jump.. More often than not, you don't have a good hookset on a tarpon because trying to set the hook in that extremely hard and bony mouth is like trying to set a hook in a china plate... 99.9% of the time it's a pulled (or in some cases broken) hook on the jump.. but it never bothers me personally because putting them in the air is everything haha.. But I would imagine with a bass, keeping the line tight is paramount.. with their mouth mostly membrane, the hook can wear a hole in that extremely thin stuff if that is indeed where you hook them and once they have a little bit of slack, they gain the leverage needed to throw the hook.. This is a common problem when snook fishing and a bass and a snook have extremely similar mouths ...