When to Set the Hook?

[connorwallin]

I'm fairly new, I began fishing last year and have only went out probably a total of 6 or 7 times. My biggest problem is knowing when to set the hook, I don't think I know when the fish is eating the bait because every fish I've caught I've just began reeling in and the fish is hooked. I don't understamd the whole setting the hook and how to do it or when to do it. 

[mllrtm79]

"Hooksets are free" is a common line.

That being said, if your line moves (soft plastic), reel down and set the hook. You will get a feel for different bites on different lures as time goes on. There are some great videos on the bass resource youtube that can help a lot to explain different techniques. 

[ThePolkFolk]

Go to the Fishing Tackle section and look at the pinned posts at the top covering different techniques. There is a lot of info in there on how to detect bites and how to set the hook for each presentation. Different techniques can require different hooksets.

 

Wacky senkos I will gently sweep to the side and up while reeling down while my heavy punch rigs I have to reel in the slack and set hard normally straight up. 

[scaleface]

Different lures are treated differently . Crankbaits , spinnerbaits ... I do a rod sweep when I feel a fish on .Topwaters I set the hook when I feel the fish not when I see the hit  [ this is difficult to do and I mess up  topwater strikes frequently .] Texas rigs and jigs I set the hook after   taking most of the slack out then hit them hard .

[jimf]

It's actually a great question, and one you probably will struggle to perfect your entire life.   Fast moving baits with open hooks - spinnerbaits etc., it's less of a guessing game than with soft plastics.   Often the fish hook themselves, and you just need to bury it.   Soft plastics are another story, but the "reel down set" advice above when you feel something is as close to a generally accurate response as you can get.  With soft plastics there are just a variety of signals, from the "tap tap tap" feeling, to a pick the line up and run with it,  to an almost dead feeling that is almost imperceptible.   The latter one makes me wonder how many fish in my life I've had on and didn't know it.   Lot's is my guess.  

[CenCal fisher]

45 minutes ago, mllrtm79 said:

"Hooksets are free" is a common line.

That being said, if your line moves (soft plastic), reel down and set the hook. You will get a feel for different bites on different lures as time goes on. There are some great videos on the bass resource youtube that can help a lot to explain different techniques. 

Hook sets are free until you set your hook into a stump and have to break it off. 

 

 

What lures res are you using op and how are you from aging them? What brand and model rod are you using and what type of line is on the rod? 

 

[HawkeyeSmallie]

Totally depends on the lure. For example frog fishing. It's one of the most exciting ways to fish but also the most frustrating. Some people say set the hook right away while others say to wait a second or two or wait until you feel the fish.

 

Takes an enormous amount of discipline/patience to wait after seeing a huge blowup.

 

Man it's fun!!!!! Can't wait to start throwing frogs.

[Choporoz]

29 minutes ago, CenCal fisher said:

Hook sets are free until you set your hook into a stump and have to break it off. 

 

 

I've been fishing for 50 years and I can't always tell the difference between wood and fish.  If I took that mindset and worried about snags, I'd catch FAR fewer fish than I do.  As I tell every 'less experienced' person that fishes with me, "Just set the hook"....I NEVER get upset about having to maneuver to un-snag (mine or my partners')...If you aren't there 'in the wood and rocks', you aren't getting to the fish.

 

Maybe I should qualify that just a little....I just MIGHT get upset after repeated snags in wood that's above the surface

[connorwallin]

39 minutes ago, CenCal fisher said:

Hook sets are free until you set your hook into a stump and have to break it off. 

 

 

What lures res are you using op and how are you from aging them? What brand and model rod are you using and what type of line is on the rod? 

 

I'm using a field and stream rod 6'6 medium fast with a lews Carbon fire 7:1 ration with #30 pound braid. Last summer, I was using mostly soft plastics such as senkos, dingers etc. 

[geo g]

If you think there is one there, reel down and set the hook.

[the reel ess]

Plastics, when I feel the bite and see it move I'll lower the tip, reel up the slack and WHAM-O! An awful lot of the time, bream will tap-tap a soft plastic, so I like to see it move or feel pressure. Bass will hold soft plastics a good while. Trebles, soon as I feel the fish. That goes for topwaters too. Don't yank the bait away before feeling the fish. If you swing and they don't have it, you'll pull the bait away from the bass's area of awareness and they won't find it.

 

For the plastics, it's a hard, upward swing for me. For trebles, buzzbaits and spinnerbaits, it's usually a rod sweep to the side and keep reeling, keeping the pressure on the bass. I don't want to encourage the bass to jump with a lot of line out, thus the sideways sweep.

 

This is all just my opinion, collected over the course of about 35 years. Practice will get it right for you.

[CenCal fisher]

45 minutes ago, connorwallin said:

I'm using a field and stream rod 6'6 medium fast with a lews Carbon fire 7:1 ration with #30 pound braid. Last summer, I was using mostly soft plastics such as senkos, dingers etc. 

You should feel some of the bites with this setup. Watch your line to see if it moves off to the side, stops sinking before it hits the bottom or falls slowly then quickly speeds up. You can start setting the hook on everything that feels different until you learn what a bite is or if you get tired of snagging brush start reeling when you think you had a bite and if you feel weight on the end of your line set the hook. It takes some time to learn what a bite feels like, telling you what it feels like isn't the same as actually feeling it

[Ratherbfishing]

It depends on the type of bait you are using and/or the technique.  On hard baits when the lure is moving, I seldom really do a hard hook set as I believe this can yank the bait loose (especially if skin hooked).  Instead, I generally do a long, deliberate "sweep" and then keep pressure on the fish when I make contact.  On jigs and soft plastics, I generally wait no longer than the time it takes to place yourself and the line in the proper position and/or posture to set the hooks (USUALLY rod tip down and most of the slack taken up).  On frogs and such, you'll want to wait until you feel some resistance on the line/rod.  Otherwise, you'll likely pop the lure right out of the fishes mouth.  The only real exception is if the lure has been taken down and REMAINS down.

[WRB]

Don't over think hook setting, if you feel something different like the lure getting heavier, lighter, something bumping the lure reel faster and sweep the rod back firmly.

In time when you learn to use various lures and tackle types or presentations you may need to alter your hook setting, for now the reel and rod sweep set works over 90% of the time.

Tom

[Team9nine]

17 minutes ago, WRB said:

Don't over think hook setting, if you feel something different like the lure getting heavier, lighter, something bumping the lure reel faster and sweep the rod back firmly.

In time when you learn to use various lures and tackle types or presentations you may need to alter your hook setting, for now the reel and rod sweep set works over 90% of the time.

Tom

 

^^ In the beginning, this  ^^

 

Remember, bass don't have hands 

[Bassin' Brad]

When I'm fishing a senko with a small bullet weight this is my standard approach. I cast out and let it sink to the bottom on semi slack line, then with my rod pointed towards the senko I take up the slack and lift my rod tip up hopping the senko, if I feel anything while I lift the rod, whether the senko stops, or if something bumps it or it jerks or it gets tap - tapped I'll quickly drop the rod tip take up slack start to lift the rod back up and if it's still there I drive the hook home with a solid hookset. Keep in mind I'm watching my line the whole time and if starts moving I know it's a fish for sure. 

[Hawghead]

My brothers and I go by two terms.  "Unidentifiable tension" and "exploratory hook setting"   

 

 

Honestly if you really concentrate on the lure and the feel, it will make it a lot easier to detect bites.

[halochef]

here is something i just got from bill dance   very short but good info

 

[UPSmallie]

This exact question has been screwing me over for the last year or so.  No offense to anyone, but here's what has happened.  (Yes I am ranting)

 

 Last summer while fishing, I see an Atlantic Salmon chasing minnows in the fast current up close to shore.  I dig through my box of spinners tie one on and chuck it out.  It gets snagged up several times and is a big pain to try and free up.  It snags up once more, so instead of burying the hook into whatever is holding me up, I try and free the spinner.  As my luck would have it, the Atlantic Salmon jumped out of the water with my spinner in its mouth and spit it right back to me. Determined, I kept fishing and set the hook several times on any bump or holdup.  I lost two spinners at roughly $12 total retail price that afternoon.  Fast forward to the fall while steelhead fishing.  I hook up on a 5-6 lber but forget to set the hook because the fish never slams my lure. There's just dead-weight on the end all of a sudden.  The fish pops off, but that could have been prevented.  I'm alert after this and set the hook on some more underwater debris and loose another handful of spinners.  This time more expensive ones than the others I had lost.  

Jump to yesterday while steelhead fishing on a day off.  I'm fishing two spawn sacs with splitshot on bottom and bobber fishing a spawn sac on my third rod.  There's so much debris and sticks that are clogged in that river that it's near impossible to tell a snag from a fish.  I set the hook on so many sticks that day whether it be bobber fishing or bottom-fishing, that my spawn sacs were getting completely demolished.  Again, not good, since I have a limited amount of spawn sacs.  At this time, a 5-6 lb steelhead began feeding on aquatic insects, jumping out of the water and making splashy rises near my spawn sacs.  I started getting light taps on my bottom-spawn, but the fish wouldn't fully commit.  I decided to reel in one of my spawn sacs off the bottom to check it and then recast it.  Whenever reeling in spawn from the bottom, my spawn sacs would get temporarily snagged on all of the underwater debris.  I started to reel in the spawn sac about four inches and then it got snagged up into a thick snag.  No problem.  I gently raised my rod tip and started to maneuver my rod into a position where I could pop my spawn sac loose.  All of a sudden my line started shooting about two feet to the right.  Frantically I reel down and am just about to set the hook on a slab steelhead, when my bottom-rig and spawn sac come shooting back to me.  Looking back, I wouldn't have done it any differently since I'd already lost countless spawn sacs to underwater structure setting the hook, and wouldn't willingly continue doing so.  Sometimes you just don't know.

 

To answer your question, setting the hook can sometimes be as simple as feeling a bite.  As you gain more experience it should start to become more distinguishable, but as mentioned above, sometimes you never will know before it's too late.  But hey, if everything was a guarantee, it wouldn't be called fishing.  Best of luck on the water this season.

[frogflogger]

I use the old mantra "when in doubt - set the hook"

[the reel ess]

15 hours ago, halochef said:

here is something i just got from bill dance   very short but good info

 

Good advice and a very hard technique to force upon yourself. I've had a bass blow up on a Spook a few seconds after it hit the water and I had a moderate backlash. I picked out the backlash as quickly as possible and reeled up tight on the fish and it was still there, maybe 8 seconds later. I think it got so many hooks it couldn't spit out the bait. I certainly don't recommend the 8-second method.

[lonnie g]

two things I was taught  "1" is it doesn't cost anything to jerk.  "2"  if using plastics set it like you want to cross his eyes!

[lo n slo]

AFTER.....you remove your finger from the line

 

[connorwallin]

31 minutes ago, lo n slo said:

AFTER.....you remove your finger from the line

 

Ouch

[scaleface]

39 minutes ago, lo n slo said:

AFTER.....you remove your finger from the line

 

 The old braid slice . I dont use braid because of that .