What are the odds?

[Team9nine]

Here is a story worth sharing from last night. Made a quick trip over to a local lake to play around more, trying to dial in a finesse setup and presentation. I catch several solid fish and am happy with the way things are shaping up. I'm working my soft plastic back near a steep shoreline when a bass comes up from the deeper water at my feet and sucks in the bait. I see the fish, set the hook and the line snaps - broke right at the leader knot (braid/fluoro). I'm bummed a bit because it looked like a nice fish, but it's not totally unexpected as this combo is on at least it's third trip without a retie, and has probably accounted for landing about 60-70 pounds of bass over that timeframe. You simply have to retie every so often if you don't want this to occur - no knot or line type lasts forever.

 

I sit down to retie, quickly realizing I don't have any leader line with me. So I'm about to do one of those fun experiments where I get to learn something - I tie a duplicate bait on, now going straight braid. This all takes a few minutes, but upon retying, I stay sitting on the grassy bank to keep a low profile (just in case) and cast my bait out to the exact same spot. Retrieve the same way, and get bit again in the same manner. 

 

I set the hook, get back up to play the fish, and promptly land him. Remove the new bait from his mouth, then look a little closer and sure enough, deep in his mouth is the first bait with about 2.5' of fluorocarbon tag line streaming  Exact same bass, very next cast after breaking him off minutes before. How often does that ever happen?

 

Anyway, I go on to catch a lot more bass on the straight braid setup, including the largest of the night. The fish simply didn't care this go round. Here's a few pics.

 

 

 

 

[A-Jay]

There ya go ~ 

That's one of those 'no way' moments.

Congrats on another solid outing

 

A-Jay

[J Francho]

I can think of one time this has happened with a bass.  A couple times with northern pike, but they seem much more primal than bass. 

[Steveo-1969]

This same thing has only happened to me once. I set the hook and fought a fish for about 2 seconds and the line broke. Retied and threw to the same place and caught the fish on the next cast, my original bait still stuck in the mouth of the fish.

[BassNJake]

Those are some nice fish!!

 

I had this happen as well but with a 10 lb carp.

I set the hook and the line snapped. (I thought I lost the lake monster bass)

Tied on another senko and a red hook(I bought into the red hook thing for awhile) made the same cast to the weed edge and bam hooked up again.

When I landed him he had one red hook in each side of the mouth and both senkos were still there.

 

Added it to my growing list of I don't understand happened while fishing

[Gundog]

Nice hawgs. I had a situation similar to yours. Hooked and broke off a bass then hooked the same bass with the lure in its mouth. I guess if you fish long enough everything happens.

[Scott F]

I had it happen to me last fall. I set the hook on a fish and the line parted so easily and quickly that I assumed I had been bitten off by a pike. I retied another senko type bait, this time with a steel leader. I cast back to the same general area and hooked up again with an average sized largemouth. When I landed him, my "bitten off" plastic and hook were still in his mouth.

[Team9nine]

Looks like we have enough members to start our own bass club - Second Chance Bassmasters  

[IndianaFinesse]

Never did that with a bass, but I have with channel catfish.  The same fish broke both of my two partners line, one and then the other, before I landed him on the same lure (t-rigged worm) a minute later.  Got both of the broken off lures back.

 

 What's the new finesse technique?

[Bluebasser86]

I've seen it happen a few times, but it's usually more like break them off in the morning, go back later in the day to the same spot and catch them. 

 

I've been going straight braid with the little rig quite a bit lately and haven't seen a noticeable drop in productivity. 

[Bass fishing is best]

I know I've caught the exact same bass this year, this week but never in my life have I caught the same day with my hook still in it.  Taken plenty of other people's hooks with mono or floro still attached though.

 

If anything I think I've been over estimating the handicap of straight braid until the end of last year.  Ditched the leaders last year and haven't had any drop off in numbers.  In fact I'd go so far as to say I've landed more quality fish this year on straight 50 lb braid because of the lack of break offs.  I can confidently horse a fish out of trouble that I know would have been trouble with mono or floro leader.  20 and 30 lb on my spinning set ups and 50 lb on my baitcasters and they all get bites.  Color hasn't been an issue either, I have bright yellow on my small salt setup and it's landed some nice bass, in some of the clearest water I've fished.  I'd say fish that straight braid until you notice a drop off, if ever.

 

Only bummer is I've needed to put more braid on a reel in the same season for the first time ever so I've also ditched the palomar knot.

[TOXIC]

I've done it a few times.  Of note...once during a tournament fishing a bank as the co angler snapped a bait off on the hookset.  Went on down the bank and told my partner to work up the bank again before we left.  Not far from the first spot hooked up and when landed, there was my bait dangling with a perfect placement.  

 

Second time while fun fishing, I broke off a big girl under a dock.  Had a friend who lived on the lake and I told him which dock,  2 days later he goes out and catches the bass with my lure still in her mouth.  He gave me back the lure.

 

I think the oddest thing that has happened is quite a few fish I have caught on a Texas rigged Senko that never had the hook in their mouth.  Just the Senko and they wouldn't turn it loose!!  Crazy!!  

[Spankey]

Nice fish guy! Can't say that I've had that situation happen to me but over the years have caught fish that have had crankbaits in their jaws. Baits were like new. Poor knots because some had no line attached. Great fish!

[NHBull]

This Summer I caught the fish that broke off my partners fish.

when I got it, like you, it had wacky rig and leader still in its mouth.

......he jumped on my WP 110

[Pro Logcatcher]

I have caught plenty of bass with hooks in 'em. Never got any hard baits, though.

[Dtrombly]

Happened to me last year, throwing a tube and a bass broke me off, tied on the exact same tube and next cast I caught him.. retrieved my first tube from his gullet and set him free. It was pretty neat 

[clh121787]

Ive done that with bedding fish a Few times. years ago Pond hopping my buddy broke off a "giant".. about an hour goes by. And I catch a nice 3 pounder with a black and yellow h&h broke off in his mouth. I holler across the pond "what did you break off that giant on?" Sure enough. 

[scaleface]

Never happened to me . I dont have many bass break me off though . Only 1 in  last two years and I think it may have been a catfish .

[Steveo-1969]

19 hours ago, scaleface said:

Never happened to me . I dont have many bass break me off though . Only 1 in  last two years and I think it may have been a catfish .

That's what I always say too when I don't see the fish. It makes me feel better!