Bottom lip hooking

[Sifuedition]

I was throwing a lipless crankbait in a pond today. Caught four on that bait. Of those four, three were hooked on the front hook, but in the bottom lip. Bottom lip hooksets are so rare for me, this seemed really weird. I mean once could be chance, but three times makes me think something is up.

 

Fishing in a pond with a lot of bottom vegetation. All of my hits were 10 yards or more from the bank.

 

My theory is the fish were deep, came up fast to hit it and immediately turned to dive back down. In turning, they presented the bottom lip facing me, causing the lower lip hooksets.

 

Can anybody confirm this scenario is likely or have a better fit?

[BuzzHudson19c]

Eh, they could even be chasing, hit it from the back, get the whole bait and end up with the front hook in the bottom lip. It's not really an issue, that's why we use trebles as they increase the odds of hooking a fish.

[Sifuedition]

1 minute ago, BuzzHudson19c said:

Eh, they could even be chasing, hit it from the back, get the whole bait and end up with the front hook in the bottom lip. It's not really an issue, that's why we use trebles as they increase the odds of hooking a fish.

I had that thought, too, about 3 minutes after hitting Post. If they absolutely consumed the whole bait, the front hook would go in the lower lip. Seems the rear hook would likely catch behind the tongue or in the gullet, though. All of these, the rear hook was clear of the mouth.

 

I just pictured it coming from below and hitting the middle. Front hook is in the mouth and the rear is to the side, That would likely lead to a side-mouth hook. So, next thought is it rolling over to dive back down...

 

And now I'm trying to be Dionne Warwick and her psychic friends, I guess.

 

I was just hoping to take something away about the fish location and feeding pattern, right now. Water temps have been dropping. I'm thinking they went deep. Here, the temp dropped suddenly. Hot straight to chilly, no real gradual fall. The bite has been turned completely off for multiple weeks on this pond.

 

Maybe the fall feed that seems to have been skipped caused aggressive fish to move up to strike, despite their desire to go deep right now. Just speculating, but not sure if I'm just filling in the details I want to believe or if it seems reasonable.

[islandbass]

I see your initial guess of them attacking from underneath as the best guess. 

 

If they did inhale it from behind, one would think the rear treble get caught somewhere in the bass’ mouth. 

 

My bass are pin point bait attacking specialists. They know how strike and kiss a crankbait between the belly and rear trebles and still avoid getting caught on either treble, probably laughing at me during their retreat. ?

 

I wouldn’t believe it either, but I saw it done with my own eyes ? 

[BuzzHudson19c]

11 hours ago, Sifuedition said:

I had that thought, too, about 3 minutes after hitting Post. If they absolutely consumed the whole bait, the front hook would go in the lower lip. Seems the rear hook would likely catch behind the tongue or in the gullet, though. All of these, the rear hook was clear of the mouth.

Absolutely. It's likely they came up and hit the bait as it passed, but my point was bass have a tendency of surprising you how they manage to get hooked or get unhooked.

[WRB]

The hooks are located on the belly and tail end of the crankbait and it’s normal to hook bass in the lower area of it’s mouth, unusual through the upper jaw. Hooking a bass with a crankbait in the upper jaw indicates the original hook may have pull loose during the fight. The corner of the mouth is the most common as the bass strike and turns away.

Tom