When to set the hook?

[J Francho]

When you don't see the frog on the surface, set the hook.

[Bluebasser86]

3 minutes ago, J Francho said:

When you don't see the frog on the surface, set the hook.

This is the same I do. As soon as I see the splash and don't see my frog, I swing on them, and I don't miss many. 

[Catt]

So to those who wait to feel the weight!

 

What do y'all do with the bite where the bass inhales your jig without any tell-tale signs or line movement & proceeds to sit on it?

 

 

[J Francho]

@Catt, those are exactly the bites I referred to above.  It's the worst when you only feel them spitting the bit on you.  Ugh.

[Weedless]

1 hour ago, Catt said:

So to those who wait to feel the weight!

 

What do y'all do with the bite where the bass inhales your jig without any tell-tale signs or line movement & proceeds to sit on it?

 

 

When I Jig fish, I work it across the bottom slowly, so I always usually have some sort of tension to it, and as i move my tip slowly up I will feel weight....thats when the decision comes to play.....is that a fish or did i slide under a stump....so I remember that I buy the $2 Jigs at walmart and dont care about losing it that much vs play with it to see if it moves and risk it spitting it.......Thats when I come out of my shoes..... because I kinda know where the majority of the stumps are at my locations I fish. 

 

Usually, when there is weight to my bait that I didn't feel a bump too usually means a bass came from behind (i believe) and came toward me just a little.  

[Todd2]

32 minutes ago, Weedless said:

so I remember that I buy the $2 Jigs at walmart and dont care about losing it

Ahh..yes $1.96 Arkie jigs..you're speaking my language. The Bluegill color is what fooled my PB.

[Catt]

Bassmaster University video titled “Denny Brauer on flipping and pitching”, in it Denny answers viewer questions and one question was “what does a jig bite feel like?” Denny’s answer was “I don’t know but I know what it doesn’t feel like!”, he went on to say he felt 100% confident that not a single bass wrapped it’s lips around his lure and he didn’t take a shot at it.

 

His next commit was “observers in my boat might think I’m a complete idiot because I set hook 20 times but only landed 5 bass so the other 15 times I didn’t have a clue want was going on and they may be right but one thing for sure the other 15 times were not bass.

 

When in doubt, drop the rod, reel the slack, & set the hook! 

[scaleface]

 When  one is fishing a Texas rig or jig through brush . If you a feel tap  as you are lifting , then that is probably a limb  . If you feel taps when it is falling , reel down and set the hook .  I dont palm the reel , I hold the rod in front of the reel  with the line running between my index finger and thumb . I feel I am pretty good at detecting strikes but still have at least half go undetected . If my line feels heavy . Ill drop it and "weigh" my line trying to put as little pressure on the fish/snag as possible .    

[WRB]

Nobody wants to admit they miss detecting strikes but we do more often then we know.

Tom

[Catt]

57 minutes ago, WRB said:

Nobody wants to admit they miss detecting strikes but we do more often then we know.

Tom

Greg Hackney says he doesn't ?

[hawgenvy]

There is practically no way to know how often bass bite and spit out lures undetected. There was an classic documentary, from the 70s maybe, about fishing for bass. It featured a scuba diver filming spinnerbait fishing in a clear lake or river in north Florida. Most of the bites were undetected, and that was with a moving bait!

 

If anyone can find a link to that video, please let us know.  It was really excellent

[The Maestro]

13 hours ago, Hawkeye21 said:

I still haven't figured out when to set the hook with my hollow body frog.

It's all in the timing. When I see the line going straight down into the water I know the fish has it.  Hi-vis yellow line and a yellow or white frog helps with this.  Then it's a matter of reeling up the right amount of slack based on the distance and the way your rod loads up.  I then use a hook set that is as straight up and in front of me as possible (as opposed to the over the shoulder style). This ensures the frog collapses and the hooks find the roof of the mouth.

41 minutes ago, hawgenvy said:

There is practically no way to know how often bass bite and spit out lures undetected. There was an classic documentary, from the 70s maybe, about fishing for bass. It featured a scuba diver filming spinnerbait fishing in a clear lake or river in north Florida. Most of the bites were undetected, and that was with a moving bait!

 

If anyone can find a link to that video, please let us know.  It was really excellent

I gotta figure they weren't using the braided line and rods available today but still it is amazing.

[hawgenvy]

 

This classic bass fishing documentary from 1973 is very good. After 11:00 it shows underwater footage of undetected bites on crankbait and spinnerbaits.

 

 

[The Maestro]

16 minutes ago, hawgenvy said:

 

This classic bass fishing documentary from 1973 is very good. After 11:00 it shows underwater footage of undetected bites on crankbait and spinnerbaits.

 

 

Incredible! 2 treble hooks on a moving bait completely in it's mouth and it doesn't get hooked.  Equally amazing is how you were able to find and share some obscure fishing video from nearly 50 years ago in a few minutes.  I'm going to watch the whole thing when I have time.

[hawgenvy]

Bigmouth Forever is an amazing documentary, mostly about the habits and life cycle of LMB, with great underwater footage. Supposedly, the narrator is Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone guy. Everyone should watch it in its entirety.

 

Listen to the sound bass make when they engulf a baitfish.

[Weedless]

Did anyone else notice that the bass only engulfed only the skirted part of the spinner bait and avoided the blades in that video?

[scaleface]

The way Homer Circle holds a rod I'm surprised if he can feel anything .

[J Francho]

You all realize the hooks are bent closed on much of that footage.  And it's from the 80s, not 1973.

[Owen_007]

for me when gaining confidence in jigs, I first felt the bite, reeled down the slack until I could feel the weight of the fish, and then dropped the hammer. I got 100% of the fish that bit and held on,  If I'm having on if those days where I just am missing hooksets, I do that to get my confidence back. I will also probably start my season out doing that. Couple weeks in I seem to develop a rythem of reeling slack, dropping and hammering, and I only miss a couple once and a while, but that's fishin.

[scaleface]

18 minutes ago, Owen_007 said:

Couple weeks in I seem to develop a rythem of reeling slack, dropping and hammering, and I only miss a couple once and a while, but that's fishin.

I'll often start out a day messing up and missing fish but develop a rythem as the day goes on .

[Oregon Native]

I actually think I've put things in my mouth and rejected them so fast I've amazed myself!!

Especially vege's when I was younger!!

 

[frogflogger]

When in doubt - set the hook

[WRB]

The nothing bite is more common then the something bite.

Tom

[FishDewd]

I have a question for you guys that may seem kinda silly, but how does one "watch the line" to tell if you have a bite or not? I've never been able to do that. It's either too windy to tell, my line sinks, or I just simply cannot see where my line is in the water. I go mostly by bumps or if I feel pressure that I know isn't a snag, reel down into to verify, then set the hook.

 

 

[Can't Catch Bass]

29 minutes ago, FishDewd said:

I have a question for you guys that may seem kinda silly, but how does one "watch the line" to tell if you have a bite or not? I've never been able to do that. It's either too windy to tell, my line sinks, or I just simply cannot see where my line is in the water. I go mostly by bumps or if I feel pressure that I know isn't a snag, reel down into to verify, then set the hook.

 

 

I use chartreuse or bright yellow braided line with a flourocarbon leader. The bright line floating on top the water helps to detect if something is moving your slackened line.