Losing a Big One

[BassB8Caster]

On 6/15/2018 at 11:55 AM, Dirtyeggroll said:

In Iowa, somewhere along I-29 on an oxbow lake, I broke off what for sure would have been my new PB. It was probably 8+ lbs. I was fishing a chatterbait in old lily pad stems with monofilament. My rod bent over and wouldn't budge and I thought I was hung on a lily stem. Then it slowly started moving, then started swimming, then became dead weight again. I knew it was big. I got it right up to the boat and it surfaced like a small whale. I thought for some reason it would be a smart idea to lip it even though the net was within my reach. I grabbed the line to move it a little close to me to grab it by the lip, I bumped the fish on the side of the boat and *plink* the line snapped. There went the monster with my chatterbait in its mouth. I still lose sleep over it.

 

 

Your story is eerily similar to mine in how the fish behaved. Much different than every other fish I have caught. I stopped in a small lake to call my wife after fishing and decided to walk along the small dam and look in the water while on the phone. I see a few trout swim by the wall. Keep looking around and see a couple bass. I go get my rod with a chatterbait on. Cast it out. One grabs it and I set the hook. Snap. Line explodes. Must have had a nick in the line. Go get my other rod with a square bill. Cast straight out. Slowly start reeling when I get that heavy feeling. Like I was caught on a branch or something. Never felt a bite. Keep reeling and it's slowly coming in. Then I see a head surface. Not the typical lm jump head shake. Like the fish just rose up above the surface to look at me. Now I know I have a good fish. Keep reeling as she is coming straight in. As she gets close to the wall she swims along the wall in front of me and I can see my square bill barely in her bottom lip. I start panicking....no. no. No. Easy. Easy. Then she just turns left and swims off to deeper water pulling my square bill free. Like she knew what she was doing. I got a real good look at her 3 feet away. It was all of 24" so around the 8lb mark. A GIANT for Maine. Needless to say, I'm fishing that lake this year looking for redemption.

My lesson learned, is to always give it a hard hookset. Nothing worse than doing everything right and giving it a half hearted hookset because it just felt like a log, a branch or the bottom. Seems as the big ones just open up and take it in. Not always the blow up like on youtube. You cannot get that bite back. I may never get a chance at her again. 

[Squarebill79]

Im over it, been going out the last few nights and have been getting a nice mix of 14-17 inch fish. I think my main problem is I generally dont set the hook when Im using squarebills. When Im using Texas rigged worms or jigs I always reel down then set the hook but squarebills they usually just crush it so I assume its hooked well. Ive lost a few smaller fish on this lure also, its a Rapala Crankin Rap CR-3, Im wondering if my hooks are junk?