Leading a Bass

[Mobasser]

In his book, Slider Fishin, Charlie Brewer talks at length about leading a bass from shallow, wood cover. When you feel a bass pick up your bait, apply light steady pressure, and often the bass will swim into more open water, where they can be played, and landed more easily. Guido Hibdon, another well known angler, talked about this too. When casting to shallow, wood cover with light T rigs, tubes, light jigs, and plastics, it's completely possible to draw a bass into open water- before setting the hook. Once the fish is in open water, set the hook, and play the fish as you normally would. Both these men liken this to a bass competitive nature. They will swim away to eat, keeping another fish from getting their food. As far as I remember, I've never done this, at least not intentionally. My problem would be, once I sensed a strike, I'm setting the hook. Have you seen this happen? Have you ever led a bass this way?Both these men were very good fisherman, so I have no reason not to believe this. Have you ever led a bass? Thoughts or opinions on this?

[jbsoonerfan]

I have not, I am like you and I will set the hook when I feel the fish has committed to the bait. 

[A-Jay]

I have not- 

The bass I'm targeting may not be concerned with or even have much competition.

A-Jay

[TnRiver46]

Tried this many times in brushpiles, they let go of the worm quite a bit. It has been successful a couple times but not many. I have better luck letting them swim out of brush after hooking them 

[Todd2]

I have the book and have watched the videos..thought it was interesting too. I've never really tried it but I did see a Hackney video where he took his time on hooksets..reeling down and sweeping.

 

Now I have on many occasions, let one swim out after the hookset and hung up in a tree. The moment I realize she ain't coming, I release all pressure and she'll swim out more times than not it seems.

[OkobojiEagle]

Doug Hannon wrote of this also.

 

oe

[Derek1]

I watched a tactical bassin video where he talked about this. I believe he set the hook first then applied steady pressure to lead the fish to more open water. 

[Tennessee Boy]

Many years ago while fishing docks in a night tournament, I started getting sleepy and was having a hard time focusing.  I realized at one point that I didn't know where my line was.  I started looking with my light and found that it was on the other side of the boat and moving toward deeper water.  I set the hook and reeled in the big fish for the tournament.  So yeah I've done that....  Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

[Team9nine]

Been there, done that. It works, at least some of the time - lol. You’d be surprised how hard you have to work at times to get a bass to drop a small soft plastic bait.

[Dens228]

I set the hook and just keep constant pressure.  Early this summer I thought I was snagged in a bunch of wood so I paddled over in my kayak to try and free it.  It was a quarry with very clear water and as I floated up I saw a bass down there in about 6 feet of water, then I noticed my hook was "snagged" in its jaw!  It took me a couple minutes but I slowly worked it around a couple roots and into my kayak.  It was pretty cool to be able to watch the process.

[JediAmoeba]

I imagine fish that are more pressured or have been caught before may drop the bait before swimming toward open water.  

 

I am way to impatient to try this - if the fish is committed, I am reefing back and hooking it.

[Sam]

1 hour ago, jbsoonerfan said:

I have not, I am like you and I will set the hook when I feel the fish has committed to the bait. 

X2

 

However, I will lead a bass out of cover after setting the hook.

 

[Fishin Dad]

I have also had this happen by accident.  A fish picked up my bait, and when I lifted, my line was waaaaay slack.   Kept reeling and the fish was almost to the boat. I choose to set the hook when I feel a bite, and try to keep pressure on them to get em out. 

[Mobasser]

58 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Been there, done that. It works, at least some of the time - lol. You’d be surprised how hard you have to work at times to get a bass to drop a small soft plastic bait.

Agree. Sometimes you'll feel a light tap, drop the rod, and wait for them to swim off. Sometimes they won't let go of a plastic bait, and just sit there. Others begin to swim away more quickly.

[Team9nine]

34 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

Agree. Sometimes you'll feel a light tap, drop the rod, and wait for them to swim off. Sometimes they won't let go of a plastic bait, and just sit there. Others begin to swim away more quickly.

The trick to leading a bass from cover is to keep slight tension or pressure on the line/fish the whole time. Don’t drop the rod, as that is when they seem most likely to drop the bait. Just kind of lightly guide him in the direction you want him to go by slowly reeling as he moves. I’ve timed bass that have held a 4” worm for 45 seconds before setting the hook or getting the fish to drop the bait.

[Paul Roberts]

I can see that it could work, sometimes, but it sounds risky -for the fish esp. I've often gone barbless with soft plastics bc of their penchant for swallowing the darn thing if given much time. I guess if you were right on the take, and the fish didn't start to move off at much of an angle to you, and you were in a situation where you had enough strikes you didn't mind dropping a few.

 

The only experience I've had with this kind of thing is practicing something I came to call "torque-reeling". Just reel, no pumping the rod, no angle changes, just reel. Discovered it with single-action fly reels, with a 1:1 ratio on schooly stripers during a 100-fish night. Found I could set, then just reel, bringing the fish straight in, very rapidly. Fish are hydro-foils, so where the head goes, the tail must follow. If they don't turn -you don't freak them out- you can crank them straight in. Trick is not to move the rod at all; That's the "steady pressure". Problem was I then had a green fish at arm's length! This was also part of how I landed BIG trout on "1lb" (2kg class) Trilene years ago, a stunt I don't recommend, for the fish's health. It was however a fascinating lesson in what being tethered to a neutrally buoyant hydrofoil is all about.

 

But... before the hook-set... sounds risky.

[J Francho]

I've brought them all the way to the boat on a hookless crankbait.  You just have to be a bit gentler with them. 

[WRB]

Like everything in fishing nothing is consistantly consistant.

I use the reel and rod sweep set because bass tend to hold onto lures and swim towards you if you don't slam the hook set. When you pull hard they turn and fight pull against the pressure. It's better to have a big bass swim away from cover then to turn and swim into it. 

The reel and sweep hook set works a high percentage of the time, sometimes the bass reacts by spitting the lure before you get a hook set, then it doesn't work. Timing is critical.

Tom

[jimmyjoe]

3 hours ago, Team9nine said:

You’d be surprised how hard you have to work at times to get a bass to drop a small soft plastic bait.

 

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

The trick to leading a bass from cover is to keep slight tension or pressure on the line/fish the whole time. Don’t drop the rod, as that is when they seem most likely to drop the bait. Just kind of lightly guide him in the direction you want him to go by slowly reeling as he moves. I’ve timed bass that have held a 4” worm for 45 seconds before setting the hook or getting the fish to drop the bait.

 

   I do this quite a bit in cover. Drives my fishing buddies absolutely bananas. When I started with soft plastics, I sought out the advice of an old brush fisherman. He told me what Brewer said, and I've done it that way ever since.  It works as long as they don't swallow the hook.      jj

[Harold Scoggins]

3 hours ago, jbsoonerfan said:

I will set the hook when I feel the fish has committed to the bait. 

Me too. I also yell out "Boomer Sooner," that seems to put them in shock and I can easily bring em out of the brush.

[BassinCNY]

It's been my experience that it's mostly the smaller bass that grab the bait and move away. The big ones tend to take it gently and stay right where they are.

[Troy85]

I think it all depends on the context of when you are fishing.  If you are pre fishing a tournament, and there are other competitors boats around, the bass will usually never let go, you can sling it around the boat like a yo yo and its gonna just hold on tight.  Come tournament day, they give you about 16ms to set the hook before spitting the bait.

 

I don't intentionally let them swim out.  I did  hear Roland Martin once say that if the fish takes it and swims away with it, there is a good chance there are other bass around that he's trying to get away from, so be sure to cast back into that same area after the landing the fish.

[lo n slo]

i fish t rigs about 90% of the time and i’ve never intentionally led a bass out of cover before setting the hook. but i have found that many (but not all) will move off on their own after taking my t rig. maybe it’s because other fish are present? i don’t know for sure the reason why, but it does happen.

[bazzelite19]

My best advice would be to set the hook immediately and reel as fast as you can. Dont set the hook and just hold the rod there without reeling, which will give the bass opportunity to snag up. Obviously of the fish is balled up in grass or pinned to some wood, go to the fish .. Dont horse it. Also consider this, say you make a parallel cast to a long piece of wood with short stubs and branches sticking out, you get a bite.. But you can't pull the fish away from the wood so it dives under and breaks you off. If you pitched perpendicular to the wood why then you can pull the fish out into open water instead of trying to pull the bass to you through wood and branches.