Missing four of five?

[Hewhospeaksmuchbull]

"Actually, Roy believes any additive serves both to mask human and other odors as well as give off a food appeal.
The major advantage from his perspective is that fish hold a bait longer and thus this enhances the ability of fisherman to detect strikes. This is not a trivial issue since he is convinced that most folks get five times more strikes than they feel."

https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/odors.html

 

So scents may help with strike detection, as will finger on line, sensitive rods, keeping line tight, watching slack line presentations and knowing what a bite feels like as Glen talks about here, https://youtu.be/NxbSE8ffPFg

 

Is there more? The thought that I may be missing four out of five makes me sick. I know that time on the water is key, I'm doing that daily, I've racked my pea brain seeking what else I could do to detect bites and cant think of much. I use braid to make up for my less that super sensitive sticks, I've switched to high-vis for wacky/slack line baits, I stay in physical contact with my line when fishing plastics and jigs, I swing on everything that I know is not a rock or wood. Dont laugh but I have even tried closing my eye's and wearing ear plugs to limit distractions.

 

What are some of y'alls tips on strike detection? And are these high end sensitive rods really the cats meow when it comes to strike detection, what else could I do considering that my highest end rod is 795flip of the Fury line?

 

Also do you guys find that the strike is different seasonally? Gotta be right? Summer has always been a slam feast as far a fish hitting for me, maybe it could be better? But with the slower metabolism that cooler water brings is the bite softer? Every fish that I have caught this fall/winter has been a reaction bite(jerkbaits).

 

Might have to invent electronic strike detector!

[WRB]

Strike detection seperate the average bass angler from the highly successful.

I believe the majority of underwater strikes go undetected. See Big Mouth Forever video by Glen Lau showing big bass striking Uncle Homers crankbaits and he said later he didn't detected them. A mouth full of sharp treble hooks goes undetected by a skilled angler should open anyone's eyes! 

If you fish where you can see bed bass try to detect visual strikes the bass makes without moving off with your lure, that should give you some idea how difficult strike detection is.

When the bass is totally committed to eat your lure in lieu of striking it detection is easy.

The old saying bass don't have hands is true in spades, they can only test what a lure is by striking it, then decide if it's food and continue to kill and swallow it.

I became is good bass jig angler by being totally focused on the lure knowing what's it's doing every second by using everything available to me including intuition. 60 years fishing jigs is a lot of time on the water, nearly 50 years using the same weight jig.

The old saying swings are free is also true, unless to set the hook into a snag and lose it. It's better to lose a lure then missing a bass of your lifetime.

Scent is just one small factor, everything goes into strike detection, awareness being #1 in my book.

Tom

[islandbass]

2 hours ago, Hewhospeaksmuchbull said:

Might have to invent electronic strike detector!

Or add a 360 degree camera ? to the lure, lol. 
 

Yeah the thought of missed and undetected strikes is sad but true. 

[scaleface]

One thing about the Homer Circle film is he holds the rod by the handle , it would be difficult to detect a strike that way . 

[BassNJake]

2 hours ago, Hewhospeaksmuchbull said:

 This is not a trivial issue since he is convinced that most folks get five times more strikes than they feel."

https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/odors.html

 

 

I would like to know where he gets the numbers to make such a claim?

Do "most folks" consist of the thousands of people who only fish once or twice a year?

How many people were tested? under what circumstances? What quantifies as a strike? Braid, flouro or mono? What types of rods, lengths and sensitivities? 

This would involve a large set of data collection and tons of variables .... not sure I'm buying the claims of a guy that sells scent for a living, regardless of his past as a fisheries management guy.

 

But I am skeptical by nature, a numbers guy and like looking at the raw data

 

 

[TnRiver46]

Could you repeat the question ?

[Tennessee Boy]

32 minutes ago, BassNJake said:

I would like to know where he gets the numbers to make such a claim?

Do "most folks" consist of the thousands of people who only fish once or twice a year?

How many people were tested? under what circumstances? What quantifies as a strike? Braid, flouro or mono? What types of rods, lengths and sensitivities? 

This would involve a large set of data collection and tons of variables .... not sure I'm buying the claims of a guy that sells scent for a living, regardless of his past as a fisheries management guy.

 

But I am skeptical by nature, a numbers guy and like looking at the raw data

 

 

I agree with my fellow numbers guy.   When people start quoting numbers without saying where they got them it usually means they pulled them out of their ####.   That’s said,  I do think strike detection is a problem.  Mostly because the industry is telling everyone that if you miss a strike it’s because you’re not using a $500 rod.

[TnRiver46]

5 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I agree with my fellow numbers guy.   When people start quoting numbers without saying where they got them it usually means they pulled them out of their ####.   That’s said,  I do think strike detection is a problem.  Mostly because the industry is telling everyone that if you miss a strike it’s because you’re not using a $500 rod.

I've bought outboards for less

[Hewhospeaksmuchbull]

41 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Could you repeat the question ?

What are some of y'alls tips on strike detection?

[TnRiver46]

6 minutes ago, Hewhospeaksmuchbull said:

What are some of y'alls tips on strike detection?

I’m probably not the best guy to answer that as I use clear mono....... my best answer is practice practice practice. That being said I’m sure you could sell ANYTHING to fishermen that claims to help strike detection (whether it actually does or not )

[BassNJake]

1 minute ago, Hewhospeaksmuchbull said:

What are some of y'alls tips on strike detection?

You already listed many of them

 

finger on line, sensitive rods, keeping line tight, watching slack line presentations and knowing what a bite feels like.... 

Add experience and you are on the way to getting better

 

The problem is that a jetski will be close by or some girls in bikinis are on the shore or you turn your head to sneeze and you miss the bite. Hard to line watch 100% of the time

[papajoe222]

One of the best pieces of advice I can add is to go fishing at night. Take your favorite jig or soft plastic and leave everything else stored away. The same goes for flashlights and keep your stern light to your back when possible. You will then have nothing to distract you and those line twitches and line moving off to one side or the other will be felt if you concentrate (and use fluorocarbon). The other option is to close your eyes when you see a daytime bite and concentrate on what that feels like before you set the hook. Either way, you’ll be surprised just how sensitive your hands and fingers are. 

[Tennessee Boy]

You can’t always feel a strike.  Know what your lure feels like without a fish on and when it stops feeling like that,  set the hook.  You can’t explain the feeling,  it just doesn’t feel right.  It takes time to get that familiar with how you’re lure feels.

 

[MN Fisher]

53 minutes ago, BassNJake said:

or some girls in bikinis are on the shore

Only way I'd get distracted by this is if they're built like Ashley Graham.

 

2 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

You can’t always feel a strike.  Know what you lure feels like without a fish on and when it stops feeling like that,  set the hook.  You can’t explain the feeling,  it just doesn’t feel right.  It takes time to get that familiar with how you’re lure feels.

This is exactly what I do - lean how it feels during no-fish retrieve and set the hook if it feels 'off'.

[PourMyOwn]

1 hour ago, Hewhospeaksmuchbull said:

What are some of y'alls tips on strike detection?

Don't fish with someone who wont shut up. Silence helps me focus.

[WRB]

Bass anglers seem to have a false sense of pride regarding missed strikes.

Try fishing with a pro angler like Aaron Martens or Gary Klein who are good at underwater lure strike detection.

Pro’s have days they can’t detect strikes so don’t feel bad if you do.

I have fished with several pro tournament bass anglers that mis detecting strikes while was watching the line move or I catch bass and they don’t. I mis strikes every outing. How do you know you missed, you feel the bass reject your lure or that rock you bumped isn’t there anymore.

It’s nearly impossible to cast within several feet from a bass and the bass don’t know something entered it’s domain.

Tom

[scaleface]

?

9 minutes ago, WRB said:

Try fishing with a pro angler like Aaron Martens or Gary Klein who are good at underwater lure strike detection.

Okay

[jimmyjoe]

  

2 hours ago, Hewhospeaksmuchbull said:

What are some of y'alls tips on strike detection?

   For me it's simple; keep the lure moving. The faster you move it (within its effective speed range) the fewer fish you'll miss. Unfortunately this style of fishing is falling out of fashion nowadays.  ☹️    jj

[scaleface]

I was skeptical until I tried them but Tungsten weights increase sensitivity .

[WRB]

3 hours ago, Hewhospeaksmuchbull said:

What are some of y'alls tips on strike detection?

Awareness of what the lure is doing and any changes to how it feels to you. Rods can’t feel we have the sense of feel, sight and intuition.

If the lure stops moving or wiggling when it shouldn’t or stop falling through the water column before it hits bottom something happened. 
I keep in touch with my lure by feeling line movement with my finger tips. Day light I feel and watch the line for movements or movements stopping and react to changes.

No panacea to strike detection. It takes time with lures to get familiar with them to know what they feel like when a bass has it in it’s mouth or doesn’t, trail and error.

I have set the hook into bass and snags without knowing why, just a conditioned reflex.

Tom

 

[Hewhospeaksmuchbull]

4 hours ago, PourMyOwn said:

Don't fish with someone who wont shut up. Silence helps me focus.

Solid Gold.

[Hewhospeaksmuchbull]

I'll be, this afternoon I had a dink smallie follow my bait twice, both times right at the bank he'd pull off, I'd kill the bait give a twitch and bam he would attack. Aggressive little guy never found a hook and I never felt a d**n thing.

 

Maybe I was too entertained with his antics to feel it, but he was defiantly trying to eat my jerkbait. Certainly in keeping with what Tom posted earlier about missing strikes on treble hook baits.

[Catt]

5 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

One of the best pieces of advice I can add is to go fishing at night.

 

Not just once or twice but for an entire year!

 

Night fishing will do for your "sense" of feel what tungsten & braid did during daylight.

 

My first 3-4 years of night fishing was during the new moon. Having no light heightens your other senses. 

 

With monofilament line & lead weights I can feel a 1/4 oz bullet weight hit bottom in 20' of water.

[BigAngus752]

5 hours ago, WRB said:

you feel the bass reject your lure

Oh, I know this feeling.  This is one of the worst feelings ever.  

 

 

[papajoe222]

Catt, The first time I felt my bullet weight hit bottom at night, I set the hook! On occasion when it hits a hard bottom, I'm unaware of, I still do.