What am I missing???? lol

[PhishLI]

1 hour ago, dodgeguy said:

I also feel that with braid and fluoro you get much more input

You'll get no argument from me on that, but there's still a time and place for mono. I like heavier mono on some of my standard multipurpose heavy setups. Enough give to provide delay and enough stretch to help keep them pinned combined with the oomph from a HF rod to set a larger hook to begin with has been working nicely for me.

[Catt]

2 hours ago, dodgeguy said:

Sometimes I close my eyes and just concentrate on the feel. I actually do it a lot. It does help in figuring out what your feeling. I also feel that with braid and fluoro you get much more input which also helps you interpret what you feel. Take a spinnerbait cast far on mono with willow blades and try to feel the blades when it's far out. It's close to impossible. You feel mostly drag reeling it in. Same lure on braid and you feel everything. This extra input helps with interpretation. It's also true when cranking. You can feel the fish come up and start to suck the bait in and then you feel it shut its mouth. You will never feel this on mono.IMHO more information coming in helps with interpretation. 

 

I feel all of that with Big Game ?

 

If you can't then by all means get all the help you can.

[Fastbee]

OP, I've been fishing 41 of my 44 years on this earth. Catt and WRB are exactly right on this. Like another poster previously stated, I learned to catch fish on VERY basic equipment because it was all I had. My advice to you is turn off YouTube and fish. I've helped teach lots of folks about fishing and I don't recall ever recommending watching a video about it.  The skills of strike detection and muscle memory aren't developed by watching videos, they come by being out there making casts!  I'm not saying there isn't any value in videos but they can't help you feel a bite. 

[N Florida Mike]

Just keep in touch with the bait. If it’s soft plastics, just raise the rod tip til you feel the bait. Then it’s much easier to feel the difference between the way the bait feels by itself, and the way a bait feels with a fish on it. A fish will either give the telltale tap, swim off with the bait, or it will feel like you cant feel anything if they have it and are swimming towards you.

Moving baits like spinnerbaits, crankbaits etc. you KNOW when it’s a fish. Topwater, frogs, etc. is the same.

And I have used mono 90% of the time. I can feel the fish just fine…

[J Francho]

I'm not sure I understand the correlation between stretch and sensitivity.  Someone explain this to me.  I'm not disputing there is more information transmitted when fishing, I'm talking about when the fish bites.

[JustJames]

Your sound like my young friend who is very new at bass fishing. I took him fishing a couple week ago, he caught a couple bass already until one of the bite bass hit Senko  right when the lure hit the water. He didn’t know what it was but he felt something different, he reeled in and land the fish. Another one (kids), he set hook on every rock or weed because he moves the rod too much and too quick, everything underwater feel like a bite.

You should consider yourself lucky, reeled in with 5 bass and didn’t even know you got bites. Like @Cattmentioned, you might felt something different to reel in and found surprise bass. As a guy who used to be new at bass fishing. There are a lot of good recommendations here which I used to do the same when started or even now. I fish 80% of the time with weightless plastic. 

Using lighter mono line,

Rod tip high for bottom contact

always have finger in the line.

I don’t really wait for the obvious bite but I more concentrate on different feel when moving rod tip and movement of the line. Last evening I caught 3 fish with Senko, first fish obvious tap bite, second fish line moving to straight line quicker than normal and last fish, resistance on the weed felt more than usual plus a little pull back.

 

 

 

[dodgeguy]

42 minutes ago, J Francho said:

I'm not sure I understand the correlation between stretch and sensitivity.  Someone explain this to me.  I'm not disputing there is more information transmitted when fishing, I'm talking about when the fish bites.

No matter  what anyone says line stretch kills sensitivity.Cast out a deep diving crankbaits on mono and reel in. All you feel is drag are first and very little vibration.Do the same with no stretch braid. You will instantly feel the vibration of the lure. This enables you to have more input so you can figure out what's happening under water. Crawling cranks over rocks becomes easier because you can feel the edges of the rocks and let the lure float up when it's about to get stuck.You will never feel this on stretchy mono.This is why David Fritts has switched.

[Functional]

15 minutes ago, dodgeguy said:

No matter  what anyone says line stretch kills sensitivity.Cast out a deep diving crankbaits on mono and reel in. All you feel is drag are first and very little vibration.Do the same with no stretch braid. You will instantly feel the vibration of the lure. This enables you to have more input so you can figure out what's happening under water. Crawling cranks over rocks becomes easier because you can feel the edges of the rocks and let the lure float up when it's about to get stuck.You will never feel this on stretchy mono.This is why David Fritts has switched.

 

braid transmits under load but not under slack line like mono and FC do. Mono is not going to instantly stretch as soon as it under a little weight, you need more load to get any type of stretch in mono. You cant use a stretch argument for sensitivity because the stretch just isnt there under the lures weight (even with some weed cover). Mono/FC is going to be more sensitive under slack line because of its density, more weight moved during the hit will feel through the line, unlike braid which weighs practically nothing.

 

both are good, but for different applications or fishing styles. 

[Catt]

27 minutes ago, dodgeguy said:

No matter  what anyone says line stretch kills sensitivity.Cast out a deep diving crankbaits on mono and reel in. All you feel is drag are first and very little vibration.Do the same with no stretch braid. You will instantly feel the vibration of the lure. This enables you to have more input so you can figure out what's happening under water. Crawling cranks over rocks becomes easier because you can feel the edges of the rocks and let the lure float up when it's about to get stuck.You will never feel this on stretchy mono.This is why David Fritts has switched.

 

I totally & completely disagree.

 

Everything you're describing I feel with monofilament. 

 

Is there going to be a pronounced "feel/sensitivity" with braid? 

 

Absolutely but to say there's none with monofilament is in my opinion BS.

 

Something with "feeling" a bass pickup your worm off the bottom, no stretch can occur.

 

Look at every test on monofilament stretch & you will see they are preformed by attaching one end of the line to an immovable object and the other end is attached to some mechanical apparatus that applies an unusually high amount of pressure.

 

That ain't how it works in reality!

 

I just threw a 4' piece of mono on the coffee table...it didn't stretch.

[J Francho]

I agree with Catt. Sensitivity is NOT a reason to use braid. I've already provided the use case for why it isn't sensitive. You only feel anything when the fish swims away from you. If it doesn't and you're using braid, you better hope the line moves or something happens to tell you something is there. 

[NoShoes]

Went from mono to braid and back to mono. 
 

I miss the casting performance, but don’t miss superline hooks, using weird scissors to cut it, leaders if you use them, or the cost. 
 

outside of frogging and spinning tackle, no real reason to deviate.  All the sensitivity crap (and fluoro) catches fishermen and not fish. 

[Choporoz]

1 hour ago, Bass_Fishing_Socal said:

You should consider yourself lucky, reeled in with 5 bass and didn’t even know you got bites. 

This was my reaction, too.

 

Last Saturday I had no less than six good bites that never made to the boat. Terrible hook up day for me.  

Five were Olympic class acrobats, flying well above the surface.

One, however was quote memorable.  I was fishing brush in 17-20 foot of water.  I cast t-rig out and waited for it to hit the bottom.  It didn't.   Never felt a thing.  I slowly turned reel handle a few times looking for feedback from a fish or branch...anything.  Nothing.  Increased reeling speed, with laser focus on rod and line.  Felt like line had been cut clean off....big bass had ate my lure and swam right at me.  Never felt it until she was almost under my kayak.  By the time I realized and caught up, my hookset was weak and a quick surface broach and another one was gone.  

  If you landed fish, you figured out how to detect a bite better than you acknowledge. 

6 minutes ago, NoShoes said:

Went from mono to braid and back to mono. 
......

I miss the casting performance, but don’t miss.......the cost

I won't jump into the stretch and sensitivity arguments....but I will mention that braid is a lot cheaper than most realize at first....at least it was for me.....for me, a spool of braid lasts 3,  4, maybe 5 times longer than other lines.

[NoShoes]

4 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

 

I won't jump into the stretch and sensitivity arguments....but I will mention that braid is a lot cheaper than most realize at first....at least it was for me.....for me, a spool of braid lasts 3,  4, maybe 5 times longer than other lines.

I know it supposedly does, I my line too often for it matter though. One of those OCD things I can’t help

[Catt]

For me feeling a worm/jig bite requires keeping a certain amount of tension on my line while at the same time keeping a certain amount of slackness in my  line.

 

With braid I'm constantly trying to keep that tension/slackness by a slight turn of the reel handle or slightly moving the rod tip. 

 

I don't wanna do that!

 

I want my lure perfectly still, my line perfectly still, my rod perfectly still, & my hands perfectly still.

 

This is time for 100% consatration!

 

You want your lure in the strike zone longer?

 

Quite moving it!

[PressuredFishing]

On 5/15/2022 at 8:00 PM, WRB said:

20 lb mono may be over kill depending on the line diameter and brand. My suggestion is 12lb Big Game, inexpensive premium mono. Smaller diameter line creates less bow in the line and better feel if what the lure is going.

Fingers are very sensitive, but you need to train your brain to interpret what you are feeling.

All of this, lighter line for me seems to show jump and twitch more livley during bites as well.

[Choporoz]

6 minutes ago, Catt said:

For me feeling a worm/jig bite requires keeping a certain amount of tension on my line while at the same time keeping a certain amount of slackness in my  line.

I don't think this gets talked about enough.   It has taken me years to get comfortable with this ... and I still mess up a lot of the time.  Sometimes too much tension really isn't very much... a lot of fish will reject very quickly if they feel even slight resistance....on the other hand, bite detection on total slack line isn't very reliable. 

[dodgeguy]

11 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

I don't think this gets talked about enough.   It has taken me years to get comfortable with this ... and I still mess up a lot of the time.  Sometimes too much tension really isn't very much... a lot of fish will reject very quickly if they feel even slight resistance....on the other hand, bite detection on total slack line isn't very reliable. 

Another reason I use high vis braid. I want to see the slightest movement. I kept my line tight then lower the rod a hair to lessen tension. This way you give enough slack without having to much.

[NoShoes]

39 minutes ago, dodgeguy said:

Another reason I use high vis braid. I want to see the slightest movement. I kept my line tight then lower the rod a hair to lessen tension. This way you give enough slack without having to much.

You can see mono floating too…. Just putting it out there

[dodgeguy]

2 minutes ago, NoShoes said:

You can see mono floating too…. Just putting it out there

Yeah but I'm 63 and high vis braid stands out way better in yellow to my eyes. Years ago I got away without it but no more. 

[BooshBass]

On 5/16/2022 at 12:27 AM, Jig Man said:

Like anything else time, time, time.

 

On 5/16/2022 at 12:29 AM, slonezp said:

If it doesn't feel right set the hook. 

 

On 5/16/2022 at 1:30 AM, BrianMDTX said:

A wise man on this very site posted “hooksets are free”.

 

These are in my opinion three if the most important pieces of advicewithout getting into gear and whatnot. I first got serious about fishing fly fishing for trout. When nymphing, 99.9% if the time you are setting the hook based on watching your line. I was told repeatedly to set the hook any time the line does absolutely anything other than just float normally. I did not follow that advice for quite some time out of fear of snagging and having to tie more tiny ass flies to each other with tiny ass line, which any fly fisher knows is completely infuriating for about your first 2-3 years at least. Then I started setting the hook what seemed extremely excessively and caught more fish, and snagged a lot more. Now I can pretty easily discern what's a fish and what's a snag and catch even more fish, and can tie flies on very easily because of all the snags.

 

Same thing with bass but you get way more benefit from feel. You can watch line, feel for bites, and ideally do both where appropriate. Set the hook excessively, you will catch more fish, lose more lures, tie better knots, and then eventually catch even more fish and lose less stuff.

[OG SmashSauce]

7 hours ago, Catt said:

For me feeling a worm/jig bite requires keeping a certain amount of tension on my line while at the same time keeping a certain amount of slackness in my  line.

 

 

OK......I think I may have been doing something wrong.   When I am fishing plastics, I cast, let the lure drop to the ground, and i will immediately reel in the slack because I thought I wouldnt Feel the bass unless my line was tight? Then I will twitch twitch, reel line tight and so on.

 

Am I supposed to be keeping more slack in my line? 

[BigAngus752]

On 5/16/2022 at 6:39 AM, Sam said:

If anything feels different, you set the hook.

Hit the "solved" button.  

[Catt]

2 hours ago, OG SmashSauce said:

Am I supposed to be keeping more slack in my line? 

 

It's a fine balance between tension & slackness that comes with experience.

 

The idea is to feel the bass before it feels you. 

 

This is the reason I don't wait to see the actual line movement. You know like anglers wait to see a couple feet of movement, aka let em have it. Sorry but I done set hook!

 

This bass here all I saw was like someone strummed a guitar string. It vibrated where the line entered the water but with tiny rings about an inch in diameter.

 

Drop the rod, reel the slack, & set the hook...11.3#!

 

[dodgeguy]

Nice fish

[N Florida Mike]

9 hours ago, Catt said:

It's a fine balance between tension & slackness that comes with experience

^^^^ THIS