Totally hate it when they jump!

[Blue Raider Bob]

There seem to be two mindsets regarding the way Bass jump when hooked. One camp loves the way they rise and go airborne and then there's me. After a hookset and a solid rod bend, I totally hate seeing that line rise. Even when jamming my rod down in the water they still get airborne! The moment between the rising line and the inevitable lure sling has got to be the most nerve wracking part of smallie fishing. One again the little ones were biting like sharks in the Cumberland. Caught 48 yesterday but big fish was only 16". Don't mind the little ones jumping and coming off 'cause it just saves me the trouble, but I had two I really would have been proud of if only they would not have made me witness the crankbait leap and headshake!

 

Another profundity, why can't Drum and Catfish come off crankbaits as easily. When those fish bite, they stay bit! 

[TOXIC]

I am in the doghouse with my fishing partner who has caught a 7lb smallmouth in the past.  On St Clair this year he hooked a giant on a SPRO Little John crankbait.  She made a long distance jump and he started screaming for the net saying it was the biggest smallie he has ever seen.   He was on the edge of panic mode.  I’ve netted my share of fish so I know what not to do and with smallmouth it’s even more important. If I had to criticize, I would say he brought the fish to the side of the boat a little too quickly.  I would have let her play out a little more.  He had a lot of upward pressure on the fish when it came boatside trying to keep her from diving down.  I positioned the net for her to go in head first but he pulled her up so fast that I didn’t get the net as deep in the water as I would have liked and when she ran head first into the net, one of the trebles caught the net webbing and flipped her facing out and with her next thrust, poof she was gone.  ??

[Swamp Girl]

I'm with ya, Bob. Jumps give me the heebie-jeebies. I also use that "bowing to the fish" trick, but as with you, it doesn't always work. 

 

Yikes, Toxic!

[YoTone]

Its like driving and barreling into a corner and fishtailing it out. Its not the way you intended to get it around the corner and when the back slides and youre powering it out  youre pooping your pants while its happening, its one d**n thrilling ride.

 

 

 

 

[A-Jay]

Whenever I'm throwing treble hook baits for brown bass

I almost 'expect' a few fish won't make it to the net.

Aerial acrobatics are cool, but do not help my cause.

I start out with quality hooks/hardware

and just try to do what I can to keep a bend in the rod.

Either way, seems I lose more bass (relative term) on crank baits than anything else,

including topwater.

This fatty was doing everything she could to earn her freedom.

 And she got it, after a brief stay in the Pro-V Bass Boat. 

https://youtu.be/QB1VOTaQuvE?t=96

A-Jay

[Swamp Girl]

A-Jay and Dwight are the Twin Bronze Gods. Thanks for the link, A-Jay.

 

Spot on, Y-Tone!

[Deleted account]

1 hour ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Another profundity, why can't Drum and Catfish come off crankbaits as easily. When those fish bite, they stay bit! 

Once a catfish, drum or other fish with a fairly uniform rubbery mouth is hooked, unless it's just skin, it's not going to get off, bass on the other hand have several varying tissue along the perimeter of their mouth, go through a hard part with decent purchase, and you are set (pun intended), but you could be going through a thin membrane, or worse, an existing gap created by C&R, and there is no way of knowing until you see it.

If you don't want a fish to jump, pull less and/or change the angle of the vector. Try this sometime, halfway through the fight, stop pulling, and maintain the slightest tension on the line, 99% of the time the fish will stop pulling almost immediately. 

1 hour ago, TOXIC said:

I am in the doghouse with my fishing partner who has caught a 7lb smallmouth in the past.  On St Clair this year he hooked a giant on a SPRO Little John crankbait.  She made a long distance jump and he started screaming for the net saying it was the biggest smallie he has ever seen.   He was on the edge of panic mode.  I’ve netted my share of fish so I know what not to do and with smallmouth it’s even more important. If I had to criticize, I would say he brought the fish to the side of the boat a little too quickly.  I would have let her play out a little more.  He had a lot of upward pressure on the fish when it came boatside trying to keep her from diving down.  I positioned the net for her to go in head first but he pulled her up so fast that I didn’t get the net as deep in the water as I would have liked and when she ran head first into the net, one of the trebles caught the net webbing and flipped her facing out and with her next thrust, poof she was gone.  ??

Don't call Toxic if we need a net man, check.....  

[roadwarrior]

I am on the other side of this discussion...My favorite part of the fight is when

the fish jumps!

[Dwight Hottle]

I like watching them jump as well except for a potential PB then not so much.  

[Blue Raider Bob]

9 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

I like watching them jump as well except for a potential PB then not so much.  

Dwight my PB smallie is 3lb 10 oz so every heavy hookset has the potential to be a new PB. Unfortunately I think I've seen numerous potential PB's jump and toss. That's why I have a mini-panic attack when I see that line rising! But then again like so many previous opinions, that's part of the fun of Smallie fishing.

[Swamp Girl]

I was wading for smallies on the north shore of Lake Michigan. Thanks to zebra mussels, the water was clear as glass, so I could see every bit of the battle as the smallmouth neared. A couple smallmouth jumped right in front of me and seriously splashed me, which I loved. I've had them splash me on a jump beside my canoe too.

[PaulVE64]

LOVE THE JUMPERS

[warefisher]

2 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

I am on the other side of this discussion...My favorite part of the fight is when

the fish jumps!

Me too.  If they get off, they’ve earned freedom.  Love the spirit.

[Blue Raider Bob]

33 minutes ago, warefisher said:

Me too.  If they get off, they’ve earned freedom.  Love the spirit.

Never thought of it that way and I can agree. Now I'll have a new attitude for the jumpers and newfound respect for the ones that " Earn Freedom"!

I release everything anyway but I'm always chasing that new PB.

[Kev-mo]

4 hours ago, Deleted account said:

Once a catfish, drum or other fish with a fairly uniform rubbery mouth is hooked, unless it's just skin, it's not going to get off, bass on the other hand have several varying tissue along the perimeter of their mouth, go through a hard part with decent purchase, and you are set (pun intended), but you could be going through a thin membrane, or worse, an existing gap created by C&R, and there is no way of knowing until you see it.

If you don't want a fish to jump, pull less and/or change the angle of the vector. Try this sometime, halfway through the fight, stop pulling, and maintain the slightest tension on the line, 99% of the time the fish will stop pulling almost immediately. 

Don't call Toxic if we need a net man, check.....  

This is the second time I've read/heard about easing up on the fish during a fight. Have to try to remember that next time I'm battling.

 

Mixed feelings on the jumpers. Lost a giant smallie a couple/few summers ago. Lame hookset so really just hanging on for that ride. She shot downstream and I knew she was coming up and I knew she would shake my lure when she did. But... I got to see her! She came straight out of the water and did a couple head shakes in mid air. Lure went one way she went another.

 

You don't get to see them when they go to the bottom to try to wedge your crank in between some rocks to dislodge it. 

[PaulVE64]

In a run along the Crowsnest River (near Calgary) my brother and i hooked 5ish trout. 

And to their credit every last one of them popped our mepps spinners by driving head first into a gravel bar.

[FrnkNsteen]

1 hour ago, warefisher said:

Me too.  If they get off, they’ve earned freedom.  Love the spirit.

Agreed. I actually like it. I agree it sucks when you lose a big one, but those are the ones you remember! I've caught a lot of nice bass over the years, but its the big ones I lost that are etched in my mind and those make fun stories.

 

My friend and I were on a hot piece of shoreline one evening and nice smallies were EXPLODING on Whopper Ploppers. I'm talking full launches out of the water as they were hitting. About a third completely missed the lure. Another third got off, and the remaining third were landed. Didn't matter.... We were giggling like schoolboys and its an evening I will never forget.

[NHBull]

If your loosing fish because of leverage, add a splitring or add a a short piece of braid between the bait and treble.

 

.....also, if your burying your rod on when the fish is far away from the boat, you would be better served to keep it out of the water and sweep it to try and control the head when airborne.

 

I do love acrobatics?

[gim]

Haven’t caught any brownies yet this season, just largies. Two that I caught on Saturday jumped and got decent air. Neither were real big bass and neither got off.

 

A few times per year, I fish a lake stocked with tiger muskies. Sometimes they jump when they get hooked. It’s like a freshwater tarpon.

 

@TOXIC I’d say you were at fault for your friend losing a new PB. You’re the net guy, it’s your job to net the fish. Not get part of it hung up in the lure with the fish outside the net.

[Woody B]

For me it's exciting when they jump.  Like others said, if they get off they've earned their freedom.   If all you had to do was reel them in it wouldn't be fun.   

 

 

Regarding the net incident.  Was the net too small?  I've got one of those folding nets from Bass Pro.  It's too small for fish big enough to need it.  I keep a cut resistant glove handy and lip bigger ones instead of getting the net out and trying to fit the fish in it.   

[TOXIC]

14 hours ago, gimruis said:

I’d say you were at fault for your friend losing a new PB. You’re the net guy, it’s your job to net the fish. Not get part of it hung up in the lure with the fish outside the net.

? I’m certainly accepting my share of responsibility for the loss, my point was that it wasn’t all me.  The fish was in the net positioned correctly, but he brought a green smallmouth to the net and pulled her head first out of the water. ?. You can’t always lay 100% of it on the net man.  I wasn’t stabbing the net or swooping knocking the fish off.  

[Basser2021]

With smallmouth I don't care if they jump when I've hooked them on a texas rig, but if they jump when I hook them with treble hooks I have a heart attack haha.

[Gera]

It depends on the degree of difficulty of its jump, if it was a good one it ok for them to go. 

[IcatchDinks]

18 hours ago, Basser2021 said:

With smallmouth I don't care if they jump when I've hooked them on a texas rig, but if they jump when I hook them with treble hooks I have a heart attack haha.

Was just about to say something similar. 

[Steve Goldy]

On 6/6/2022 at 10:51 AM, Blue Raider Bob said:

There seem to be two mindsets regarding the way Bass jump when hooked. One camp loves the way they rise and go airborne and then there's me. After a hookset and a solid rod bend, I totally hate seeing that line rise.

Funny, I’m in both camps.
At least to me, what makes SMB such great fighters is their propensity to jump, lunge, shake their heads in the air, etc…it’s all about the fight, and I’m catch and release anyways. Granted, I would much prefer the fight conclude with my landing the fish…but I can still derive satisfaction from the battle alone. Still, if it were a monster, Id probably ?

In fact, my most stressful time when attempting to land the SM is when Im bringing it in close to the dock. They always try and dive under the dock and between the supports/pilings. Some make many attempts before they can be properly netted. I can almost hear the line snapping with each and every attempt they make. It is during this “almost got her” stage that I find myself wishing these scrappers were a bit more sedate.

On 6/7/2022 at 6:06 PM, Basser2021 said:

With smallmouth I don't care if they jump when I've hooked them on a texas rig, but if they jump when I hook them with treble hooks I have a heart attack haha.

Agreed, and a notable nuance.