Top-water Heartbreak. Also, Treble Hook Reccomendations?

[IcatchDinks]

I could not catch a break today.

 

I went to the local pond this evening, and got tons of strikes, but couldn't bring anything to the shore. I started out with the whopper-plopper. Got a bunch of blowups, but most of them were swipes, not even taking the lure. I hooked three decent fish, but they all managed to throw the hooks on a jump. I was using the size 60 lure, and the hooks on there are kinda small, but still. Every. Single. Fish. All of them got away. One of them hammered the bait so hard from below, the thing popped a couple feet up into the air.

 

I switched to a large popper with better hooks. Same story. Lots of blowups, horrible hookup ratio, and the two I did hookup on managed to shake it after a couple jumps.

 

I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what I was doing wrong. I've never had this problem with these baits before. I was so frustrated I switched to a little spoon, just to try something new. And I caught a seven inch bass. 

 

Finally, back to the popper. Big blowup. He took it down with him, I waited a bit, and pulled back. I had him. He was big. Really big. I fought him to the shore. No jumps. I got him up on the bank. He was the biggest bass I have ever seen in person. I didn't know they got that big in this pond.

 

I stoop down to retrieve him, and he flops. The hooks fall out. He's too close to the water. I make a frantic dive at the big fella, but he makes another flop, and makes it to the water. I don't care at this point: I need that fish. I plunged in after him, felt my fingers closing on his tail. But he was in his element and with one more flick of his fins, he was gone. I sat on my knees in a foot of scum, water, and mud and screamed. I didn't know a fish could gut-wrench me like that.

 

So, I came home to my wife, drenched from the waist down, covered in pond scum, absolutely defeated. 

 

It's been four hours and I still can't believe it. All in all I think I had 15-16 strikes today, and only brought in 1 tiny baby bass. I'm absolutely flummoxed. 

 

Now that my tragic tale is over, what do you all recommend for aftermarket treble hooks? I don't ever wanna run into this problem again. And while I know most of the problem is most likely my own inadequacies as an angler, on the Whopper-Plopper at least, I know I need better hooks. Preferably something I can pick up at Dick's Sporting Goods or Wal-Mart?

[bloom]

What a heartbreaking tale, I feel for you, to be that close and have the big one slip through your fingers--ouch. I would have been kneeling in the pond scum crying also.

I would check the hooks to make sure they are sharp enough to dig into your fingernail. I usually don't change hooks unless one of the hooks get bent or broken.

Sometimes it seems that every fish in the pond hits the same way, and it seems to me all the little ones were just batting at your lure rather than grabbing it to eat. the big one of course wasn't messing around but got away anyhow.

Better days are coming.

[Dwight Hottle]

Look for some Mustad KVD Elite Triple Grip Trebles. If you really want to step up your game get some Owner ZoWire STX hooks. 

[Jmurphy87]

I would say that it could be a factor of color or possibly the hooks, I threw a choppo yesterday and they were hooking there selves practically. I have had a similar experience with a megabass pop x, I caught a pike on it and it bent the rear treble hook out a little. I decided to replace the hook with a owner tournament trailer feathered treble with red, the lure color was baby bass. I wanted a different contrast, that lure gave me the blues trying to catch a fish on it after that. It took hours to make it happen. They would blowup on it and then I couldn’t hook them or they would completely miss it. I have caught multiple fish on the pop max like nothing. I know sometimes they just are not hitting it right and hooking them can seem impossible but stick with it. You will catch one even bigger and be that much more excited. I use owner hooks, although the Berkley fusion 19 hooks seem pretty good also. 

[Swamp Girl]

On 6/10/2023 at 1:23 AM, IcatchDinks said:

I stoop down to retrieve him, and he flops. The hooks fall out. He's too close to the water. I make a frantic dive at the big fella, but he makes another flop, and makes it to the water. I don't care at this point: I need that fish. I plunged in after him, felt my fingers closing on his tail. But he was in his element and with one more flick of his fins, he was gone. I sat on my knees in a foot of scum, water, and mud and screamed. I didn't know a fish could gut-wrench me like that.

 

Man, that's a sad story. I wanted you to grab that bass so bad.

[TnRiver46]

My buddies that actually catch with a WP say they quit using it because it always had the fish hooked too good, like one bleeding out the gills and the other hook in the side of tail somewhere 

[BrianMDTX]

Yeah, I may miss a few on swipes, but pretty much every bass that has taken my WP has been hooked solid. The hooks on mine are pretty darned sharp. 
 

I’d chalk it up to a bad day and try again. Question: what power/action rod are you using? I had much better success when I started using a medium or moderate-heavy power. 

[casts_by_fly]

I feel for you.  I lost a PB earlier this spring right at the boat.  More recently, I've had a lot of topwater fish blow up and not get anything.  That's rare for me on a buzzbait to have some many not hook themselves.  Its been a weird spring here with suddenly hot water back in april, and then steadily cooling water the past month.  I just saw bass on beds last week in the same lake that had bass on the beds a month ago.  I think some of them they were just swiping at it to get it out of the area but not actually hungry.  I'd have said fry guarders, but I didn't see any fry.

 

I fish choppos, not ploppers, but I find the hooks pretty sharp on them.  If you still want to change them out, the gamakatsu g-finesse trebles are scary sharp.  Definitely the sharpest hook I've ever handled and the thin wire makes them perfect for topwaters.  I like the gamakatsu round bend trebles with the magic eye for subsurface lures.

[Zcoker]

Try adding another split ring to the treble hooks. This practically doubles the free rotation of the hook which prevents the fish from getting any leverage and tossing the lure. The longer extension of the hooks also tend to penetrate deeper and hold better. It has worked wonders for my topwater WP hookups! 

[A-Jay]

Stock Treble hook replacement can be a slippery slope.

This is my version of it from a couple of summers back.

A-Jay

[Blue Raider Bob]

Sounds like you did everything possible and then some. You got soaked, so you just have to tip your hat at the big fella and admit temporary defeat. You know he's in there and you know he can't get out! Hope you had a change of clothes. I keep a carry bag in my truck . Not that I expect the fish to dunk me, but as you've described, you just never know! Sometimes we pull them out and sometimes they pull us in one way or another!

[Captain Phil]

First, I change out all my treble hooks with Owner or Gamakatsu round bend Hooks.  That said, fish act differently on different days.   Sometimes bass hit a lure to eat it.  Sometimes bass hit a lure to kill it.   Depending upon their mood, they might not even have their mouth open when they hit your lure.  On days like that, you will miss fish.  On other days they are so aggressive, they nearly swallow the bait.  Old timers tell me they wait slightly to set the hook when fishing top water lures.  This never worked for me, so I set as soon as I see the hit.  No matter who is doing the fishing or how they fish, bad days do happen.

[txchaser]

On 6/10/2023 at 12:23 AM, IcatchDinks said:

He was the biggest bass I have ever seen in person.

 

On 6/10/2023 at 12:23 AM, IcatchDinks said:

 

So, I came home to my wife, drenched from the waist down, covered in pond scum, absolutely defeated. 

Nah that sounds like you had an awesome day. Plus, that bass touched land, you caught her!

 

A few things come to mind:

1) if you have stretchy line and a floppy rod you might not be getting them hooked well. Some of the WP hooks are pretty thick. 

2) changing retrieve has helped me sometimes when I'm not getting great bites. Stop and go, or burning it really fast. Usually stop and go gets me bites I wouldn't get, and burning gets me better commitment to the strike.

[softwateronly]

Sometimes with top water, the bass seem to smash the bait closed mouth, trying to stun it or kill it, which makes it a tough day.  A follow up wacky rig or fluke right where the strike happened works well for me.  Unfortunately, it has to be on a 2nd rod because timing is key.

 

All the hook upgrade recs sound good to me, I'm still new/undecided on what hooks perform best for me.

 

scott

[IcatchDinks]

Thanks everyone for the recommendations. 

 

A-Jay, I'll have to sit down and peruse your symposium on hooks. Looks like a lot of great info/ideas in there. 

[RipzLipz]

A couple of weeks late to this thread, but I have had similar experiences to @A-Jay in replacing stock trebles and stock split rings.  I prefer & recommend Owner ST-36 (black chrome finish, round bend) in all sizes available as well as Owner split rings.  Sticky sharp hooks (as are other brands).

 

I skimmed through the link @A-Jay posted & noticed a section where he discusses hook point location/rotation of the stock hooks.  Through my trials (and errors), I now always check the stock hook rotation/location before removing any trebles.  Not all trebles have the same eye to hook point orientation which can cause the hook points to be in a different rotation.  Whether this affects hookup ratio, I have no clue - I just try not to change the stock hook point locations if at all possible.  I'd recommend going to Jann's Netcraft & locating a hook size chart to keep on hand when replacing trebles - sometimes the hook sizes aren't exactly the same.  For example, Owner tends to run a bit smaller than other manufacturers from my experiences (meaning a size 6 Owner might be a bit smaller than a size 6 Mustad).

 

Even when changing out trebles & split rings in favor of what I feel are sharper & higher quality hooks, fish will on occasion come unbuttoned.  Too many factors beyond the angler's control can come into play (dull hooks, using weight of lure against you, split rings, line stretch, rod action/power, how the fish are hitting the lure, fish committment to the attack, etc., etc.).  I know it's maddening trying to figure out why fish come off - many times I feel it's just circumstances beyond our immediate control, as pointed out by @Captain Phil already.

 

I'd recommend any of the Owner trebles - I usually stick with ST-36.  I haven't tried the short shank trebles (ST-35) but I would expect they're just as good as the ST-36.  Not saying they're the best of any hook, but that's my personal choice for replacing stock hooks (if needed).

 

I'd also recommend these split ring pliers if venturing down the path of changing out stock hooks - I feel these are pretty much idiot-proof (but as soon as I say that, an idiot will prove me wrong) & should fit your needs for most sizes of treble hooks:

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Texas_Tackle_Split_Ring_Pliers/descpage-TTSRP.html

 

Texas Tackle split ring pliers (orange handle)

[IcatchDinks]

@RipzLipz thanks for such a comprehensive and informative reply. I've gone ahead and marked it as "the solution." I've already got a cheap pair of split ring pliers. Definitely not idiot proof, but they work for now. 

 

I've caught a good bunch of fish off that same whopper plopper with zero modifications to it since this post, so maybe the fish were just non-committal that day. That doesn't negate the need for new hooks on MANY of my lures, especially since I'm getting into making my own hard baits. 

 

Again, thanks!