Seeking tips to increase my landing percentage

[gim]

If they jump and spit the hook, you will lose some fish. That’s inevitable. Are the 20-25 you’re losing because they all jumped?

[Swamp Girl]

2 hours ago, thediscochef said:

Touched a nerve here with smaller fish being harder to hook - I completely agree. You just can't get leverage on them to set the hook. I think landing a big fish on light wire is easier than a small fish on heavy wire. I also think that sometimes the heavier wire hooks can wallow out the hole in a bass mouth sometimes, which makes it easier for a barb to slip out. One of the reasons I love the owner zowire hooks...lots of sharpness and strength but less diameter. It's the only hook material for distance casting. ????

 

Just keeping the line tight is typically enough for me. Drag should only ever be set heavy enough to drive the hook in, much more than that can actually rip a hook out that would have otherwise stayed in barely. I can't ever really predict when I'm gonna have a jumper. The only thing that really helps me with jumps is making more subtle movements while the bass is airborne, and not continuing to fight like it has the water resistance. Just enough to keep the line tight. I still lose some but it's almost always because I've been dead sticking too far back and I can't reel in enough slack in time to get leverage before the fish drops it. The other cause is usually over tight drag causing breakage, or overly loose drag that fudges a hookset. 

 

All that being said, I wish I could catch 30+ fish right now. Been blanked all but two days this month, having fished about half of it

 

You can catch 30+ fish. Just come north. 

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

If they jump and spit the hook, you will lose some fish. That’s inevitable. Are the 20-25 you’re losing because they all jumped?

 

A lot of them jumped. To be honest, I don't count the ones I lose, so I might have overestimated. Each loss feels like two fish lost, ya know.

[TnRiver46]

I always lose a few with treble hooks. Not often with single hooks 

 

advantageous side effect: the single ones come out of your hands easier 

[Big Hands]

10 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Newton's Third Law of Motion: Action and reaction - for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction.

 

If I see the line headed for the surface, IME, if I keep the pressure constant, the fish is probably going to continue to head for the surface and will jump to try to dislodge the hook. I prefer to not have them jump if possible, so there are a few different things I might try. 

 

1) If I have a single hook and relatively large diameter line (for me that is 10# or heavier line), I will wait until they are just about to break the surface and then pull harder on them just as they come out of the water. This can pull them over onto their side and completely FUBAR their jump attempt. If they stay on their side, I can often keep them sliding on their side on top of the water and keep them coming right to the boat. I have done this with some pretty large bass (up to 12 lbs+).

 

2) If I am using a rod that is loaded up pretty far, and especially with lighter line, I will actually ease pressure slightly to see if they will turn and either swim parallel to the surface or start heading for the bottom. Something, anything, that will trigger them to do anything other than jump.

 

3) Sometimes I will stick the rod tip down into the water to change the direction of the pressure even though the pressure stays constant.

[Swamp Girl]

Well, I dialed back the drag on my rods and like Big Hands' suggestions too. I'm leaving now, so we'll see! In a PM, I told PhishLI that my bogs remind me of miniature golf. Other than the windmills, there's every imaginable obstacle between the bass and me. The photos I take don't really convey what's in the water. 

[Team9nine]

10 hours ago, Big Hands said:

 

If I see the line headed for the surface, IME, if I keep the pressure constant, the fish is probably going to continue to head for the surface and will jump to try to dislodge the hook. I prefer to not have them jump if possible, so there are a few different things I might try. 

 

1) If I have a single hook and relatively large diameter line (for me that is 10# or heavier line), I will wait until they are just about to break the surface and then pull harder on them just as they come out of the water. This can pull them over onto their side and completely FUBAR their jump attempt. If they stay on their side, I can often keep them sliding on their side on top of the water and keep them coming right to the boat. I have done this with some pretty large bass (up to 12 lbs+).

 

2) If I am using a rod that is loaded up pretty far, and especially with lighter line, I will actually ease pressure slightly to see if they will turn and either swim parallel to the surface or start heading for the bottom. Something, anything, that will trigger them to do anything other than jump.

 

3) Sometimes I will stick the rod tip down into the water to change the direction of the pressure even though the pressure stays constant.

Agree with the above  especially (1) & (2). I’ve gotten away from (3) myself because it seems to offer the least benefit and can actually hinder efforts because it slows down my rod and line reactions due to drag. The option of just holding the tip steady right above the waters surface and pulling as the bass just clear the surface (1) has replaced 3 for me these days, but option (2) of letting off pressure works well if you think the area is free of cover hazards.

[Swamp Girl]

I fished again this morning with MUCH better results. I caught 25 and lost four. Of the four I lost,...:

 

1. One jumped by the canoe. Suddenly. I didn't have a quick counter and she threw the hook.

 

2. One burrowed into weeds under the canoe.

 

2. Two simply unbuttoned.

 

However, I landed 25 using this advice:

 

1. Last night, I lightened all my drags. A lot.

 

2. I didn't horse fish. I simply maintained tension. In short, I didn't pick a fight and in turn, they were pretty cooperative, largely steering clear of weeds. I kept reminding myself that for every action, there's a reaction.

 

I even got to land a big girl using less drag, not provoking her by pulling, and just maintaining steady tension. Here she is on the bump board and hanging from my hand. She has a nice belly, huh? I caught lots of other chunks too, which I'll post now in the Latest Catch thread. 

 

It's great being able to tap a collective hundreds of years of bass fishing knowledge. Thanks to all of you for advising me.

 

 

[Jar11591]

@ol'crickety glad to hear you got some results to your new landing technique!

[Team9nine]

Great news…and a great fish 

 

 

 

[galyonj]

Nicely done.

[MassBass]

A think a good tip to help with the jump losses, is add another o ring to each treble. Now when a big smallie jumps with an easily leveraged lure like a whopper plopper, it's just gonna get hooked up more.

[WRB]

22 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

So many weeds! And I agree that I'm losing too many. I'm going to try Tom's suggestion tomorrow morning, i.e. less drag. I noted that the canoe does make it harder to play fish, but I've seen kayak fishers land DDs. I am taking a bait caster tomorrow too. I'll keep experimenting.

 

One more question for all y'all: When I hooked a freight train bass this morning, the one that also straightened a treble hook, I heard my rod crack...twice. I'm certain it's stress fractured. I can see the fracture line. Should I junk it?

MH try 4 lbs of drag

Good luck, you always add more drag momentarily on a casting reel with your thumb or spinning reel with a finger tip.

Tom

[MediumMouthBass]

WRB made an excellent point about the drag, during pre spawn i was fishing a lipless crankbait on a MH/Fast rod and kept losing bass over and over again, well my rod was way to stiff and too fast of an action to keep the treble hooks in the fish, i also had my drag very tight. I decided to loosen the drag to where the line would pull out if pressure was applied and caught dozens of fish including my top 10 bass and didnt have any bass come unhooked the following weeks.

I always thought and was told to have my drag set as tight as possible, i learned differently fishing for salmon in NY, these were 10-35lb fish and the only way to land the fish were to have the drag as loose as possible. Theres no comparison between a 30lb salmon and a 3-6lb bass but fishing for the salmon really helped me understand alot about how to become better at bass fishing.

 

[Swamp Girl]

7 hours ago, MassBass said:

A think a good tip to help with the jump losses, is add another o ring to each treble. Now when a big smallie jumps with an easily leveraged lure like a whopper plopper, it's just gonna get hooked up more.

 

I'm going to do ^this^ too. Thanks!

[WRB]

Sometime in the early 80’s my off shore fishing partners and I were at a awards banquet for winning the 3 B light line tournament and earning a World Record line class.

We were seated with the Scotts, John and Lillian who owned all the Giant Black Sea Bass records. The conversation we had is how do you manage to catch those Giant Black Sea Bass. We knew where the Scotts fished and it was a deep rock wall with caves and the surface had a Kelp forest over the area. It’s impossible to turn a 300-500 lbs Black Sea Bass if it wants to run into a cave or Kelp forest.

John said you don’t try to force them out, you let them swim out. The secret was positioning the boat next to the rock wall and cast a fresh dead Bonita out to the kelp edge and let it free fall down and wait. The Giant Sea Bass would eat the Bonita, then Lillian would set the hook and pull as hard as possible until the big bass pulled back and pulled the boat out into clear water while maneuvered the boat where the Scotts could fight and land the fish. I can share today because both Scotts have passed.

I used this positioning  trick on big LMB and let them swim out trouble, it works!

Congratulations Kate going against your instincts and catching those big bass??

Tom

[txchaser]

16 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Agree with the above  especially (1) & (2). I’ve gotten away from (3) myself because it seems to offer the least benefit and can actually hinder efforts because it slows down my rod and line reactions due to drag. The option of just holding the tip steady right above the waters surface and pulling as the bass just clear the surface (1) has replaced 3 for me these days, but option (2) of letting off pressure works well if you think the area is free of cover hazards.

1 (just powerhousing the fish mid-jump) works for me sometimes but has felt less and less reliable over time. It's probably my default as I'm using heavier line/hooks. It might be that I'm not in a good starting place when I try the drag-sweep to just move the fish horizontal. It feels like it used to work a lot but now it doesn't... must be me.

2 (easing pressure) this has been really good for me this year, regardless of line size. As soon as I start feeling the fish come up I just let up pressure. Not slack line, just easing up some. Pretty reliable, probably over 70% of them stop making a surface run. 

 

4 (a new one) for boatside, I fished with a guide who would have me basically stop reeling the fish in about the normal last turn and flash where the fish can see the boat, and let the fish do it's antics out there and get it a little tired, then finish bringing it in. Seems like it is helping. 

[Swamp Girl]

12 minutes ago, WRB said:

Sometime in the early 80’s my off shore fishing partners and I were at a awards banquet for winning the 3 B light line tournament and earning a World Record line class.

We were seated with the Scotts, John and Lillian who owned all the Giant Black Sea Bass records. The conversation we had is how do you manage to catch those Giant Black Sea Bass. We knew where the Scotts fished and it was a deep rock wall with caves and the surface had a Kelp forest over the area. It’s impossible to turn a 300-500 lbs Black Sea Bass if it wants to run into a cave or Kelp forest.

John said you don’t try to force them out, you let them swim out. The secret was positioning the boat next to the rock wall and cast a fresh dead Bonita out to the kelp edge and let it free fall down and wait. The Giant Sea Bass would eat the Bonita, then Lillian would set the hook and pull as hard as possible until the big bass pulled back and pulled the boat out into clear water while maneuvered the boat where the Scotts could fight and land the fish. I can share today because both Scotts have passed.

I used this positioning  trick on big LMB and let them swim out trouble, it works!

Congratulations Kate going against your instincts and catching those big bass??

Tom

 

Thanks, Tom. You guys coached me, but when I was on the water by myself this morning, I had to coach myself, repeating what you guys taught me yesterday, again and again because you're right, under pressure, one tends to revert to old habits. I still wonder if I reverted a little with the one bass that burrowed into weeds under my canoe, if I pulled too hard and triggered that reaction. 

 

I've been happy all day at my landing percentage this morning. Going forward, it will only get harder, as the weeds thicken more and more, but I'll get better and better (I HOPE!) at not picking a fight by trying to outmuscle them. 

 

One final question: What's the best rod for my type of fishing? You all know where I fish and the lures I use. Is it medium? Medium heavy? Fast? Moderate? I'm fishing surface lures the majority of the time. 

[WRB]

I always preferred 6’8” Medium Fast for surface lures or heavier lures over 5/8 oz a 7’ MH crank bait rod.

It’s fishing we don’t always win.

Tom

[Swamp Girl]

11 hours ago, WRB said:

I always preferred 6’8” Medium Fast for surface lures or heavier lures over 5/8 oz a 7’ MH crank bait rod.

It’s fishing we don’t always win.

Tom

 

Thanks, Tom. 

[waymont]

2lbs of drag in your situation is not going to solve your problem.

[stratos4me]

If you're getting owned with single, large hooks go to a heavy power fast action rod and a low to zero stretch line with a tight drag. With treble hooks or tiny single hooks, add give to your system with a lighter action rod, lighter drag, and/or mono.

[LrgmouthShad]

@stratos4me I still like a degree of “give” with the one example you provide of “single, large hooks” 

 

Pressure

[stratos4me]

On 10/13/2023 at 12:57 PM, LrgmouthShad said:

@stratos4me I still like a degree of “give” with the one example you provide of “single, large hooks” 

 

Pressure

I agree. But for me a quality heavy power fast action has plenty of give on a heavy worm hook.