Fish coming unpinned

[SpinLight]

I have been fishing for over 60 years now, and have never had as many fish get off after being pinned for several yards as I did on Wednesday. Must have been a dozen that came off within the first 10-15 yards, or about 15 to 20 feet away from the boat. Landed about 15 bass. Very annoying.

 

Details: fishing for spotted bass with a 3-inch Easy Shiner and 2.8 SI Fat 6# Varivas Super Trout Advance Sight Edition mono (I do not use braid or fluoro), Picasso 1/8^th oz. and Gamakatsu 1/8^th oz. jigheads with #1 and 1/0 size hooks, ’24 Certate 2500 reels, Megabass Baby Pluggin rod and another rod with a softer tip. Most of the bites were on long casts with most of the slack removed before the bite. I may have been setting the hook too quickly on the first few fish.

 

“Help me if you can I’m feeling down….” All suggestions, ideas, and solutions are appreciated. Thanks.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

It happens to everyone, you ever notice how some days the fish choke the baits, and other days you only get them in with a single treble point in the lip?

 

Non committal bites are a real thing.   Bass are curious creatures, and equally aggressive ones.....two traits that lead Bass to hit a bait, but not completely eat it.  

 

I had over 20 fish come off on Sunday.   More than I actually caught, first time that's ever happened to me.  

 

Unless it becomes a pattern don't sweat it.  

[Alex from GA]

Long casts with mono sometimes can't get past the barb.  I had a few come off yesterday and I pinch the barb partways down.  The worm doesn't come off but it penetrates better.

[GreenPig]

I've had a few days like that while fishing lighter gear. I believe sometimes when you're setting the hook that the jighead is pulling against the clamped lips. You fight the fish a bit, sometimes all the way to the boat and they finally release it. Next trip you'll likely not lose one.

[casts_by_fly]

Long casts and fish grabbing it lightly. The hook point catches a hard spot in the mouth just right and they don’t get stuck because of the stretch in the line. If you watched the BPT there were a lot of guys on Toledo where the hook was falling out at the boat as soon as they let slack into it. Just make sure your hooks are sharp.

[WRB]

When making longer cast trying to hook set using only your rod the result is poor hook sets. Try the reel set and firm rod sweep technique similar to hook setting a crank bait.

The lures you are using have excellent hooks so dull hook isn’t the issue nor is line stretching imo.

However some of those fish could be crappie this time of year and hooks tend to tear out if over pressured.

Tom

 

[TOXIC]

Could be a combination of things.  If I am losing fish after the hookset a couple of things come to mind.  First, I’ll sharpen the hook just to eliminate that issue.  If I keep losing them I will change hooks.  May not be the cause but I do it anyway.  I tried a new Ned head and so did my fishing partner.  We were both losing fish at the boat.  I have a buddy who pours his own Ned’s and uses a stout trout hook and they never come unpinned. I’m going back to his Ned’s. 

[FishTax]

I feel your pain. I've had them come off on my last 3 trips. I think there are several components for me, one being in keeping my rod tip too high and am not setting the hook from the right position. For me it's like picking my head up on my golf swing, I know better but keep doing it. Frustrating!

[TOXIC]

Let me also say, I was not getting good hook-sets on my dedicated Senko rod.  After some reflection, I realized I was routinely making longer casts, so my preference for a lighter action rod was working against me.  I went to a stiffer action rod and it solved the problem.  For reference, I am a mono user with a 4.0 ewg hook on a spinning setup for my Senko fishing.  

[Pat Brown]

Yeah, what I'm reading here is you might need a stiffer rod with a little more backbone probably! Also definitely learn @WRB's long distance hookset, it's become my go to hookset with single hooks on long casts for a while now and it works.

[Captain Phil]

You are not as young as you used to be.  Happens to everyone.  Just saying..  Mono stretches. On a long cast, the hook penetrating power is severely reduced.  Like many, I resisted changing to braid.  I switched last year and it makes a world of difference for me.   The sensitivity is greatly improved and you won't lose as many fish.  I use 30 pound braid with a fluorocarbon leader.  I use a blood knot to connect the leader and it works great.  I know you don't want to, but try it.  I think you will be pleased with the result. 

[Swamp Girl]

Quote

Must have been a dozen that came off within the first 10-15 yards, or about 15 to 20 feet away from the boat. Landed about 15 bass.

 

I envy you. I frequently lose half my fish. Of course, I also have days where I boat 95% of my fish. Like Alex said, we all have off-days.

[Zcoker]

I don't think I'll ever use mono again for bass fishing. Much of my success out in the everglades I attribute to using braid. Makes a world of difference in my world. I tried the mono and the stretchy nature of it was just to weird for my liking. I like direct contact, or as much direct contact as possible, both for feeling the hits and hooking the fish. I can tell right off the bat if I got 'em pinned good. The  braid transmits that victorious feeling. She ain't going nowhere! 

[PaulVE64]

Light spinning gear, 1.5# to 2# of drag, light wire hooks and braid to mono leader.