What's your landing ratio?

[Swamp Girl]

I wonder if you guys who land 90-95% of your bass ever have this situation: A bass hits. It surges away like a locomotive...for about a second...and then it's free. There isn't even time for me to make a mistake. It's on/then off. This happens to me pretty much every time I go fishing and many trips, several times. It's the One Second Hookup.

 

And if anyone has an idea of how to extract bass from a reed field, I'm all ears. I'll hook a bass in a reed field and the bass hooks my lure on a reed and shakes free. I can catch an occasional bass in reeds like the one below, but I lose the great majority of them, which is a pity, because thick bass are thick in reeds. I occasionally have success bringing their heads up so they can't dig into the water, but if it's a deeper hit and they've got reeds everywhere, they win. Remember that I'm fishing from a tippy canoe that nests in the water. I can't stand. I love the bass that hang in reeds, but more and more, I won't cast to them. 99% of the bass in the reeds are lmbs and and longer and thicker than the brown bass below, which is probably why I managed to land this reed field bass. 

 

[Bankbeater]

Probably about 80/20.  I tend to loose the fish if they aren't hooked good, or if there is some type of solid cover between me and the fish. 

[bartnc37]

On the river for smallies, probably 60/40, they get into that current and just go wild.  In a lake setting probably 75/25.  Always seems like you get a few that just bump a crankbait, or whiff on a stickbait

 

[Mike L]

@ol'crickety

 

Couple Things…

Your “One Second Hookup” is in all likelihood a “One Second Grab and Go”

She isn’t hooked at all. 
She either has it in her mouth for a split second and either the hook rolled, your weight blew her mouth opened or she just took the end and never reached the hook.

She didn’t like what she felt and dropped it. 
 

As far as your hook set. 
I never fished from a canoe but it has to be close to sitting on a seat in the back of a boat which doesn’t give enough hook setting power to drive a heavy hook in. 

When pulling bass in from what you describe everything has to work together..

Gotta get the hook in with all the leverage you got, get her head up and out immediately and ski her in if you have to. 

Tough to do a foot off the water 
 

I assume your equipment is up to par ( a (light spinning rod is not it)

 

Also, no need to make a long over the shoulder bomb cast when fishing in the heavy stuff. 
However the reeds in your picture aren’t that thick at all but still you’d be better off making no more than 5-10yd pitches which will help with your leverage. 
 

 

 

 

Mike

[Koz]

My landing ratio is decent. But it’s what happens when I put them on my Ketch board and try to grab my phone to take a picture where I need a lot of work.

 

I lost two yesterday. I need to engineer a solution.

[Catt]

@ol'crickety I have that happen occasionally when fishing deep water structure. My Texas Rig or Jig-n-Craw will be sitting on the bottom doing nuthin when something grabs it like a freight train taking my rod tip almost to the water.

 

It's happens so fast all I can do is hold on, no time to even set hook.

[Swamp Girl]

6 minutes ago, Catt said:

when something grabs it like a freight train taking my rod tip almost to the water.

 

That's it exactly. Their power shocks me, again and again and again.

 

I think @Mike L is right, that some of them have merely grabbed the bait, but not reached the hook. When I hook my soft plastics on underspins, I have the hook tip tight to the paddle tail, so it's barely exposed. I couldn't cast where I cast if it were exposed. Mike, the reed field above is young. I'm sure it's filled in already to the point where I wouldn't dare cast in it because I'd hook a bass and immediately lose that bass. 

 

59 minutes ago, Mike L said:

I never fished from a canoe but it has to be close to sitting on a seat in the back of a boat which doesn’t give enough hook setting power to drive a heavy hook in. 

 

Yeah, I think my canoe really limits me. It's my strength, allowing me to launch and fish in places no bass boat could reach, but it's my weakness too. 

 

1 hour ago, Mike L said:

Gotta get the hook in with all the leverage you got, get her head up and out immediately and ski her in if you have to. 

 

I've managed to do this a few times. I did it with the fish below, but she NEARLY reached heavy cover. You can see how close she was to far thicker reeds. When I plunged the net into the water, I had to force it through the reeds that were there and reeds are stiff. 

 

 

[Mike L]

No trolling motor would be able to move in that stuff 

In that case what I do in almost every instance is to work the hard outside edge changing speed and depth working my way out.

Change direction and pitch angles as I work my back in. 
 
For my 2nd set of passes I use a reaction style bait from about 5ft out this time back to the hard edge, then change to a plastic and work the bottom back out to that same distance making sure I saturate any thinning or indented spots. 
 

Turn around and doing both again as I cover water 50-75 yards at a time. 
 

Again, that’s just my standard way of doing it every time. 
Worth a shot if you’re struggling to get a hit.
If they’re aggressive or passive and set up anywhere around there they’ll let you know soon enough. 
 

If after 2 sets of going in and out I move on. 
 

Good Luck

 

 

 

 

Mike

[MediumMouthBass]

My ratio is 100% for late spring/early summer. I havent lost a single bass in about 2 months.

I also havent caught a bass in the last 2 months so theres that.

 

Havent been fishing much, been enjoying several other hobbies but fished the other day for a bit and had a great time.... When im fishing full time my ratio is about 90-95%, for smallmouth and largemouth in lakes/ponds, i had to lose alot of bass, and even some huge bass to learn how my line, rod, and reel work with me, or against me when fighting a bass.

 

Having a rod and reel you trust and can depend on 100% of the time are a big part, knowing how your rod should bend, where it bends, and the strength it has have been crucial for me, i have dozens of rods but stick to only Aird X rods mainly. Because i know every part of that rod, and have spent alot of time using it. And a reel with a good drag, thats been properly cleaned, oiled and lubricated that has a slightly loose drag, (my ratio used to be 50/50, i either had my drag extremely tight or very loose, last year after losing tons of bass in pre spawn, and some giants too i decided to set the drag loose just enough i pull tight some line will come off the spool), after doing that i dont loose much bass, but trout, panfish, and pickerel is another story thats about 50/50. 

 

Now fishing the river for smallmouth, that varies by day. Sometimes it can be 80-90% and others 30%.

 

And for some extra info, i dont set the hook like a Youtuber, and dont reel it back in as fast as i possibly can and then flip it into the boat when its still 5' away. Those guys on youtube, great entertainment.

[Swamp Girl]

46 minutes ago, Mike L said:

Worth a shot if you’re struggling to get a hit.

 

This is not my problem. I get a lot of hits. I just don't land a lot of reed bass. Thanks for all the info. I'm working it like cud. 

 

[Woody B]

I think the "grab then gone" fish are mostly small.  Obviously I'm not feeling what y'all are feeling.   When I have grab then gone bites I don't have them "on" long enough to feel how big they are.   Sometimes, if this is happening quite a bit I'll do something different with my hook setup, then land a Perch or something that's not a Bass.  

 

A big part of me landing Bass is boat control.   My boat isn't big by Bass boat standards but it's a solid platform for setting the hook.   A small Canoe or even Kayak is going to soften the hookset.   Then, after the hookset if using a paddle you're unable to steer the Bass, instead the Bass pulls the boat around.   I fish right in the middle of lay downs quite a bit.   Most of the time when hooked the Bass come up.  I'm able snatch and surfboard them away from the lay down.   While this is happening I'm using my (oversized) foot controlled trolling motor to move the boat, and Bass away from stuff to get tangled up in.   

 

So far this year I've lost a couple fish that broke off on the hookset.  These were due to me not retying when I should.  I've had one get tangled in a lay down and break off.   I've told this before, but last month I lost what looked like a 3 pounder on my first cast, on it's first jump.   I followed up with a wacky, and broke something off on the hookset on my next cast.  This was first thing on a Saturday morning.  I spot locked my boat, re tied everything, re rigged a wacky and sharpened my dull spinnerbait hook.   The next cast (to the same spot) I caught my biggest Bass of the year.   

 

 

I don't have anywhere to fish around here with reeds like that I'm sure I'd lose more fish.  I also suspect I'd catch more fish too.   (and I'd be using #50+ braid instead of #12 mono)

[WRB]

Bass in reeds/cattail etc I use straight braid and rods strong enough to keep the bass coming towards me.

Sitting in a light  canoe you don’t have any leverage so over powering the bass isn’t an option. We have a few lakes I fish with that have heavy reeds and using standard tackle with 12 lb FC line. What I have learned is the harder you hook set the faster the bass wants to run into the cover. 
When I use my standard reel set and rod sweep hook set the bass often follow the reeling pressure coming towards me while I do a firm rod sweep and keep reeling. The bass tends to run sideways or towards me out of the cover.

Tom

[Mike L]

11 minutes ago, WRB said:

What I have learned is the harder you hook set the faster the bass wants to run into the cover. 

When I use my standard reel set and rod sweep hook set the bass often follow the reeling pressure coming towards me while I do a firm rod sweep and keep reeling. The bass tends to run sideways or towards me out of the cover.

Tom

 

Ditto

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[Swamp Girl]

34 minutes ago, WRB said:

When I use my standard reel set and rod sweep hook set the bass often follow the reeling pressure coming towards me while I do a firm rod sweep and keep reeling. The bass tends to run sideways or towards me out of the cover.

 

Tom, do you have a video of someone doing this type of hook-set? I'd love to try it.

 

@Woody B: Those one-second bass are not little. Not in Maine.

[A-Jay]

46 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Tom, do you have a video of someone doing this type of hook-set? I'd love to try it.

 

 Hook sets Standing on the front deck of the Pro-V bass

vs

Sitting in the Old Town canoe are totally different.

The seated deal requires far more 'force', at least for me.

Over coming the boats movement toward the fish

and the fish coming at me is often quite a challenge.  

Being anchored in the canoe helps quite a bit. 

The few times I've fished from a kayak it's even tougher, especially a super light one.

Unless the fish is directly under the smaller craft, sweeping the hookset

while never stopping the reeling (at least at the start)

can be a decent way to keep a determine stout bass from coming unpinned. 

https://youtu.be/gSHOgDGlJGE?feature=shared&t=10

https://youtu.be/NArz656wh9I?feature=shared&t=294

A-Jay

 

[WRB]

Greg Hackney has a video Why I don’t miss jig bites. He talks about the reel set and rod sweep.

Tom

[Swamp Girl]

Thanks, @WRB and @A-Jay. I watched Andy's videos several times and I'll watch Greg's video too. Andy, as I've shared several times in the past, my canoe weighs 32 pounds, which is lighter than any sit-on-top fishing kayak. It's a sled and the bass are the sled dogs. I'm fishing this evening from my 85-pound, two-person canoe at my pond, which I've come to enjoy because while it's harder for me to paddle, it's harder for the bass to pull. 

[Zcoker]

If I lose a fish, I always intensify my reasoning as to why. Because there’s always a reason, whether it be tackle, technique, presentation, or plain ‘ol chance, something caused it to happen. Sometimes I figure it out and sometimes I don’t but at least trying to figure it out (and making the appropriate changes) has helped me maintain a very high catch ratio. 

 

 

[PaulVE64]

I saw a big one snatch my river jig today but it was a swing and a miss.

I still had the adrenaline rush which was fun for an old river man.

 

[Catt]

 

[PaulVE64]

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Thanks, @WRB and @A-Jay. I watched Andy's videos several times and I'll watch Greg's video too. Andy, as I've shared several times in the past, my canoe weighs 32 pounds, which is lighter than any sit-on-top fishing kayak. It's a sled and the bass are the sled dogs. I'm fishing this evening from my 85-pound, two-person canoe at my pond, which I've come to enjoy because while it's harder for me to paddle, it's harder for the bass to pull. 

I spent an entire spring and early summer dragging a jig over pebble bottom. 

Gene Hackney told me to

[Catt]

Every bass is different 

Every bite is different 

Every hookset is the same

 

Feeling the bite & hookset timing isn't only about sensitive of your equipment, it's about interpreting what you're feeling.

[Swamp Girl]

1 minute ago, Catt said:

Feeling the bite & hookset timing isn't only about sensitive of your equipment, it's about interpreting what you're feeling.

 

So true. I was fishing a rock flat today and my underspin tick-tick-ticked the bottom. Every tick felt almost like a bite, but then you get a slightly different tick and you somehow know that that tick is a bass.

[PaulVE64]

I"m often waiting for weight but not the weight from grass, 

Can it be described as anything "not quite the same'

[TnRiver46]

No clue. I can’t even remember if I caught 4 or 5 or 6 fish by the end of the day so i definitely can’t calculate ratios