Is there somthing wrong with my hookset?

[JayMac89]

Alright guys and gals. I'm having a serious problem. And it's getting really upsetting. So weird too. Here's the backstory....

 

I never fished t-rigs. Blasphemy...I know. Just never had luck until this year. Then it quickly became my favorite technique. Weightless. Used it around memorial day weekend and never looked back. Been catching the most fish iv ever caught. No issues. 7-8 fish in a quick 3 hour morning trip. Then boom. I'm out in early July and I gut hooked somthing like 3 out of 4 fish. Got pretty down. Must be having an of day? Delayed reaction time? I don't know. Got a bit busy with work and didn't fish for a few weeks. Got out this weekend...gut hooked 3 more fish. 

 

Whats going on? Out of no where. And it's not like a 1 time deal. It's happened enough that in such a short time somthing is up. I'm not doing anything different which is why I'm troubled. I had assumed I was delaying my hookset. It's pretty common for me to feel a few tick ticks before setting the hook. Never had an issue that way. Tried setting the hook early and now I'm just not catching fish. 

 

It really gets me down. I'm not trying to hurt these fish. And I'm almost nervous to throw a weightless trig now. I find it so extremely odd though that it just started happening with such consistency out of no where. Not really sure how to proceed. 

 

I gave it quite a bit of thought. And I got two possibilities in my head. Trying to make sense of it. 

1) I'm waiting to long to set the hook. Which honestly dosent make sense to me since I'm not doing anything different. But maybe. 

2) I tend to use smaller worms or creature baits. Did the fish just start engulfing these lures that by the time I feel them they are already swallowing it? 

 

I really don't know but I need help. I feel really guilty and don't want to throw a trig again til I figure this out. 

[Glenn]

 

 

 

 

 

[king fisher]

Come fishing with me and you wont have to worry about gut hooking fish, and you will get a full day of casting practice.

[fin]

I don't have the answer, but I think your diagnosis of the problem is correct. Hookset is too late, but when you can't feel anything because you're fishing weightless and the fish is probably inhaling the bait, there's no way to know it's time to set the hook. When you feel movement, the fish is already swimming away with the bait in its gullet. Fishing smaller baits just exacerbates the problem.

 

I don't like not being able to feel the bait, so I fish with smaller weights instead of going weightless, and I avoid smaller baits. One alternative is something like a Carolina or Free rig, something that separates the bait from the weight, so you get the best of both worlds.

 

I had a three pounder inhale my 1/2 oz lipless a couple days ago, with only a few feet of line out. Fortunately it was barely hooked in the gills and I was able to free it unharmed. So it's unavoidable, but you can reduce the risk. You need to change something or start eating those fish.

 

 

[Ski]

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[Jar11591]

If you’re gut hooking fish consistently, the only logical conclusion is you’re waiting too long to set the hook. If you set it as soon as you feel the strike, then that means you’re bite detection is late. With bass you need to be quick on the draw. Bass not only can swallow baits fast, but can also reject a bait instantaneously. Gotta feel the strike and set the hook as fast as you can, no hesitation ever. And yes that means frogs too. Bass don’t mouth their baits. Feel the strike, drop the rod, reel the slack, and lean back on em as fast as you can. Waiting on a strike in bass fishing as a technique is counter productive, and just leads to missed fish or gut hooks. 

[Swamp Girl]

@fin nailed it. I only have this to add: I see my hits more than I feel them. The line will move left or right and I'll set the hook before I've even felt a hit. 

[Zcoker]

Late hookset = more time for the fish to swallow the bait. That's a given BUT I've had them swallow the bait instantly on the hit. Those gut hooked fish softened you up. Might go bigger on the hook and flatten down the barb. Hook pulls right out with least damage. I like the ewg offset. The idea on the ewg offset is that it might grab something before going lower into the throat. Get your confidence back. Shake it off. 

[Tackleholic]

Not sure, but maybe you are using a thin, high quality fluorocarbon line and having difficulty seeing the line move;  when fishing weightless most of your bites may come on the fall.  If that is the problem, you could try switching to a high visibility braid for the mainline with a fluorocarbon leader;  you should be able to see even the slightest line movement.

[Bankc]

Don't beat yourself up too much over it.  It's part of fishing.  Sometimes, you're gonna gut hook fish no matter what you do.  I've gut hooked plenty of fish while burning or trolling a crankbait, so you'd think they had no time to swallow it, but apparently they do.  Sometimes it's something you can adjust to correct.  Sometimes it's not. 

 

But yeah.  Watch your line.  Sometimes you can't feel a bite, but you'll notice something going on with your line that's not right.  Like maybe it should have hit bottom by now, but didn't, or the line is slacking faster than it should.  Basically, anytime you see or feel something that doesn't seem right, set the hook.  As they say (or something along these lines), "I don't know what a bite feels like, but I know what not a bite feels like.  So anything that's not not a bite, gets a hookset". 

[Choporoz]

Was it windy on those days?  A little wind can really affect how my fish are hooked.  A little more bow in the line, a little decreased sensitivity, and things are more challenging.   On days when the fish are aggressively feeding, it can mean gut hooking sometimes. 

[Pat Brown]

Copy Pasted my response to basically the same question in another thread recently:

 

'Gut hooking fish.

 

If you fish a lot - it happens to you.

 

No angler likes to see it - but eventually you come to expect it to some degree.

 

Baits I have killed bass with for no reason whatsoever that I could even detect (blood pumping out of the fish profusely even though the bait was in a lip):

 

Chatterbait

Spinnerbait

Buzzbait

Football Jig 

Lipless Crankbait

Squarebill

Frittside

Many Jerkbaits of various sizes and brands.

 

Baits I have gut hooked bass with (hooked the skin at the back of the mouth past the chompers resulting in a fish death):

 

Weightless Plastic 

Football Jig

Frog

Popper

Lipless Crankbait 

Squarebill

Frittside

Jerkbaits

 

Basically I have seen fish that should have died do well and make it AND I've hooked fish in the lip that nicked themselves grabbing the bait in some way that was fatal.

 

We don't have a ton of control over the situation - we just driving a hook point into an animal that's biting our presentation.

 

What you can do if you care is bend the barbs down on your hooks. This will ultimately completely eliminate gut hooking a fish.

 

The ones that nick themselves fatally going for the bait?

 

Yeah I got nothing there. It's a freak show every time that happens and it sucks.

 

The best thing we can do in any of these unfortunate situations is honor the animals life by taking her home and nourishing our bodies or our gardens with her. Leaving her for the turtles is okay too - nature spares nothing. I just prefer to take em home and feed my family.'

 

It's just one of the not so fun realities of sticking hooks into a living things head and or throat and then wearing them out with a long arduous fight.  Sometimes they don't make it.  Get back out there and keep fishing.  👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼😎😎😎

[Zcoker]

16 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

The ones that nick themselves fatally going for the bait?

 

Yeah I got nothing there. It's a freak show every time that happens and it sucks.

 

 

 

 

 

With this one, there's something that you can do. If they're bleeding profusely from a fatal nick, get them in the water asap! Lotta fishermen don't know this but fish blood coagulates IN THE WATER. So the blood will thus gush out while messing around with them out of the water and it looks like they're goners. A quick soak will usually stop the bleeding long enough to get the hook out. As a word of caution: just be mindful where you are dipping a bleeding fish. In some places, using a net to dip the fish is a safe practice. 

[Functional]

Agreed with everyone overall.

 

If you fish long enough its going to happen, along with a tongue hook and gill hook and eye hook, etc., etc. They all suck but its part of the risk of fishing. For me, those bad gut hooks and tongue hooks become food. No sense in wasting a fish that is 90%+ chance of dying.

 

It sounds like it could be one or both of 2 things. 1) your bite detection needs work. Keep your finger tip  on the line when at a pause or fall helps tremendously. Keep just enough tension on the line to feel the bait but not move it (hard/impossible to do with weightless). 2) you are waiting too long to set the hook.

 

Pretty much what everyone has said but things to possibly improve on. 

[Pat Brown]

11 minutes ago, Zcoker said:

 

With this one, there's something that you can do. If they're bleeding profusely from a fatal nick, get them in the water asap! Lotta fishermen don't know this but fish blood coagulates IN THE WATER. So the blood will thus gush out while messing around with them out of the water and it looks like they're goners. A quick soak will usually stop the bleeding long enough to get the hook out. As a word of caution: just be mindful where you are dipping a bleeding fish. In some places, using a net to dip the fish is a safe practice. 

 

 

Of course!  More so just saying that sometimes they float right on up to the surface belly up and flopping even when immediately returned to the water...etc etc etc 

 

I just feel for the anglers who get super down on themselves over gut hooking bass.  It is just part of what happens when you do everything as right as you can.

 

The best any of us can do is educate ourselves on fish care and try our best to be diligent when feeling for a bite.  Getting them back in the water as soon as possible after removing the hook is always a very good idea - blood or not.  👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[Zcoker]

15 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

 

 

Of course!  More so just saying that sometimes they float right on up to the surface belly up and flopping even when immediately returned to the water...etc etc etc 

 

I just feel for the anglers who get super down on themselves over gut hooking bass.  It is just part of what happens when you do everything as right as you can.

 

The best any of us can do is educate ourselves on fish care and try our best to be diligent when feeling for a bite.  Getting them back in the water as soon as possible after removing the hook is always a very good idea - blood or not.  👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

 

I've never had a floater. Then, again, I fish very shallow water. I've heard that bass sometimes don't fare well from coming up from the depths. I know Josh Jones says he's had a number of floaters out at O.H. Ivie, which is a bummer because he usually brings up giants! If they come in bleeding badly, I usually put them back in the water before hook removal, long enough to settle things down. They all seem to swim off lively. If they're bleeding that bad, or if unsure about things, it's better to just cut the line as close to hook as possible and toss them back. 

[BrianMDTX]

I hate guthooking bass, but it happens. Sometimes they hit the bait and run hard and you know it instantly and sometimes you feel nothing even though they’ve inhaled it deep. Learning how to remove a hook through the gills really helped me release bass quickly with little to no fatalities. But it still happens at times. 

[fin]

1 hour ago, Zcoker said:

As a word of caution: just be mindful where you are dipping a bleeding fish.

 

 

What? Who? Me?

[Zcoker]

9 minutes ago, fin said:

 

 

What? Who? Me?

 

Down my way, that's a common site! 

[WRB]

Owner #5185 Mosquito Circle hook or #5114 Mutu light circle hook solved gut hooking bass issues.

Tom

[Tackleholic]

I agree with WRB about using a circle hook, but practice is necessary with the hookset;  read up on it.  I also agree with Functional when he said to keep a finger on the line;  that's very important in detecting bites.  I used to use barbless circle hooks when wacky rigging for smallmouth but they were hard to find.

[Catt]

19 hours ago, Zcoker said:

 

Down my way, that's a common site! 

 

Down my way, that's Sauce piquante!

[33oldtimer]

Weightless T-Rig I let it set only a second or two then twitch it. About 1/3 of the time a fish is already on it and I feel the weight when I start to twitch it then set the hook. I still had one gut hooked that way as occasionally they just inhale a weightless bait. Get a gut hooked fish back into the water quickly.

[JayMac89]

Thanks guys. 

 

I'm not saying my hookset or bite detection doesn't need work, but I find it odd that it wasn't a problem for months then boom its a problem. Fin mentioned adding a weight which is exactly what I just did for tomorrow's prep. Alot of times I know I have a fish because before I even hit the bottom my lines running. Feel nothing. Other times it's a quick "tick tick" and the lines running as in reeling in the slack. And like I said, wasn't a issue then became a big problem. I'm going to work on the bite detection but in the mean time I'm adding a weight and upping the size. 

 

Whoever mentioned wind, that's a really good point and somthing I didn't think about. I'm honestly not sure what the wind was like but that's somthing to keep in mind. 

 

And I will say this, only 1 fish was bleeding bad. Most weren't bleeding at all. Even though I never gut hooked a fish until recently, I read about how to deal with it here. So I think iv handled them pretty well. But all the advice about the barbs is genius and somthing I didn't think about either. 

 

Seriously, thank you all for the advice. I still don't get why it was such a sudden change. But that dosent matter, somthing has to change. I need to do somthing different. At least now I have multiple options to try.