Teaching to feel the bite

[SkeetyCCTX]

Dude, it just take experience and practice.  I have been fishing hardcore since childhood, Im now 28, and there are still times that I set the hook on stumps or miss fish cause I could tell that I had a bite!  It happens to the best of us, all we can do is keep it to a minimum!

As an anlger gets more and more experience, they start to learn with different things feel like and can tell the difference between: grass, sticks, logs, rock, and a fish!  However, in the beginning there is a lot of swings and misses, especially when your into fish.  For example, I took 2 newbies to Choke the other day and we got into a big mess of stagging bass.  After a while, these 2 guys were setting the hook on everything cause they were so excited and used to every thump being a bite!

My suggestion with newbies is to tie on an easy lure and try and locate and area where they can catch a bunch of fish, no matter the species.  Get them used to feeling a live bite.  Get them hooked!  Then you can go out, slow it down; and they can start figuring out the hard stuff through practice.

Remember, keep it fun so they dont loose interest at first!  Especially kids!

[rookiesmallmouther]

take a stick tap her rod and say thats wat it feels like when its just rocks and logs and obstruction

now take a hold of her line and give it some smooth pulls and tugs not hard tugs aor fast jerk tugs but soft smoth tugs and say thats what it feels like when a fish is on

i think this is a very good way to teach her... this is how i taught my bro my uncle and nephews cousins and other people its simple and easy

[NewKidInTown]

Guys and Gals,

As most of you know I'm teaching my girlfriend to fish better. My problem I have realized is she doesnt know the difference between a bite, the weeds/tree, and the bottom.

I have tried to explain it to her but I need to take it further. So here is what I have in mind.

Cast out the lure and fish it with her so she can "feel" what is what while I explain it to her. Hoping we can get a bit and let her set the hook on it.

Has anyone tried this or have a better idea?

Everything else she has picked up real quick. Casting a baitcaster and spinning rod didnt take long at all.

A good sensitive rod always helps.

[Matt Fly]

Nothing better to teach what a bite is than tight lining on bottom with bait, live worms, shrimp, what ever you need for that species.

   I learned to tell how carp can suck a bait for awhile, just gently, a light pull, which is them sucking on it, then running.

   There is no moving the bait, no rocks to bump, twigs, just bites for real.

   Minnow under the boat for crappie, worm on a hooker for perch.   Cut shad for channels and blues.

    Nothing better to teach the bite than getting bit.   

Experience is the best teacher.

   Best advice, "fish do not have hands" 

drop that rod tip, take up slack and rips some lips if ya feel them.   

Hook sets are free.

Fish do not have hands,

[Gangley]

This works:

Have her fish with a weight only, no hook, no lure, nothing.  Have her drag it through brush piles, rocks, stumps, etc.  She wont have to worry about identifying a fish on the line, and she will learn how things feel through the rod.  She will learn what inanimate thigns feel like, and how they hold and release pressure on the rod.  5-10 minutes of doing this and she will have a general idea of what common structures things feel like, making it easier telling a fish from a branch/rock/whatever. 

If she wants to be able to tell the difference between bite and structure, then she first has to be able to identify one or the other.  Once she can tell whats not a fish, she will be much more confident with identifying an actual fish bite.