craigejr

well the only way to lose a fish in the battle in my mind is is not getting a good enough hook set or trying to "horse the fish " when fishing it is very important to feel the strike when fishing plastics take in any slack u have without affecting the bait and use a solid upward hook set using ur body if done correctly you will get a solid hook set right throught the hood of the fishes mouth , from then on out it is rod control keep the rod tip up when the fish is deep and the rod tip down when the fish is near the surface to prevent the bass from jumping and let the big fish wear themselves out dnt horse them in for sure they will get away

i couldnt agree more with thre response to this post . when fishing deep water on big water in north country u can never go wrong with a tube jig find the structure and rocks on the floor of the lake and look for flats and elevation in depth this is a sure hangout for the bigger smallmouth bass and we all know that smallmouth bass spawn in deep water and in tournament fishing this is my stategy the whole way fish the deep water get the limit in big smallies then concentrate on the hogs