CDMTJager

Thank you for your advice. So far I only ever work my flukes as a soft jerk bait. But I absolutely always speed up my retrieve every retrieve and undoubtedly over 50% of my strikes occur either when I stop and the bait falls or after I have speeded up a retrieve and pause. And yes I have caught more than a few fish that hit while I was just reeling in the fluke towards the end of a retrieve but I have not enjoyed as much success working T-rigged boot paddle swim baits as flukes. In my lakes exposed hook swimbaits or flukes are nothing but veggie salad harvesters.

You sir are exactly correct. I now do precisely as you describe/advise. I detect the strike fast as possible take up slack by reeling down and to fish make huge side sweep to my right as I retrieve with my left hand. I went 10 for 10 last night but as stated lost two to my knot slipped and failed. I agree with you. Last night used only a Gamak Super Line screw lock hook hooked up 10 for 10 but lost two due to knot failure caused by eyes no longer able to see small knots well enough to confirm knot tied correctly.

Well followed the advice of members here on trying new and different hook, rod and line selections for fishing T-Rigged soft plastic flukes and I admit while it was only a single outing but I definitely experienced a significant increase in success in my opinion. Little back ground first. I found a new area of this lake I have been fishing since THE SIXTY's, I never fished before. It is obvious to me based on my years pf past experience, from mid April to end of June the weed and lily pad growth in this new area are perfect for BOTH holding bass and fishing with a soft plastic fluke. Once July 4th weekend gets here the pads will be so thick I will loose 70-80% of the open water areas that allow me the ability to fish a soft plastic fluke like a jerk bait. So considering my situation and I wanted to give a MHFA spinning rod a try my lack of patients got the better of me and instead of holding out for a better deal on a rod keeping me much closer to $100, I went with a 7'3" MHFA Shimano Intenza spinning rod. So based on the advise of member's here I am now fishing with a 7'3" MHFA rod VS a 7'3" MHMA rod, size 4000 reel (VS 3000) 20 lb Suffix 832 (VS 30lb) to 10lb Yo-Zuri Copolymer and a size 4/0 Gamak Super Line screw lock VS a 3/0 Owner Lite. Must admit I had originally planned on starting with a 4/0 Owner SL Lite hook but failed to pack any with and only had Gamak's on hand. Worth saying I use a spinning rod because I can cast at least 2x more accurately with a spinning rod VS casting. Last night conditions were OK but less than Ideal with strong 10-15 MPH ENE (I was only able to cast NE/E/SE, no W casting at all) winds after two consecutive days of T-storms and moderate to at times heavy rains. Was 80* and 50/50 sun to clouds. I fished one of my best areas and new for this year, sections of minimal emergent lilly pads with open areas spaced between pads but entire area has weed growth now to thick for even a chatterbait. Entire area is in a pocket between one very large point and one smaller double point. Fished a Cabela's 5" Shadee Shad in White Ice I dipped the last .5-.75" of the tail in chartreuse dye and used a ORG Spike-It maker to put orange on the flukes belly to make it (guessing here) somewhat resemble a bluegill. Numbers of fish caught on this color modified fluke VS unmodified is significantly greater. First cast was at 4:30p. Fishing started slowly for this spot as I didn't get my first bass until 5:22pm. This is a new as of this spring area of the lake to me have fished it 14 times now and the previous 13x had caught a bass within the 1st 10 casts every visit. Ironically I for years I walked right past this area because I didn't want to deal with busting through heavy weeds full of ticks and essentially a wall of thorn bushes to gain access to the fishing this area and seeing as after 14 times fishing this area and not once ever seeing anyone else fish it I now know why it has been not just a great spot but a consistently great spot as I have yet to fish the area and not catch at least three bass and the size and quality of the bass are as good as I've caught from this lake. Also there are no areas of the lake close enough to see a person wading and fishing there so no one actually can see me while I am fishing it. I actually found it by just blindly busting through the brush just to see what I would find as the area is not visible from shore due to 8-10' high year round brush and weeds that grows as thick as boiler plates. I'm sure the wall of thorn bushes and tick infestation combined with it is a VERY VERY long walk to access it has kept people out so far. I have now fished this area 14 times and all 14 times I had to remove ticks from myself or my clothes. Caught two more bass in under 40 minutes last one and bass #3, was a solid 3.5-3.75lb bass that came off a cattail reed point that hit as soon as the fluke hit the water and took advantage of the delay of my noticing the HI-Vis line moving (wind=choppy waves) and by the time I set the hook had gotten WAY into the reeds and I had to drag her out. Thank God for my 20lb Sufix braid. Decided I best retie to my swivel with a new Yo-Z leader and with in 10 casts got another bass on set the hook, felt him fighting hard and then felt a weird sensation and lost the fish. Looked at my line and it was painfully obvious my knot had slipped and failed. Cost me $2+ in a lost hook and new fluke. Retied and not 10 casts later exact same thing happens. I have never that I can recall EVER had two knots fail me during many many weeks of fishing let alone two times with two knots in a row. If being 100% honest, yes I do tie bad knots every now and then but I could always see well enough to see that I did so or I felt that something about the knot didn't feel right when I cinched it down and I would retie. I now must face the fact my eyesight has changed and I can no longer see small things like a fishing knot well enough without my 1.5x cheater glasses to see and confirm if I tied it correctly or not. So I went to my tackle BP got out my cheaters and tied a prefect Trilene knot wich did take two tries, but that knot held up fine for five more bass that night. Caught three more bass in that location before it went cold and I moved to a different location and threw a frog. New location had a lot of lily pads caught one bass on the frog B-casting setup, one got off my frog, and missed two blowups. Went back to same area and caught two more bass on the fluke, one on the frog, location again went cold. Moved to again a new location caught no bass on frog or fluke. It was twilight now and I went home. On all eight bass I caught up to that point on the fluke I noticed four things. #1 I didn't miss any bass that hit, and I successfully set the hook on all eight of them. #2 despite all of them going airborne multiple times none got off #3 the hook was set in all of them so well I needed my NN piers to dislodge the hook meaning no way were those bass getting off #4 and likely very important, of the 10 bass I got on and 8 I got in 9 of them hit within the first 10-20% of my retrieve while I still had out 80-90% of my cast making a good hook more difficult VS of I had out much less line. In the past I was having at least 20% of the bass I got on get off and of the bass I landed at least 30% if not more in MY opinion despite VERY hard tight line hook sets, the hook (IMO) exhibited poor penetration and required at most minimal effort to remove the hook. Last night I experienced (Save for my two incidents of inept knot tying) 100% success in hook sets and landing the bass and the hook penetration IMO could not possibly get any better. As I said this is but one outing and 8 bass, but a I can not argue with an increase from 75-80% of hooking fish to 100% and a 75% increase of landing fish to 100%. I feel my increase in success can be essentially attributed to combination of three factors #1 using a MHFA rod VS a MHMA rod #2 using zero stretch braid VS copolymer #3 using a 4/0 hook VS a 3/0 hook. I did absolutely nothing else different or changed nothing at all from my style of fishing or how I set the hook. Absolutely no doubt in my mind I could feel the difference in how the combination of MHFA rod and zero stretch braid allowed me to make a more solid forceful hook set VS the MHMA rod this was most pronounced and noticeable when bass hit when I had 35-40 yards of line out. Best way I can describe the difference is now the hook sets felt to me as if I had snagged a large object more than hooking a fish. On one bass last night, a rather good one at at least 3.5-3.7lbs that hit almost immediately after my fluke hit the water at the end of a 40-45 yard cast about 5-7 yards other side of a section of pads, I was able to with minimal effort get him up on top of the water and winch him over all the weeds and pads to land him. I had the same thing happen in the past using my MHMA rod and I couldn't essentially "manhandle" a bigger bass anywhere near as easily like I did with the MHMF rod, and both rods are 7'3's. Thanks to a few simple changes suggested by members here my success hooking and landing bass has gone up at least 25%. Thanks to the great members here for their help and sharing their experiences with me.

Thank you for you well thought out and written response. I will do as you advise and keep an eye out for when the Johnny Morris rods goes on sale as I have a Cabela's 15 minuet's from my home and a BPS 25 minutes from my home as I will need at least one more dedicated fluke fishing spinning setup for my sons to use. Oddly enough for no particular reason I have never consider buying my higher end (FOR ME) $90-$160 or above rods from Cabela's or BPS. Thanks for bringing doing so to my attention. I currently use Ugly Stick Elites (which I buy during club member promotions for $60) for all my casting of all chatterbaits and frogging and have been frankly shocked how well a $60 baitcasting rod works. My other favorite is a 7'3" MHF 13 Blackout casting rod I found on sale for $45EA at a sale on Ebay if I bought a bundle of four. As much as I wish I could buy higher end rods and reels, having to outfit three VS one fisherman makes that financially unwise.

Well impatience got the better of me mostly because the weed growth accessible from shore or wading in the lakes I fish is about perfect for both attracting and holding bass and being able to fish all I can reach with a cast. In a months time the direct opposite will be true. Right now for my lakes the bass action is as good as it will get. So I bought a 7'3" MHF Shimano Intenza put a size 4000 reel on it spooled with 20lb Suffex 832 and using 10-12lb Yo-Zuri copolymer. Went out last night and to use the new rod reel and line setup using T-rigged 5-5.25" Flukes. Will post my results in a nre post.

Have several 4000 NIB and my spool of HIVIZ yel 832 is empty on a 4000 reel as I type this.

I greatly appreciate the rod suggestion especially from such a highly thought of and knowledgeable member such as yourself, but I believe that is a casting rod and I am in need of a MHF spinning rod. I sincerely hope I am wrong as that would be a perfect spinning rod for an awesome price.

Based on a recommendation of a fellow member here for a MHF spinning rod for fishing flukes in heavy vegetation, found A Shimano Intenza 7'3" MHF on Ebay for $160 TMD which is within my budget. Anyone know of a better MHF rod for flukes and heavy cover than this rod? Ebay is the ONLY place with it currently in stock.

Did find it in stock at Ebay for $160 TMD

Greatest of thanks' sounds like exactly what I am looking for unfortunately its out of stock everywhere until August.

Thank you sir for your astute observation. I now thanks to you realize I made a mistake when I originally bought the Falcon lowrider as I thought it was a MH FAST action when indeed it is a MH MEDIUM action. So scratch the Falcon Lowrider spinning rod off my list. So now that my mistake has THANKFULLY been brought to my attention, what would be my best choice in a MHF spinning rod for a dedicated fluke only rod?

Thank you for the advice. Plan on trying a 4/0 hook to see if my hookup ratio improves. I am also always after big bass, BUT what is considered a big bass for THAT lake. AND keeping in mind I am shore fisherman with very limited access to limited structure that holds bass. In the three lakes near my home I do 85-90% of my fishing in anything over 3lbs is a higher quality bigger than average bass, anything over 4lbs IS a BIG bass. My success of the last 4 years has dramatically increased because I have started to very aggressively scout the shore line of these lakes which very high and very dense weed growth has rendered anywhere from 20-30% of the shore inaccessible to shore fisherman. Once I find a promising looking spot I set about busting brush and wading to the new area. Has made a HUGE difference in my fishing success. But brother it aint easy. The weeds are 6-8' high thick as boiler plates and full of multiflora rose thorn shrubs and LOUSY with ticks. Navigating my way through the jungle of weeds bringing along rods that are 6'6"-7'3" is zero fun, But the number of 4-5lb+ bass I now catch every year has gone up by over 400% and so has the overall numbers of bass I catch so it's well worth my efforts and considerable amounts of bloody scratches I get and 6 of 10 such outings I end up with a tick or two on my skin or clothing. I use clothing dedicated only for this that is sprayed with tick repellent worn over other clothing and not worn directly against my skin. Really sucks starting mid June till September when temps average way over 80* but lymes disease is just to big of a risk to ignore. The things we do to catch bass.

A mistake I made concering my incorrectly describing the rod I own was gratefully brought to my attention so now scratch the original title and now its simply this: What would be my best MHF spinning rod choice for a 100% dedicated only fluke fishing rod under $150. I deleted my original post as it no longer applies and no longer needs be read. Will be using a size 2000 reel and 20 or 30lb Suffix 832 braid a swivel to non braided line.

I would immagine weather you're a boat fishermen or a shore fisherman it pays at least a moderate roll in your spinning rod selection because shore fisherman have not the luxury of pulling up to a big bass in the weeds to get her out. By that I mean a shore fisherman will likely need as I did recently upgrade his MF spinning rod to MHF to help prevent bass from getting to deep in the weeds and if in the weeds not to deep yet get them out. Been losing to many bass to the weeds lately while fishing soft plastics so I am now moving from MF spinning rods to all MHF spinning rods. Still to early to conclude it was a wise move but I have already stopped losing fish to weeds but that was during only one outing. If I am in reasonably open areas from shore I will use MF spinning rod, but all my baitcasting rods and now most of my spinning rods are MHF.

Thanks for sharing your experience and the excellent advice. My situation is essentlually the same as yours. Bottom line is I will have to experiment with my hook set methodology until I find what works best. I did start fluke fishing with a hair trigger set, but after one or two outings and a very poor hook up ratio and hooking a lot of vegetation, I began to think maybe I should give the bass some time like in fishing topwater hollow body frogs. But now I realize I am almost certainly giving the fish to much time between feeling the strike and setting the hook. I feel I also have improved dramatically in my abilities to tell the difference between a hit and contact with vegetation and now with much confidence can tell the difference between contacting a lily pad stem and coon tail or similar weeds. My last outing I did notice a increase in both successful hook sets and landing fish when as soon as I felt a strike I quickly as I could reeled down to eliminate the slack and set the hook. I feel my increase in ability to sense strikes was almost entirely due to the fact I was for the first time ever while fishing flukes (or any soft plastic for that matter) using 30lb braid which has ZERO stretch VS Yo-Zuri Copol which undoubtedly has more stretch, how much I don't know but it is more VS braid. I will just have to keep experimenting to see what works best and remember bass have personalities of their own as well as mood swings and some days some will hit like freight trains some days some are light hitters. It's up to me to pay attention and learn to tell the difference between fish strikes and contact with vegetation and listen carefully to what the bass when they strike are trying to tell me about the mood they're in.

My old setup of my first 15-18 or so outings fishing flukes and save for my last outing of two days ago all my fluke fishing was with using my 7'3" Daiwa Tatula MF rod a size 2000 reel and 10lb Yo-Zuri copolymer and was the set up I had 99.9% of my experience fishing flukes and was the setup I lost three larger than average bass to the weeds. During my last outing and now my dedicated fluke fishing set up is a 7'3" Falcon Lowrider MHF rod a size 2000 spinning reel with 30lb Suffix 832 HI-vis yellow, a swivel to (that night) 15lb Yo-Zuri copolymer. That night I had 10 hit got 6 in two went airborne and got off, one got off as I went to lip him allowed slack in the line and he got off and one the line broke below the swivel and shame on me as I SAW there were two areas of likely damage to the line below the swivel but I didn't re-tie. I had zero problems getting every bass I landed out of and on top of the weeds with minimal effort. Much improved over the performance of my setup using the MF Daiwa Tatula and 10lb test. Every fish I landed that night the hook was in to the point he wasn't getting off unless the line broke. I strongly suspect my issue lies in my hook setting methodology so I will work on that.

I will give a 4/0 a try and see what happens. I need some 5/0s anyway as I ordered some 7" Zoom Super Flukes to try out. I would include a picture of my rigged flukes but unfortunately all my phone pics are to big to post here system says NoNo. Bare in mind I am a shore fisherman so unless I can wade in to get a fish stuck in the veggies (which I will do WO hesitation and did so two nights ago) I'm scaroooued. After losing (all were hooked at about 30-35yrds from me in water to deep to wade to) two big bass (4lb+) and one behemoth bass (5lb+) to IMO my setup lacking the backbone to horse a big bass up onto and over the veggies in not just ONE night but in less than two hours, I upgraded from using a 7'3" MF Daiwa Tatula with a size 2000 reel spooled with 10lb Yo-Zuri Copolymer to using a Falcon Lowrider 7'3" MHF rod size 2000 spinning reel 30lb Suffix 832 HI-vis yellow braid swivel to 12"-18"s of 12 or 15lb Yo-zuri copolymer. I use a four wrap Trilene knot. I have on hand another size 2000 reel with I will spool with 20lb Hi-Vis yellow Suffix 832 and give it a try for some extra casting distance on the wise recommendation of a fellow member here. Upgrading to the much stouter setup bore fruit literally first cast first time I used it, as I cast a 5" Cabelas Shadee Shad in White Ice with a Owner 3/0 screw lock hook that the last .5" of the tail I had dyed chartreuse into a small cattail point I have caught many 4lb+ bass from this year including this years best bass at 5.7lbs I caught back in early April on a chatterbait. The fluke barely hit the water and I didn't even have a chance to close the bail and I saw the hi-vis yellow Suffix 832 heading away from me and I set the hook hard and was able to drag her out of the cattail entanglement and maintain a very hard strain on the line until I waded out to get in line with where she was and dragged her out. I guessed her weight conservatively at 4.5lbs and released her. I am absolutely positive I couldn't have done that with the weaker rod and line setup I had been using without risking breaking the line. I do not exaggerate in saying I was pulling VERY hard on that fish like I do when frogging and using 30lb braid.

I do not use 100% fluorocarbon for any application as of yet. I have been using Yo-Zuri Copolymer for 5 or 6 seasons now at least 100% the last four and no longer use mono at all. Yo-Zuri Copol is advertised as being neutrally buoyant as it neither sinks or floats. I have found it to be much more resistant to abrasion than the only mono I used Trilene XL or XT and its breaking strength is at least 2lbs greater than the advertised for any given test rating. I have found it's knot strength to be exceptionally good as well. Never had any issues with line memory any worse than Trilene XT. I have been and remain 100% satisfied with Yo-Zuri copolymer and line or knot failures are very very rare and 90% I know were because I saw the line had become damaged somehow and I failed to retie and on the very rare occasion I have a knot fail vast majority of the time it was a knot I suspected was subpar and I fished with it anyways and paid the price for being impatient or lazy. Until I come across a superior mono or copolymer and I am always open to anything clearly better I will stay with Yo-Zuri Copolymer as it has served me extremely well and its $10 for 600yds of 8-12lb and $12 for 600yrds of 15lb so I can afford to respool as often as needed talking $2.50-$3.50 per respool.

Can't nose hook it due to jungle like weed growth Thanks for all the advice. Will stop hesitating to set the hook. Honestly do not know why I started to. I remember reading in Tom Manns book on fishing rubber worms him saying if you think you had a strike and wait to think about setting the hook you waited to long. I knew it was true 35 years ago why I thought it would have changed I don't know. I have ordered Gamakatsu super line screw locks, Gamak OS G locks and owner screw lock lite hooks in 4/0 and 5/0 and will give them a try and see if combined with no more hesitation my hook set and landing ratios increase.

Great well appreciated advice. Just so happens I have the EXACT setup you suggest, I plan on giving it a try for the exact reason you stated to gain another 10-15 yards casting distance as 15 more yards casting will give me access to a very considerable additional amount of pads and weeds. First cast and first bass last evening, I had to go in up to my knees over the top of my 16" high boots to get out a big bass (IMO just shy of 5lbs) who got badly dug into the cattails so figured WTH boots are full feet are soaked might as well wade out another 15 yards. Ended up getting me an additional five bass three were just under 3lbs two were undoubtedly over 3lbs. For this lake any bass over 2lbs is a higher quality bass.

Using a 3/0 for a 5.25" Zoom Super fluke After I sense the hit I am simultaneously give it a 3 second count reeling up the slack and then set the hook

Was just wondering what people here believe is an acceptable successful hookup or hook set rate with soft plastic flukes and swim baits Texas rigged weedless using either or both screw lock hooks and non screw lock type hooks such as EWG's and Offset hooks when you're confident you've done your part and set the hook at the correct moment. Secondly how often once hooked on either a screw lock hook or a non screw lock hook do you have fish get off? I asked because as many here likely know I've just started fishing flukes Texas rigged and went from using non screw lock hooks (EWG's or OS hooks) to strictly screw lock hooks and my hit to successful hook set rate is about 60% and once the fish is hooked on I have about 25-30% of fish get off. I did notice that on about at least 30% of the bass I land they aren't hooked that great and in my opinion if I had allowed significant slack to occur in the line during the fight odds were they would have gotten off more likely than not. I should add I am essentlually brand new at fishing flukes and swim baits so I am still in the learning stages of what will work best for me and I have other hooks I plan on trying out like the Gamakatsu Offset G-lok hook. I'm just trying to establish if my hook set and land ratios are in need of improvement or are they about as good as I can reasonably expect. For example my successful hook set rate (if the bass first doesn't hit like a runaway down hill cement truck) went from about 35-40% to its current 60% simply by giving it a 3 second count while I reeled the slack out of the line to the fish felt him on the line and then set the hook HARD this all is accomplished during the three second count.

It will only cost $10 to try a spool of Yo-Zuri Copolymer line. I was a diehard fan of Trilene XL and XT for over 30 years used absolutely nothing else. Then I tried Yo-Zuri Copolymer. Been using Yo-Zuri Copol for 5 or 6 seasons on both spinning and casting reels. I wouldn't go back to Trilene even if it were free. What sold me forever on Yo-Zuri Copolymer was 5 years ago my best friend and I were creek fishing during our annual salmon run. The snags are so bad in these small creeks and the salmon are so big we call it combat fishing. I was using 8lb Yo-Zuri copolymer he was using 8lb Trilene XT. Over the three days we fished together he broke off at least 3x more than I did and our hook up and catch ratios were the same. We both used only Palomar knots single hooks and Trilene knots for spinners. Now if my line breaks it is because I failed to closely monitor my line for developing week spots. Truly rare is when I have a knot break with Yo-Zuri copolymer and 90% it was likely due to me tying the knot incorrectly. Just a friendly suggestion.

Been reloading for rifle and handgun for 35+ years. LOTs of experience with lead. This is will work only if the surface I am describing is not painted. Take a very small, talking eyeglasses small flat head screwdriver and on the wide base of the bullet weight where the weight is supposed to rest on the soft plastic and while holding the bullet weight in your non dominant hand take the screwdriver and see if you can scrape the wide surface of the weight. If you can make absolutely any mark on the bare non painted surface it is lead.

Which Gamakatsu exactly is the "G-lock" you speak of? That’s what the guy at the local tackle shop said also, figured why not you can never have too many hooks in reality. Would either of you mind saying wich Gamakatsu hook exactly is this so called "G-lock"? I figured it out. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/search-tackle.html?start=0&count=20&searchtext=gamakatsu+g-lock