I fished a crank bait for the first time today and had some pretty good luck. Was throwing an Xcalibur square bill and was getting bit on almost every cast. My problem was hook ups. I lost about 70% of the fish that had the bait, most of them about 10 feet from the boat. I tried just sweeping the rod tip up to set the hook and I also tried griping and ripping it to set the hook, neither seemed to help much. I was using a medium action rod. Should I have been using a MH rod or am I doing something wrong with my hookset?

I don't like the hooks on that lure. I change them to kvd triple grip short shanks. That setup should work fine if it is a baitcaster. Maybe just bad luck?

Coulda been short strikes where they only had 1 hook of 1 treble in them and they just shook it loose. It happens with crankbaits sometimes.

With any bait that has Treble hooks a nice firm side sweeping hookset has always worked fine for me. The key to landing a fish on trebles is constant pressure with the rod. Power isnt as important as action when fishing treble hooks IMO. Medium or medium heavy will work fine as long as you are throwing lures with a weight that is suggested for that particular rod. Does the rod your using have a Fast action? If so, try getting a rod with a Moderate action or Mod-fast action if possible. This will allow the rod to have a parabolic bend which will allow you to use the whole rod to play the fish, versus just the tip of the rod with a fast action rating. Hope this helps! Good luck!

Make sure that the hooks are sharp.

4:08 was a hook in the finger huh?

Jeff

I rarely ever set the hook with treble baits. Most the time they smack the bait so hard they hook up themselves. Once the fish is on,I keep constant pressure on the fish while keeping the rod tip below my waist. And I always net fish on trebles, hooks in human skin doesn't feel very good. Good luck on your crankin adventures

Going to an MH rod is not the answer. Unless your hooks are dull, I'd attribute it to one of those days that inevitably occur. I agree with bigbasshunter that the fish usually hook themselves on treble hooks.

With any bait that has Treble hooks a nice firm side sweeping hookset has always worked fine for me. The key to landing a fish on trebles is constant pressure with the rod. Power isnt as important as action when fishing treble hooks IMO. Medium or medium heavy will work fine as long as you are throwing lures with a weight that is suggested for that particular rod. Does the rod your using have a Fast action? If so, try getting a rod with a Moderate action or Mod-fast action if possible. This will allow the rod to have a parabolic bend which will allow you to use the whole rod to play the fish, versus just the tip of the rod with a fast action rating. Hope this helps! Good luck!

Exactly what I was about to say.

I do a sweeping hookset to the sides, doesn't need to be very hard with trebles

Wouldn't doubt panfish are hitting your cranks.