So tonight was infuriating.

 

I found what lure/color the fish wanted, which happened to be a fluke type bait - Strike King Caffeine Shad - walked on the surface, with a few sub-surface twitches.

 

The problem was, I missed 3 fish (of course the biggest 3) because the fish took it, but upon hookset, the hook didn't penetrate through the plastic enough to get a good puncture. I retrieved the bait after losing the fish and saw that it never exposed enough to get a hookset.

 

What happened there? I can't recall ever missing fish because of this, I'm using a 3/0 wide gap hook, rigged weightless.

 

The rod has plenty of backbone, it's a Crucial Med-Hvy/Fast action.

seems like some times its just meant to happen and sometimes the bass just doesn't grab the whole bait...

Try pushing the hook all the way out the plastic then barely tucking it back in, I do it and I think it helps but not sure its called texa-pose or something haha

Are you using braid? Doesn't stretch so there's no force lost on the hookset.

Something about that fluke presentation can be very troublesome sometimes, unless the fish are really ripping the bait on the strike. 

That's a tough call

I've found sometimes when the fish blow up on a fluke it's easy to pull the bait from them; resulting in lost fish. Compare that to fishing a fluke 2-6 feet underwater you generally can't see the fish strike so you feel the weight or bite. At that point the fish has it and you will most likely get a better hook set. On top it's like a frog you have to wait a second then set the hook.

It also could be the bait was twisted or in a position there was nothing for the hook to grab. Sometimes that's the fluke game.

I always fish my flukes on on braid so it's generally feel the fish set the hook.

I was fishing a fluke this weekend and had a bite, thought I had a really good hookset but ended up with just a bare hook to show for it. Sometimes it happens.

Texpose rig your fluke, you'll hook way more fish that way than you will with the hook point buried in the plastic. Flukes are bad about kinking on the hook and blocking the hook from having a chance to stick the fish. 

I'll try the texpose option.

 

I'm using braid, so I don't have any stretch in the line.

 

Hopefully I can get this worked out, I have a feeling these fish don't get a lot of pressure, and these flukes were driving them crazy yesterday.

i always use texpose instead of the standard texas rig.  if theres no weeds around I'll even leave the point exposed instead of tucking the point back in the plastic, leaving the point flush against the plastic.  I've also had success hooking flukes with the point sticking straight out the side of the fluke.  It will get hung up more but it makes for some pretty erratic jerking action that the fish can't seem to resist.

Push the hook all the way through then back it back down and skin hook it. 

 

Might want to switch to a 4/0 gama straight worm hook instead of the EWG (#54114). The point of the worm hook sticks out a little bit which will help get good hookups with flukes. I fish my flukes on worm hooks a vast majority of the time. Only exception is when I'm fishing them in coontail, then I will use the EWG so the point lays flat on the bait. I improved my hookup by 10 fold by switching from EWG.

Push the hook all the way through then back it back down and skin hook it. 

 

Might want to switch to a 4/0 gama straight worm hook instead of the EWG (#54114). The point of the worm hook sticks out a little bit which will help get good hookups with flukes. I fish my flukes on worm hooks a vast majority of the time. Only exception is when I'm fishing them in coontail, then I will use the EWG so the point lays flat on the bait. I improved my hookup by 10 fold by switching from EWG.

 

Hmm....that's very interesting, I never thought of that. I've been using the EWG for most all of my fluke and craw rigs. The hook point basically lies perpendicular to the back of the fluke, so it'd make sense a worm hook would exit the back at an angle, which probably would increase hookup ratio.

 

Great advice, I'm going tonight to buy some Gama worm hooks, I'll go with 4/0 on your recommendation.

 

If nothing else then I have even more high-quality worm hooks, but I'll be you've hit the nail on the head.

 

Thanks brother!

Might want to bring a caffeine shad to the store with you. I fish zoom super flukes so I'm not sure if 4/0 would be the appropriate size for the caffeine shad. 

 

Also, make sure you get the round bend. I seem to get better hook-ups with it vs the o-shaug. 54114 is what I use.