I had a situation today that I think most of you may have experienced. I hooked a fish today on a wacky rigged Senko and as I was fighting him, another fish took a couple of shots at the worm that had slid up the line. What really made it interesting was as the 12" fish neared the boat, another fish twice his length appeared below him. This third bass was big enough that I wasn't sure if she was stalking the worm up the line or the bass that was hooked. As I lipped the hooked fish, the larger fish moved right underneath him, maybe 16" under the water. She stayed there as I unhooked & released the initial fish and then sank out of sight as I quickly rerigged the Senko & dropped it overboard.

Unlike the tournament angler who recently continued to play a crankbait caught fish in order to hook a tagalong fish, the single hook I was using prevented me from getting a double. Afterwards, I wondered if grabbing another rig while the first fish was still hooked would have been an option. I had a Ned rig set up, I could have put the first pole between my legs & dropped the little bait in front of the monster lurking below. Landing both would have been a Chinese fire drill, but worth it.

Now I know you couldn't do this in a tournament and in some states there are regulations about the number of rods a fisherman can be using at once. That aside, in a fun fishing, catch & release situation, has anyone else ever tried this?

I always have a rod ready to drop at followers, especially with smallmouth. I actually had a situation a couple years ago where a much larger smallmouth attacked the front of my crankbait that a small fish had eaten and stole it away from it. So I traded from an 8" fish to an 18" fish

 

Those following fish are often very easy to catch and in a team tournament situation can turn a day around very quickly. I was fishing in 1 where we only had 1 fish in the box. I hooked a keeper that had several followers. Partner dropped in and hooked up, I unhooked and boxed mine while he was fighting his. Dropped my bait back in and stuck another keeper. We went from a single fish to only needing 1 more for a limit in 30 seconds