Why do some fish tense up when you reel them in? Sometimes, especially with dinks, when I'm unhooking them their body seems very taught with the tail curved up. What causes this?

Don't look at them in the eye! First time being caught embarrassment!

Seriously I haven't experienced this, sounds like something with their nervous system?

Although I'm not speaking from experience here but a gaff like worm hook through the tongue, a Gamakatsu puncturing the eye socket or a face full of treble hooks would all seem to cause sufficient trauma to cause any bass to tense up - at least a little.

A-Jay

Not sure if this is exactly what you are talking about, but i had a similar experience in a pond with largemouth. It was almost like they knew what was happening (and were caught before). They would not fight just kind of freeze. I would just reel them across the surface. It was very odd. They were very healthy fish, some of the prettiest ive seen. But would just freeze once hooked. And this was on spinners with hook through mouth/lips. So no real trauma to them. 

It may be an area that has some toothy predators lurking about, a fish struggling is a key triggering mechanism, question may be, can bass actually learn or maybe a better way to phrase it would be to adapt and not to put up a fight so as not to draw any unwanted attention? 

I have this happen once in awhile. They'll let you surf them in and then once you unhook them they freak out

On 5/6/2016 at 7:50 AM, A-Jay said:

Although I'm not speaking from experience here but a gaff like worm hook through the tongue, a Gamakatsu puncturing the eye socket or a face full of treble hooks would all seem to cause sufficient trauma to cause any bass to tense up - at least a little.

A-Jay

X2

Not really sure but have always wondered if hook placement has something to do with it. I know that it doesn't get much worse than having a big bass play dead while you real him in.