Are they breaking from being fished through the rocks or being casted onto the rocks?

8 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Are they breaking from being fished through the rocks or being casted onto the rocks?

 

   They're breaking from contact with the rocks on retrieve. I can't be 100% sure, but when the lure hangs up on a rock and deflects to, let's say, the left, and then caroms to the right in reaction, that's when the lip breaks.

   I'm not saying it happens all the time, but when I fish certain places, I fish riprap almost all day. So my broken lures are coming more often, and I'm noticing them a lot more.

Hmm, riprap is a majority of what I crank and it seems like I rarely break a bill unless I bounce them off a rock on the cast. The only ones I've had break recently are Berkley Frittside, Rapala OG Slims, and 6th Sense Flat 75X. 

   Let me be a bit more specific.

   Being a shorecaster, I cast and retrieve riprap parallel to the shoreline. I USUALLY (but not always) retrieve slowly, keeping the lure close enough that I get a "tic-tic" from contact with the rocks. On smaller rocks, there's no problem.

   The problem seems to come on rocks about the size of a washing machine. These are the base rocks, deeper down. Smaller rocks are above them and shallower. Fish lurk in these larger rocks, using them as cover for ambush. The state uses these larger rocks to anchor bridge sites, points that they don't want to wash, points where creeks enter both rivers and lakes, and arms on silt basins below where watershed enters lakes.

   So I come along and cast shallow ... and slow. Nothing. So I go a little deeper, which means a leeeeeetle bit faster retrieve.. And maybe I get a hit .... or think I do. So I set the hook. And sometimes I set the hook like Hercules, in hopes of turning that fish around and getting him out of there.

   And sometimes there's a fish there, and sometimes there isn't a fish there. It was something else. But the lure caroms off one thing and into another and ......... CRACK! ...... broken lure.

   So yes, I can be a little overenthusiastic. And yes, this problem is worse because as a shorecaster, I can't always get the right angle.

   But I can't stop fishing these rocks. They're too productive.

 

   And don't tell me to buy a boat. I'm 70 y.o., and that ain't gonna happen. ? ? ?           jj

Yep, I park my boat right next to the bank and parallel the riprap and rocky shorelines and crank mine as fast as needed to keep them banging into the rocks. Hang up a lot because of all the cracks in the big rocks, lose a few that get wedged in the rocks too. 

3 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Yep, I park my boat right next to the bank and parallel the riprap and rocky shorelines and crank mine as fast as needed to keep them banging into the rocks. Hang up a lot because of all the cracks in the big rocks, lose a few that get wedged in the rocks too. 

 

   I'm right there with ya.   ?          jj