Losing many fish

[Car_Ramrod]

Continuing to lose bass this summer, usually anything two pounds or over I lose at some point during the fight. I’m wondering if I am not hooksetting properly, or if the way I am fighting the fish is the issue. 
 

For reference, I usually am using a 4/0 gamakatsu offset worm hook, or a 3/8 oz swim jig. 
 

Continuing to lose bass can be very discouraging. Last week I lost one that pulled a bunch of drag, so I let him run. Well he immediately ran toward the bank with tree cover, jumped right by the tree, spit my hook, and got my hook caught in the tree. This experience made me want to pull the fish in and not let it make runs, which is counter intuitive?

 

Today, I tried my new casting setup (usually use spinning) suppose I had my drag set much higher, I tried horsing him in and not letting him run and I lost a good bass.. maybe 2-3 lbs, because my knot on the jig failed. Which got me thinking the drag was too high, and I felt stupid for leaving it on like that; since now I not only lost the jig but that poor fish has to go around trying to survive with that jig stuck in its mouth- (I hope it can spit the hook?) 

 

anyways, was just hoping for some general advice. It’s very discouraging when any bass I can actually land are under 1.5 lbs. I lost what would’ve been my PB a few weeks back and since then I just feel like it’s been a streak of bad luck, trying to change my attitude. Thanks

[Susky River Rat]

Losing bass is discouraging but, it’s part of fishing. The best you can do is try to limit this by trying to put everything in your favor. 

With you line/knot breaking that is something you need to watch the condition of your line and make sure you are tying a good quality knot. I only use 10 and 15lb lines. Even if I have my drag really tight it will pull the hook before my line breaks on a bass.  
 

I don’t like to put my rod up in the air when fighting fish. I like to keep it more toward the side and down. This keeps the fishing from jumping most times. When a fish jumps they are more likely to throw the bait. You want to have your rod bend the it pulls drag while still bent. If the rod is loading then unloading you are losing tension on the line and this is not good either. This gives the fish the advantage. 
 

I know as far as hook sets I slam it home like babe Ruth. I know most do not for me this works.  Bite detection on jigs is huge. Anything that “sits” Where something like a crank bait or moving bait they will hook themselves. I still set the hook hard on cranks too.  Just my preference. 
 

closing the distance is important. You have much more control over the fish the closer it is because you are fighting it more vertically. This is when I do not horse it. I do try to get it into me faster than will take my time to land it.  10ft of like relativity straight up and down is manageable. 30 feet out in front of you on a linear plane the fish as more of an advantage. 
 

Everyone does everything a little bit differently. My approach may not be the best for you. 

[Swamp Girl]

8 hours ago, Car_Ramrod said:

Continuing to lose bass can be very discouraging.

 

Yes, it is.

 

As far as your losing bass, I go through losing streaks too. 

 

Your story about the bass that ran for the tree is my life. I am always having bass run for wood. What do I do? I apply all the counter-pressure I can muster and hope I don't yank the hook out.

 

However, there is an all-time great angler who posts at Bass Resource (@WRB) and his name is Tom. Tom has caught 17, 18, and 19-pound bass and Tom coaches us to not crank down the drag. In some of the places I fish, this is impossible. Here's one of those places:

 

 

Most of the plants you see are woody and they're woody under the water too. The bass dive into the woody roots and when they do, they shake free in a sec. So, my tactic is to adjust my drag on the fly. If I'm fishing an open water area, I loosen it. If I'm near wood, I tighten it. 

 

46 minutes ago, Susky River Rat said:

closing the distance is important. You have much more control over the fish the closer it is because you are fighting it more vertically. This is when I do not horse it. I do try to get it into me faster than will take my time to land it.  10ft of like relativity straight up and down is manageable. 30 feet out in front of you on a linear plane the fish as more of an advantage. 

 

Interesting...and convincing. You are a thoughtful angler.

 

 

57 minutes ago, Susky River Rat said:

Everyone does everything a little bit differently. My approach may not be the best for you. 

 

So true. Just because we're all fishing for the same species doesn't mean we're fishing for identical fish. I started a thread a bit back about how some bass fight more than others. I fished two ponds in the last two days. The bass at the first pond fight like Pit bulls. The bass at the second pond fight like Pomeranians. Bass behavior does vary and what works for me might not work for Ned in Nebraska. 

[scaleface]

My first thought is if your equipment is up to the task? I get a pretty high landing ratio with them . I use a 7 foot hvy action baitcast combo.

[Catt]

Control

From the moment my rod starts moving up I want to turn her head & get her coming towards me all in one motion. That's why I'll jerk one clean over my head or ski it back to the boat. It was too little!

 

If she runs or dives, I let my rod take over, that's what I bought it for. 

 

Ya gotta stay in control all the way to the thumb.

[Mobasser]

Not sure exactly what rod/ action your using, but sometimes a rod with a little tip flex can help land fish. Rods like this offer a give during the fight. Super stiff rods are good for many things, but there's a learning curve with them.

[Swamp Girl]

FWIW, I fish MH spinning rods with 20 lb. braid. There are bass out there that could break 20 lb. braid, but I'm not likely to ever hook one that can.

[VTFan]

As far as hooksets, if I'm not mistaken I saw a Bill Dance question and answer show once and someone asked him about hooksets and drag. As per Bill, you want your drag to slip just a little when you make your hookset. I sometimes forget to check my drag and it sometimes cost me fish. As Catt said, I too want to get that fish turned towards me asap. I always feel like if I let it run I'm taking the chance of it wrapping me up and loosing it. JMHO.

[Car_Ramrod]

2 hours ago, scaleface said:

My first thought is if your equipment is up to the task? I get a pretty high landing ratio with them . I use a 7 foot hvy action baitcast combo.

When my knot on the jig failed yesterday, I was using 15 lb mono for my main line and 10lb flourclear as my leader (this was tied to my jig, with a trilene knot, I thought I had plenty of tag end).

 

I’ve had knots fail in the past, but not all summer since I reworked my knot tying. So it was pretty upsetting yesterday not to mention the bass might be stuck with my jig, poor fish…

[Dwight Hottle]

Are you using mono or braid? Braid will allow you to get much better hook sets because it does not stretch. I would recommend that use a medium heavy rod with fast action for jigs & T-rigs. If your fishing around heavy cover you should use a stiffer drag but not locked down. You want some slippage to prevent tackle break offs.  

[Car_Ramrod]

Just now, Dwight Hottle said:

Are you mono or braid? Braid will allow you to get much better hook sets because it does not stretch. I would recommend that use a medium heavy rod with fast action for jigs & T-rigs. If your fishing around heavy cover you should use a stiffer drag but not locked down. You want some slippage to prevent tackle break offs.  

Mono as my main line, 15 lb. 10lb fluoroclear leader, about 18 inches. 

[Dwight Hottle]

That's your problem. The fluoroclear leader is problematic because fluoro line is much more difficult to achieve a good knot because it burns or weakens the knot when tightening it down unless your technique is flawless. And your using ten lb test instead of 15lb test main line. Frankly you would be better off just using the straight mono without the leader. The only time you need a leader is with braid when you want to add in a little stretch or need extra abrasion resistance. Or if you are paranoid about the fish seeing the braid & not biting. But for jigs & T-rigs just use straight braid & your hook sets with improve dramatically.  

[padlin]

When I start losing fish for no reason I start setting the hook harder. If the knot is coming undone I start being more careful when tying and tightening. These things seem to happen early in the season. If I’m getting bit off I go to a 15 or 20 lb leader, I’m a braid fisherman. If I can’t control the fish I go to a MH, don’t have an H. And sometimes I just need to use an anchor, a canoe moves a lot.

I do tighten up the drag if they are pulling it out and getting into the weeds.

 

For jumpers, sometime I win, sometimes they do.

 

What’s the reason for the leader? I’m taking it you are in a boat of sorts.

[TnRiver46]

I can’t offer any advice but your screen name is awesome! 

[Zcoker]

Find a system that works and stick with it. Find a knot that works and stick with it. Find your niche. I'm a power fisherman out in the glades, which is my niche. I used to worry about drag, leaders, and all kinds of silly systems but have since shelved everything in favor of strait heavy braid on all of my setups. And I rarely loose a fish with anything except punching. Granted, I punch stuff that most wouldn't dare get near. But, for the most, I am quite confident that if something bites, it's gonna be in my hands very quickly.  

[WRB]

What recommend is set your drag and trust it. What very few bass anglers experience is fast hard fighting fish that make long runs. 

When say set your drag I recommend having reel on the rod and line through all the guides how you use it. Use dead weight like 1 pint of plastic drinking water that weighs 1 lb each. Put 3 bottles in a plastic grocery bag, hook the bag handles and lift until the bag lifts off the ground, adjust the drag so it starts to slip when the bag lifts. 3 lbs for Medium power rod, 4 lbs for MH and 5 lbs for heavy power.

By doing this you will know what the lbs of drag feel like and how your rod handled the weight. I caution you this is more drag then you think so be careful lifting the weight because your rod is near it’s power rating.

If or when you need more drag use your thumb to increase pressure in the spooled line, Index finger on a spinning reel spool. Do not tighten your drag during fighting a fish.

Tom

[padlin]

36 minutes ago, WRB said:

If or when you need more drag use your thumb to increase pressure in the spooled line, Index finger on a spinning reel spool. Do not tighten your drag during fighting a fish.

Tom

Good advice, I’ll have to see if I can think of it in the moment I need to.

[Car_Ramrod]

5 hours ago, padlin said:

When I start losing fish for no reason I start setting the hook harder. If the knot is coming undone I start being more careful when tying and tightening. These things seem to happen early in the season. If I’m getting bit off I go to a 15 or 20 lb leader, I’m a braid fisherman. If I can’t control the fish I go to a MH, don’t have an H. And sometimes I just need to use an anchor, a canoe moves a lot.

I do tighten up the drag if they are pulling it out and getting into the weeds.

 

For jumpers, sometime I win, sometimes they do.

 

What’s the reason for the leader? I’m taking it you are in a boat of sorts.

 

5 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

That's your problem. The fluoroclear leader is problematic because fluoro line is much more difficult to achieve a good knot because it burns or weakens the knot when tightening it down unless your technique is flawless. And your using ten lb test instead of 15lb test main line. Frankly you would be better off just using the straight mono without the leader. The only time you need a leader is with braid when you want to add in a little stretch or need extra abrasion resistance. Or if you are paranoid about the fish seeing the braid & not biting. But for jigs & T-rigs just use straight braid & your hook sets with improve dramatically.  

 
 

To answer both of you guys, I’m using the Fluoro leader because I’ve been told that bigger bass are line shy and will be able to see the mono, so I should use a Fluoro leader if I want to catch bass toward 5 lbs or over. Is this just BS? Should I just stick to my mono? Is 15 lb mono too big and easy for the bass to see?

 

im pretty sure I’ve used a leader on every single larger bass I’ve caught.

 

if you guys aren’t worried about the bass seeing the line, maybe I’ll quit the leaders. I never or rarely ever use braid because I mess up the braid on my bait caster pretty quickly, and I get wind knots even on spinning; besides that my knots have slipped before on braid. I just don’t have much experience with it but if you guys recommend fishing with it, maybe I should start.

[gimruis]

Get rid of that mono and fluorocarbon if your using a jig. Jigs have heavy gauge hooks and you need to drive that thing home hard to get a good hook set. Mono and fluorocarbon is not up to that task. Every knot you tie is going to create a weak point, so the less, the better with these stout jig hooks. Mono also has a lot of stretch to it, so you’re likely not getting a good hook set using a jig with mono.

 

As for using the question about fish being line shy, that’s probably up for debate. In clear water where fishing pressure is high, it could certainly play a role. In murkier water, I would think it matters less.

[padlin]

I use braid cause I’m lousy with mono, I get bird nests with both baitcasters and falls off spinning, and for me I can cast braid a heck of a lot better. If you can use it, by all means do, you’ll have a lot of company here.
 

FWIW, I use a FC leader mainly cause I fish where pickerel are common and sometimes in spring when the water is crystal clear. Don’t know if one is needed for mono.

[Car_Ramrod]

14 hours ago, scaleface said:

My first thought is if your equipment is up to the task? I get a pretty high landing ratio with them . I use a 7 foot hvy action baitcast combo.

On these specific instances, I used medium power fast action rods. 

 

12 hours ago, VTFan said:

I sometimes forget to check my drag and it sometimes cost me fish.

this. I was just starting up my new casting setup, and I had the drag set pretty much all the way up high. I tried horsing the bass in , instead of letting him run. Well he runs away from me and I reel in, with super tight drag…. Boom, my knot failed. Not sure how big he was, I saw just a glimpse of him in the water guess I’ll never know.

 

15 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

So, my tactic is to adjust my drag on the fly. If I'm fishing an open water area, I loosen it. If I'm near wood, I tighten it. 

When I first started fishing, I would do this often to pull the fish in. I have since gotten advice saying to never adjust the drag while fighting a fish, but have never gotten an explanation as to why. In the case of the bass I lost by the tree, my only choice would have been a tighter drag as he was too strong for the drag I had on originally…

 

7 hours ago, WRB said:

Do not tighten your drag during fighting a fish.

Does tightening the drag while fighting a fish, hurt the line? Is it just bad since it changes the tension mid fight and could lead to the line twisting??

[PhishLI]

6 hours ago, Car_Ramrod said:

To answer both of you guys, I’m using the Fluoro leader because I’ve been told that bigger bass are line shy and will be able to see the mono, so I should use a Fluoro leader if I want to catch bass toward 5 lbs or over. Is this just BS?

Pretty much.

 

Unless you're fishing ultra clear deep water for pressured smallmouth you shouldn't worry about it at all. In my opinion largemouth don't care and I have good evidence that they don't. My local waters are very shallow with depths no greater than 4 feet or so within a long cast and are pretty much topped out with weeds in every direction. Using these places as an example is pretty meaningless. However, I can give a very good example of why I don't think largemouth care much about line.

 

I've been fishing one particular lake with my son in law for the past 8 years. It's the only place he goes to. We call it bass paradise. It has everything. Grassy shallows, ledges, points, steep drop offs into very deep water right off the bank in some places and off long flats in others and several large coves with Lily pads, reeds, eel grass, and occasional milfoil. It has a creek channel feeding out to the salt which allows for an Alewife/River Herring population. The water is very clear as no chemical pesticides are allowed by law and the surrounding town residents comply, so algae is nonexistent there.

 

When I first started going with him, he considered himself a finesse fisherman and used nothing but clear 6lb mono. He caught fish, but so did I when using straight 30lb or 50lb braid. The difference was that I could fish zones he couldn't, and he'd break off with better fish a bit too much while I never did.

 

2 years in I pressured him to a MH baitcasting rig with straight braid and he was finally able to fish the zones I could. I also got him into fishing jigs. As a consequence, he caught way bigger fish regularly while rarely missing a hookset, and never breaks off unless a monstrous Pickeral gets on. Not much one can do about that. However, wood and brush piles aren't a factor here besides a scant few laydowns, and are the only places where I might tie on a heavy fluoro or mono leader but rarely do.

 

Location followed by bait selection/profile is the biggest factor in bagging better largemouth, IMO. Not the line type. If you learn to fish a semi-slack line, the no-stretch feedback you get from straight braid or braid to a short leader is fantastic. I've never had a bass swallow a bait using braid mainline, just the rare and unfortunate tongue hooking, so hooksets are positive and typically on the roof of the mouth or lip.

[Swamp Girl]

8 hours ago, Car_Ramrod said:

adjust the drag while fighting a fish

 

I don't adjust my drag while fighting a fish. I adjust it to an area before I cast. If I'm near wood or weeds, I need more drag. If I'm fishing open water, less drag works. If I'm fishing an area like the one below and I hook a bass with a loose drag, I'll lose the fish a second into the fight for it'll run for wood or weeds and I won't be able to turn it. The bass below was about to plunge into fibrous reeds, but I turned it just in time. You can see she'd pulled my canoe right up to the edge of the reeds. My drag was already tight because of where I was fishing and something had to give, thus she pulled my canoe, but if my drag hadn't been tight, I never would have seen the tubby girl:

 

[Zcoker]

13 hours ago, Car_Ramrod said:

 

 
 

To answer both of you guys, I’m using the Fluoro leader because I’ve been told that bigger bass are line shy and will be able to see the mono, so I should use a Fluoro leader if I want to catch bass toward 5 lbs or over. Is this just BS? 

 

There’s many things that you’re gonna find out yourself with bass fishing, which may or may not be pure BS. An open mind does help navigate through it all. Take what you’re told with a grain of salt and let the fish do the taking! They’ll eventually tell you what they want, what’s best, and what you need to do to catch them. 

[Catt]

Catt: 35 double digit bass all caught on 15# Berkley Big Game 

 

@WRB Hundred+ double digits, I think all were caught on mono

 

Monofilament ain't you problem