It's almost 2 AM.

 

I've been staring at this pic for several minutes (over half an hour).

 

'Honk' if you can relate.

I can!! I can also relate to having a treble hook break also. I was just lucky it wasn't on a fish of a lifetime!!

Honk. I had a muskie break a 4x strong vmc treble yesterday while in the net. The fish got hung high, near the hoop, and it snapped one point off the hook while thrashing around. It was only a 38" fish. They can generate an amazing amount of torque. Those VMC's are hard to bend with a pair of pliers.

Honk honk.. Oh yea it was one heck of a tree limb that received a gorilla hook set.

. 

Oh, yeah. Just last Friday morning, I had a bass start to straighten a hook. I took my pliers and tried to return it to its original position, but couldn't. I couldn't budge it. So:

 

Yep, and most of the time with no replacement hooks handy.  You try and straighten it with a pair of pliers and it breaks off.

Last year while on St Clair jigging SteelShad blade baits for walleye, I did a hookset and thought I was snagged.  Then it moved.  We followed and I worked that fish for over a half hour and couldn’t get it to the surface.  I finally reached max frustration lever and really put the pressure on only to feel a massive release.  Reeled the lure in and 2 of the arms on one of the trebles were gone.  We estimate I snagged a big sturgeon. 
Honk, Honk.

4 hours ago, VTFan said:

I can!! I can also relate to having a treble hook break also. I was just lucky it wasn't on a fish of a lifetime!!

 

It didn't roll like a big catfish.

 

It didn't take any long blistering fast run(s) like a striper or even a big carp would.

 

We don't have smallmouth that big.

 

I don't think it was the bass of a lifetime mostly because I don't think they live here anymore. But it fought similarly.

 

The worst part for me is that I can't help but to hold myself accountable for the fact that I know the hooks on these baits are not super strong. I usually fish them on 8 to 10 lbs line partially for that reason. I had backed off the drag after it's first powerful surge. The drag was quite appropriate for the line, but not necessarily the hooks.

 

I'll wander out to the garage today and pull the bait out for a closer look at the hook. In the pic, the hook point on the arm that bent out looks . . . suspicious in comparison to the other two. I'll be looking at that, along with trying to assess my actions that might have prevented this from happening.

 

However, I have to respect that sometimes the fish just wins and that's how it's supposed to be.

5 minutes ago, Big Hands said:

However, I have to respect that sometimes the fish just wins and that's how it's supposed to be.

 

And I respect you for writing this.

Honk x 10^10

 

This is usually done by me freeing a snagged lure and I’m just relieved I didn’t lose it. 

Jeff the fact only 1 hook of the treble straighten out indicates to me the fish was snagged. Very well could have any big fish if snagged under the pectoral fin resulting in very little control fighting the fish.

I snagged a big channel cat at Casitas under the pectoral fin using a jig and fought the cat for several minutes thinking it’s a world record bass because the cat never rolled just pulled like a freight train.

Tom

4 hours ago, WRB said:

Jeff the fact only 1 hook of the treble straighten out indicates to me the fish was snagged. Very well could have any big fish if snagged under the pectoral fin resulting in very little control fighting the fish.

I snagged a big channel cat at Casitas under the pectoral fin using a jig and fought the cat for several minutes thinking it’s a world record bass because the cat never rolled just pulled like a freight train.

Tom

 Those certainly are possibilities. Would have been nice to get visual confirmation, but such is life 🥲

Honk.
Can’t say I’ve had a hook straighten out on a fish before, but I can absolutely relate to replaying the memory of every fish that gets away. I’m a competitive person, so I can’t stand losing. Every time I go fishing it’s a game against the fish, and every fish I hook and lose is a game that I had and then choked away. Also if you can’t tell my second favorite hobby is sports. 🙂

I can honestly say that I've never had a treble hook bend out while fighting a fish. I keep my drag set looser than many, but still, with 10lb. test line the only way that has happened to me is when I got snagged and it was intentional on my part.  I have seen it happen with anglers using braid. I have no Idea what they hooked, but it musta been a .............

Yep, happened to me during a tournament about 22 years ago on a Berkley Frenzy crankbait.  The fish was a 6 to 6 1/2 lb smallmouth.  I know because he jumped several times, and I got him close to the boat before he took a nose dive deep.  Crankbait was in his mouth, not foul-hooked.

 

I would've won that tournament with that fish.

 

I now swap out the stock hooks on every crankbait with Gamakatsu's.  Never had that problem again.

21 hours ago, T-Billy said:

Honk. I had a muskie break a 4x strong vmc treble yesterday while in the net. The fish got hung high, near the hoop, and it snapped one point off the hook while thrashing around. It was only a 38" fish. They can generate an amazing amount of torque. Those VMC's are hard to bend with a pair of pliers.

I had that happen on a close to 50”fish. My dad wasn’t paying attention let the net drop below the water like fish came out snapped the hook. 

12 hours ago, Glenn said:

I now swap out the stock hooks on every crankbait with Gamakatsu's.  Never had that problem again.

 

In my mind this is a thread about bad hooks.   If I have a hook that bends or breaks,  it gets added to the black list.  The Z-man Shroom jig heads come to mind as a product with a terrible hook.  A hook should never bend or break before the line breaks and the line shouldn't break before the drag starts slipping.  A treble hook should be able to handle 30 lbs or more of force.  A drag should almost never be set at more than 5 lbs.  There have been many times where I've had a lure retriever attached to a crank bait and had to attach the line to the boat and use the outboard to break the hook.  A hook shouldn't fail easily.