Guys, been fishing the Senko, Yum Dinger, and other stick baits this Summer as usual and am TX rigging  Gammy 4/0 EWG with an unpegged 1/8oz tungsten bullet weight on 12# 100% flourocarbon line.  Fishing has not been deadsticking as much as just hopping the bait and weight and letting the weight really swim the bait erratically back to the bottom.  Super effective technique but not without consequences.

I've been catching them really good this year but am getting a ton of deep hooked fish that are either tounge hooked or gullet hooked and for the smaller ones I am unable to employ the the In Fisherman technique of deep hook removal by going through the gill turning the hook upside down and removing it so I'm cutting the hook at the bend and taking it out in 2 pieces or if it's real bad cutting the line, getting the bait and the weight out and trimming the excess and releasing the fish hoping that it will survive which I doubt as they are usually bleeding badly by the time I lip them and bring them aboard.

I'm not having this issue with any other baits worms, jigs, etc only the stick baits rigged this way with the weight sliding freely on the line.  I'm using a Gammy 4/0 EWG and was thinking of downsizing with the hope that the hookset will be delayed just by that small bit of time and the hook point will penetrate the mouth or top of the head as opposed to being swallowed.

These fish just love that bait and they take it in deep when they eat it.  Detecting the strike with it rigged that way is tough and I'd like to get any advice you guys have for getting better quality hooksets with these types of baits rigged this way so that I don't unintentionally kill any of our fish.

Thanks for the help.

A deep hooked bass is usually due to missing the strike when it happens due to slack line and or inefficient line watching, and also letting the fish swim with the bait to long. If the fish are really gobbling it up as you say, the bite must be aggressive, meaning sooner than you think. I'm not trying to demean your ability's so please don't take it that way. I would try to keep better contact with your bait, find the spot which you can feel the weight but not so much as to change the action of what your doing. If you feel the weight that will let you know you have all of the slack out of your line to the weight, you will have to experiment to know the point at which you bait is still falling behind the weight. as far as wide gap hooks I only use them when the bait has so much rubber that I need a place for it to go. I much prefer the penetration property's of a strait shank worm hook. I fish allot of stick baits and a 2/0 Gamakatsu worm hook is all I use up to a 5" bait, never have hook up problems. I hope this helps and way to go trying to save your fish, it works more than not.

No offense taken and thanks for the comments. This problem is unique to this fishing presentation only for me. I don't miss many with the pegged TX rigged worm, shakey head, or the jig which means I don't deal with too many deeply hooked fish so I don't think it's so much a lack of skill but instead a loss of feel due to a "disconnection" with the bait by means of it not being connected to the weight and in effect dead sticked and just sitting there doing nothing floating or laying on the bottom which is the top senko presentation from what I've learned over the years.

Our water is hot and the fish are not real aggressive from sunup through sundown anyway so the strike is VERY subtle with these fish right now. Finesse fishing this deep, warm, very clear water is what's going on here right now for the high % and number of bites.

When rigged this way the stick bait is basically dead sticked floating or sitting on the bottom and then gently engulfed.  My guess is that a fish may or may not swim away rapidly with it for a moment or two. In over 50 fish catches over the past 2 weeks rarely has the line rapidly taken off. I've had maybe 7 deeply hooked fish out of the 50 or so I've caught using this rig over the past couple of weeks but it's 7 too many in my book.  The bite using this approach is more like it (the line) SLOWLY starts moving and then I simply reel down and the fish is on. This presentation gives them an easy meal and doesn't require a fast getaway I'm guessing so they can just cruise up, eat it, and cruise away nice and casual like from what I can tell.

We saw this same issue at Falcon Lake with the elite series pros this year and a lot of fish died because of it. They fished big 14-16" worms TX rigged and on Carolina rigs in really deep water and had a TON of deeply hooked fish as a result of it. A Carolina rig when rigged with a wacky style bait can create this same type of issue now and again. The angler doesn't know he's been bit until he takes up the slack on the "dead sticked" line and tension loads the weight and the bait to see if there is anything on the other end of it other than his bait.

The disconnection is for sure what's happening and I don't know what else I can do to prevent deeply hooked fish on this rig other than go to a smaller hook that might not get so deeply engulfed before the line starts swimming away and I get the signal to set the hook which seems to be the most common senko "bite"for me and most other tournament anglers I've talked about detecting the senko bite.

I have several straight shank hook sizes that I can try. I've also thought about mashing the barb straight down so I can get the fish freed up that much easier and more quickly.

If anybody else has any ideas on fishing this rig more effectively please share what you know as it is catching finicky Summer bass better than anything else I'm using right now. I'm just looking for ways to use this rig without killing any of the fish if I can avoid it. Thanks for the help guys.

I use 3/0 ewg hooks with my favorite 4" Flash, and i haven't had any problems. I detect most of my strikes by watching my clear/blue XL, and by trying to keep  a foot or so of slack just in case i have to feel them. Haven't used a straight shank hook in years, may have to try that....

I agree on line watching - especially if they're aggressive. that means you can set the hook much earlier. however, you can always play it safe for a bit and use the old "clamp down on the barb" trick to flatten it. an even better method is to use heat shrink tubing over the barb - that'll keep your hook intact and give a smooth cover for the barb. even if they deep hook you can remove it pretty easily. for good measure you could do that andset the hook earlier during aggressive bite periods.

at any rate, solid advice from other posters and g'luck to you! glad you're looking to fix the issue - many anglers would be so caught up in catching those fish that they'd be "ok" with gut-hooking fish. it's so nice to see more anglers caring about the future of the sport.

Circle hooks are another good way to solve the problem.

I'll switch to them whenever I feel that I might be slow detecting a bite.

If you are practicing catch and release, why not squeeze the barb of the hook down so that it makes the removal of the hook much easier.  I do this at one of the lake I fish.  I am very surprised that more tackle makers don't make barbless hooks for bassin folks.  As much as catch and release is preached about in the fishing world why not use a barbless hook!