Hi I'd like to share with you a story about a fish I missed last night. It yanked for a steady three seconds but got away. Went to look at the senko didn't have any scratches on it. How did it yank so long without getting hooked? Any guesses? Wish I knew how to deal with those types of bites. I loosened my drag I don't think it was working. Any tips could be helpful. Thanx

Sunnies or blue gills were messing with it.

gosh darn I forgot to consider that

They are murder this time of year. Feels like a machine gun - sort of a "drive by" bite. They will also move your bait six feet or more. You have to set the hook, though. Some days, the largemouth bite like that.

Yeah, the 'gills drive me crazy this time of year. They'll peck at a T-rigged worm, even pick it up and move it and sometimes bite the tail off of it. And I set the hook on nothing. But I always set the hook because, as J Francho said, you never know what's messin' with your bait.

Tom

A bass can inhale & spit out a lure faster than your brain can comprehend

yes it does feel exactly like a machine gun, thats how we've always described it. a lot of times though when i feel a blue gill attacking it, I give it a quick little jerk to get it away from em and get slammed by bass right after. bluegill aren't scared....

Thanx guys, wow look at that pic. Only if they had bigger mouths. That's amazing.

My last trip I had dealt with blue gills all day, I had even hooked a couple pitching a wacky rigged 5" Senko knock-off. On the last stop of the day I had what I figured to be another gill swimming with my bait. I set the hook and felt a solid thump. It was the biggest fish of the day at just under 4 lbs. Hook set are free, and you never know...

The other day I was fishing a tube and had a bass take the tube and swam off with it. I kept reeling down to see if he had it and he would let go and pick it back up before it hit lake bottom. He kept doing this as I watched my line move about ten feet. It swam towards some thick weeds and I knew it was now or never. So I reeled back and set the hook. The fish came out of the water with the tube in it's mouth, let go and swam off. My tube was perfectly intact exactly the way I rigged it.

So yeah, it could have been a bass just pulling on the end of your Senko and not have the hook.

could be.. next trip I'll be aware of it.