Tip Of The Month
How to set a hook is a topic for endless debate. Much of it will depend on what kind of water your fishing, weed density etc. and what your using for bait. A 10 inch worm in heavy cover requires much more torque than crankbaits with small treble hooks. Armatures often mistake the process at both ends of the spectrum from ripping a hook out of the fishes mouth to not setting at all and having the fish come unbuttoned as soon as the line gets a little slack or the fish turns the right way. Nothing is more heartbreaking than having a nice fish come unbuttoned at the boat.
Here's some opinions from the pros.
How many of these schooling Smallmouth can you catch?
How many times have you been out on your favorite lake on a perfect calm day when the water is clear and the sun is high and you see a school of big bass. Your first cast drifts down close to the school and hits bottom. One of the fish swims over to the bait, gills flare and he sucks up the bait. The fight is on and as you reel the fish closer to the boat you notice he's flanked by several other fish trying to steel the bait. Now your heart is pumping and even though the fish is close to the boat the other fish won't leave. Your thinking to yourself, boy have I found a honey hole.
You land the fish, take a good look while getting the hook out, put him in the livewell, inspect your line and quickly cast back into the same area. You wait antisipating that next tap as your hook setting arm is on high alert. You wait, wait some more, a little longer and still nothing.
Your next reaction is to move the bait, twitch, hop, shake, and no matter what you do you can't provoke the next strike. You reel in thinking they've moved away a bit so you make cast after cast all around the area but with no results. Frustration sets in but you know they're close and that your using the right bait because you have already caught one on that bait and the others tried to steel it. Eventually you drift off the area in search of the school. There were so many fish there and you only caught one. What did you do wrong?
You may have heard tournament pros during weigh-in say things like "all my fish came off one spot". Next they say "after I caught my limit I left the spot to save it for the next day". How is it that they can milk a spot and you can only catch one fish?
Here's what the resident pros had to say about this problem.
