Hooking Concern and 20 minute fishing stint 09-14-07 . . .

[islandbass]

Hooking Concern and 20 minute fishing stint 09-14-07 . . .

Nearly skunked, but determination, persistence, and a willingness to change up ( a weakness of mine) were most helpful today.

Headed to the lake on the way to work with only about 25 minutes to fish.

Quickly prepped one spinning and one casting rig for drop shot and a popper respectively.

Started with the drop shot with a 2.5” watermelon sniper snub and worked it the way I usually do, by working the slack, but could only convince the 3” dinks to come out and pay my lure a visit. 12 minutes go by, with nothing.

So I put the spinning rig down and toss the popper around. Nine minutes pass and once again, nothing.

My mind goes into over analysis mode as I begin to pack up my stuff and by the time I finish putting most everything away, it arrives at the conclusion:

1) I need to go with something that was longer and red. It seems my first pack of Zoom trick worms fit the bill and I quickly nose hook it.
2) Use a more aggressive method of working the bait, in other words less working the slack and being subtle and more wiggling and jiggling the bait to death.

With barely a minute left, I didn’t have the time to make a cast, so I opened the bail long enough to allow what I eyed as enough line to drop the trick worm by the dock.

With my backpack on, my plastics bag on my left shoulder, casting rig in my left hand, and drop shot rig in my right hand, I dropped the rod’s tip down to the location I intended along the dock’s side. As soon as the weight hit bottom, I wiggled the living dickens out of the worm. For those who might not know, this is one way I do not prefer to use as a first choice when working a bait while drop shotting.

Like a bolt of lightning, a small bass streaked out from under the dock and annihilated the trick worm. She hit it so hard I didn’t have to set the hook.

Since it was a small bass, I didn’t do a Tiger Wood’s fist pump but instead allowed a sigh of relief out that I wasn’t going to work empty handed. Ever fish before going to work and not catch anything? It’s a crappy feeling. Yeah, she was small, but heck, at least I wasn’t going to work skunked.



A Concern about how the Fish was Hooked

After raising the fish up I realized that the hook penetrated well past the bass’ hard, palette and was centered between the eyes. It has happened once before and I am a concerned that the hook is harming the fish going all the way through that. This time it was a size 2 gammy and last time a size 2 owner mosquito. Both times the hits were ultra aggressive and now that I had the opportunity to see the bass smash the bait, I know that there was no delay on my part on the hook set (because there wasn’t one) to have contributed to it being hooked as it did.

Has anyone else hooked a bass drop shotting where the hook went through the upper palette? Most of the time I see the hook in the corner of the mouth or if it is in the palette, it doesn’t go through. Perhaps it is a testament to the sharpness of the hooks, but such piercing power seems excessive to me. What are your thoughts? Is this more common that I suspect or what? Once I caught a perch who hit my 3” senko in such a hard fashion that the offset straight shank hook I was using went through the poor fish’s eye! I also saw the hit so there was no late reaction on my part. I felt pretty bad that I might have hurt the fish’s chances of survival.

Once again, the drop shot comes through for me.

Conditions: Overcast, best guess 60 degrees
Gear: 2-piece mh compre, 2500 symetre, 2-piece clarus, 201 curado DHSV
Lures: Sniper snub, Zoom Trick Worm, Rapala Skitter pop
Line: 8# vanish (I know! My brother spooled my reel with it so I need to use it up! I am beginning to trust this line less and less) and 12# Yozuri Fluoro

[ESipes_89]

I've done this a few times before and it didn't seem to hurt the fish. As long as the hook doesn't tear up the gills or penetrate any vital organs I don't see it to be to much of an issue. If someone else thinks differently please say because this is an interesting question.

I also noticed you might need to change you line. It looks like your having some "memory" problems there. I suggest (If just absolutely have to use mono) SpiderWire 20lb. super mono. It tends to last longer than others that I've used. If you want right out of the package no memory line I would say Shakespear's 14lb. super smooth line, It casts like a dream.

-Eric

[BigBassin144]

Me and a couple friends of mine were fishing in my pond before I got really into bass fishing. We were using worm on small aberdeen hooks. We didn't care what we caught. My one friend caught a small bass, about 6-7" if I remember correctly. It had a scar next to it dorsal fin and a rip in its tail fin. A little while later, I hooked up with the same bass, it was unmistakable. this time I kooked him close to his eye. We tried to get the hook out without hurting him, but we couldn't, so I cut the hook's barb and point off(cause it was a cheap hook) and I easily got the rest out. He was bleeding, but he immediatly swam away.
And for one last time that day, my friend's younger brother caught.... you guessed it, the SAME FISH!!! a scar, a ripped tail and a hole next to his eye. I honestly don't know if it was a good thing that he lived... anyways, fish are tougher than you think even though it may seem like the moral of the story is "fish are dumber than you think" its not.
bb144
P.S. This story is absolutely true.
P.P.S If you want to use mono, I'd go with Stren original, I've been using it since I was little and my dad's been using it since he was my age. (16(well almost)) anyways we have never had any problems. I just recieved a pack of Trilene XL 12lb in the mail from a friend in Alabama who gets free stuff, and i spooled it and compared it to my Stren original 10lb mono and it was horrible, a lot more memory, and i just didn't like it. I'll stick with Stren.

[zooker]

i have had the hook do some weird stuff crankbaits ted to to be known for odd hookups. i did sort of the same thing on the inside of a fishes mouth with a frog killed it STONE DEAD..

zooker

[bassfisher02]

Theres a reason that part of the fish is so tough, its where the brain is located... Now as long as it doesnt penetrate any brain matter it should be fine. I think its only happened to me once, and the fish seemed to be fine. I have however had quite a few hooks penetrate the eye socket area, and I am convinced the bass is blind in that eye now, even though it didnt actually penetrate the eye, just the area around it.

[islandbass]

Thanks guys! I feel a bit better. Througout this season, it has only happened 3 times, and I just wanted to make sure if I were doing something wrong to get tips on minimizing this occerence.

As for the crappy vanish line, for the record, I use seaguar Invizx when I drop shot. My newbie brother who didn't know any better, spooled up my symetre with it and I wanted to see where my opinion would fall with all of the horror stories I've heard about Vanish. The first palomar knot, which I tied very carefully didn't seem right when I looked at it and a slight pull of the line confirmed it. I didn't even tug hard and the line snapped right at the hook eye. The force with which the bass hit would have snapped the line since it was harder than my tug. I always check the line for wear and tear before tying a knot and I usually go slow enough to properly tie a knot. That is a major negative mark for me regarding Vanish. If I get the chance, I will be taking it off and replacing it with 8# invizx. My true drop shot rig will always have 6# seaguar invizx. The compre/symetre is one of my 2 trunk rigs. Vanish will be performing a vanishing act soon. Poof!