How to handle big bass.

[VinCic]

??? I was fishing with my dad. He hung a giant. It started ripping drag,and got him wrapped.he asked me to tell him what I would have done. I told him he should have got like some 30/40 braid and tighten his drag,and horse him in. What would yall do? ???

[Bassin_Dude]

i personally would have done the magical monkey dance and the ''bring this one in'' dance untill the bass was at my feet. :

[basscatcher]

palying a flute and runnin in circles works great too

[Rich]

Problem is you need to be using the braid BEFORE you hook it-I know that from personal experience ;D. Sometimes they just wrap you up and there isn't a darn thing you can do about it-been there and done that, too ;D

[Bassin_Dude]

ahhh yes bass_whoopin, the great bass flute magical circular dancy majiger ;D trotline, if you need to know how to do the magical monkey dance, here you go. first, get on your head, then bring your left leg down till you can lick your foot. then, this is the most important, start spinning around making monkey sounds while licking your foot. works every time.

[basscatcher]

there's also the 50' dip net

[Rich]

And don't forget the chrome plated whiz bang with the decoder ring.













Boy, this thread went south in a hurry, didn't it ;D?







Don't take the responses too serious, trotline-it gets a littly goofy here from time to time ;D. Like now

[basscatcher]

yeah man- i just poking fun 2

[Bassin_Dude]

same here ;D

[fool4bassin]

u put some googles on and go swimming O_o

[catfishtonyd]

Sometimes.

They just get away.

[zman]

I'll commit the error of taking the original post seriously for a sec.

There are 2 schools of thought:
1. Horse the fish in
2: Baby the fish

Generally I think the stregnth of the line plays the biggest factor in what you should do - with light line you have to be gentle, with braid your biggest fear is not the bass breaking the line but either throwing or straightening out the hook.

If I had the ability to choose the terms on which that big fish would hit, I would certainly hope that she hit when I was using 50 pound braid and my heaviest reel, and in that case I would horse the fish in and just hope that the hook doesnt pull out. But I've had large fish hit when I was using light line and spinning gear, and in those cases its hard to know for sure what to do.

[Rob Mak]

playing with them after there in the boat is fun if you are using heavy tackle. but tangle with a big fish on light line-i use 8 pound test- and you will learn to #1 play the fish and#2 loosen the drag.


zooker

[jglassguy]

a loose drag is a must, if you can adjust quickly on that star drag adjustment,
and.....on a really big run you can free spool it and control it with your thumb,,very rare, but if you ever hook a big cat or salmon or steel head, ya can practise all ya want lol.....plus the occasional carp that ya hook by mistake can peel line out, and its a shame to let a heavy drag make all the line dig into your spool.
I once was jerking for smallmouth at Barkley and hooked a 30 lb carp in the belly with my rogue,,he took us on a ride!