hook up problems

[Rob Mak]

recently i have been having some diffaculty in getting the hook in the fishes mouth. i am only having this problem with a 5" paca craw t-rigged with 1/32 oz bullet weight and a 5/0ewg gamakatsue hook oh yeah i am using braid. i am texasposing the hook. i am snagging bass upwards of 3 pounds in the body -mostly lower front fin area- am i setting the hook to soon or what?

zooker

[macgyver]

Is the bullet weight pegged or un-pegged? I was just reading about that in an article. Also If you aren't using it, I would suggest the Superline Gammy's with braid, or Owner of course. The hook flexes a lot less. I'm also not quite sure what happening. Since you aren't setting the hook in it's mouth, how are you hooking them by the fin? Just not quite understanding this at all. If you are snagging them under their belly, my guess is you got a whole school of them right around your bait. and as they bump it, you set the hook, and snag one?

Lizards

[profishermenkid16]

Zooker, I don't like Gamakatsu hooks no more.The mustad ultra point or Owner hooks are my choice to use.The damned gamakatsu hook points will fold over on a hookset.Un fortunately I bought alot of them so I am using them ,but only to use them up.Ithink braid is too heavy for the lightwire hook Gamakatsu makes. Try a Mustad, it is alot heavier wire more suited for the braid. The other thing is make sure the bait is still ok. Its alot like the tube baits, once they are used too much they ball up on the hookset so you can't hook the fish. go with a 1/8 oz. sinker the bass won't drop the bait because of a heavier weight. I hope this helps. P N J

[Rob Mak]

the weights are pegged lizard.
the hook is inbeding through the body structure from the the front /lower fins to the gill covers. i have never had problems with gammy's as pnj has sugested. oh yeah i also hooked a larger fish square in the middle of the back with these baits-still scratching my head over that one-

zooker

[macgyver]

Marty Stone said he pegs his weight 1 1/2" above the hook, because he likes the hookups better? I gotta think you are in a school. From where you keep snagging them, sounds like you might not even be getting a bite, they are just bumping your line, and when you go to set the hook, it's hitting one of the fish in the school. Just a thought. I'm with PNJ, on the hooks, as I stated earlier, the regular gammy's just don't handle the braid like the Owner or superline Gammy's.

Lizards

[profishermenkid16]

Zooker, Your not hooking them because they're not biting the bait, they are running into your line.Get rid of the damned paca craw crap and throw something they will bite.Try a Mizmo tube or something.Quit fooling around when you are on that many fish where your foul hooking them in the back.P N J

[Rich]

Zooker, I don't think they are hitting your bait-if you are hooking them outside the mouth in the middle of the back I think PnJ is right-they are bumping the bait but not hitting it.

[Rob Mak]

if they are in a school it is a small one i have been catching these bass off stumps in less than 3 feet of clear water.

zooker

[mblk181]

It could be they are grabbing the claws and shaking them and in a sense hooking themselves with the flailing.

[profishermenkid16]

Zooker, Thank you for letting me pick on you. I honestly haven't a clue how you hooked them, but I am pretty sure they weren't wanting your choice of bait you were using.I had a day last year in Sodus Bay ,Ontario when the fish were hitting the jig so hard I couldn't get a hookset on them.It went on for nearly an hour until I began to hook Bowfin. After the forth Bowfin, I decided there were never any bass hitting the jig, I moved on to my second spot and caught a limit of bass in 40 minutes never missing a bass bite.Lucky for me I caught the grinny toothed fish to know that they weren't bass biting on the first spot. P N J

[Infisherman1]

PNJ, I'm starting to become less of a fan of gamakatsu hooks as well. Note that the bend in the wire is a 90 degrees. This makes the lure slide down the hook too easy. Whereas some other hooks have an acute angled bend keeping the lure in place.

Mustad:


Gamakatsu:

[Eddie]

use a g-lock hook from gammie.they have the bend.i agree that the fish is bumping the bait and not biting it.switch baits.

[Infisherman1]

Try waiting until you feel the weight of the fish. Many times when bass eat crawfish tey will try to strike it a few times to kinda stun and disable it before they actually take it in. Thats what they may be doing considering it is a paca craw. I saw footage of bass doing this on a documentary on the discovery channel.

[Rob Mak]

pooper
the chances of there even being a crawdad in the whole lake are slim to none.

zooker

[Rich]

Hula, I never noticed the differences in the hooks before. Thanks for pointing them out.

I think Zooker figured it out this afternoon-he thought the fish must have been grabbing one of the claws and swimming off with it away from him. It didn't have the hook in it's mouth and when he set the hook it got the outside of the fish.

[profishermenkid16]

Zooker, what this paca craw look like ? You didn't tell us the claws were torn off the bait.If they tear the claws off fish the bait faster than you are.Use heavier weight and move the bait faster, they won't have time to be as selective on where they bite.75% of the craw products problems are the size of the claws.You will catch alot more fish with a product made with small claws on it compared to one that is made with a big claw profile.I don't care if you never beleive me again, but beleive me on that statement. ;D P N J

[Rob Mak]

the claws are roughly the size of a super chunk-zoom- they are not tearing the claws off.the whole bait looks like a super chunk with a body the twice as thick as a senko and 3.25 " long. it is a tube of sorts.

i used to use owner hooks 1 big problem with them is they tend to straighten out under heavy load-big fish-the hooks i have been useing are the super braid ewg gammy's in 5/0 i have been running alot more 3/0-5/0 hooks latly.


zooker

[randerson52]

i use the mustad big mouth tube bait hooks, and the matzuo worm hooks.

[bearpaw]

Zooker,

Don't know what lake that your refering to, but all the lakes around here have crawfish.
When we fished Tillery, I had appx. 5 or 6 fish on my soft plastic come off. I was using a heavy Tungsten weight pegged to the worm. I think that the weight was "kicking" the roof of the fishes mouth open when I was setting the hook.
I unpegged the weight and started catching the fish.
As far as the fish being foul hooked, I have caught bass in that fashion. Seems as though they may be "swiping" at the worm without actually biting it. Thats what I always thought. Correct me if I am wrong.

[macgyver]

Are the fish spawning by any chance? If so they may be just trying to knock it away from a nest?

Lizards

[Rob Mak]

not yet water is not warm enough yet for that

zooker