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Posts: 49
| I'm starting to figure out the hook set technique for top raiders. It would seem to me that the technique is different for 'large walk the dog type' baits. I have a Poe's Giant Jackpot in my tackle box and would like to know if someone could give me some pointers on how to set the hook properly. Thanks |
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Posts: 8717
| 1. Fish blows up on lure
2. Scream like a girl
3. Set the hook hard, yank lure away from fish
4. Mutter profanities while boat partner makes fun of you
That's how I do it anyway, especially if I've got a fair amount of coffee in me that morning. 
Edited by esoxaddict 9/26/2014 11:16 AM
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Posts: 9
| esoxaddict - 9/26/2014 11:14 AM
1. Fish blows up on lure
2. Scream like a girl
3. Set the hook hard, yank lure away from fish
4. Mutter profanities while boat partner makes fun of you
That's how I do it anyway, especially if I've got a fair amount of coffee in me that morning. ;-)
HAHA....this pretty much sums it up!
A good rule of thumb is to set the hook hard once you feel weight at the end of the line, don't react to the sound of the fish blowing up, you will almost always pull the bait away(easier said than done). Pretty much goes for any surface bait.
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Posts: 325
Location: Otsego, MN | esoxaddict said it perfectly but...
I avoid setting the angle in a straight upward fashion and prefer to pull to one side or the other more. Have personally lost a lot of fish by just reacting fast to the weight and hooking in their snouts where they have a greater ability to not be hooked as well. My hooks are sharp but if the fish is a long ways out its hard to get a lot of force to drive the hooks home through their bony upper mouth. |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | EA has it down to a science! Eddy has good advice. Don't set till you feel the fish (easier said than done at times). Also try to set towards the side rather than straight up.
Setting the hook on topwater is really no different than any other bait - you're waiting to feel the fish. The only issue is that sometimes we're aware of the fish trying to eat a topwater before they actually get it in their mouth, and they tend to miss (make us aware) side to side baits more often than straight retrieved stuff. Sometimes if they miss, but you keep the bait doing what it was, or speed up slightly, they they'll hit again.
Then there's the few that skyrocket out of the air about 2 feet from a Weagle and never come back. It's less exciting, but the topwater strikes most likely to hook up are the ones where they slurp it in like a big bluegill. No thrash, splash, or commotion, but a generally solid hookup.
Edited by curleytail 9/26/2014 12:56 PM
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Posts: 80
| If I'm paying attention and can clearly see the fish take the bait I'll set the hook once I feel weight. If I'm not paying attention I'll wait at least a second before driving it home. It's a crap shoot either way when working a WTD bait though. I bet I'm batting a .200 average on those. Prop baits have a much higher hooking ratio for me. |
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Posts: 1220
| I never get to this without opposition...but, first you must properly rate yourself with respect to your number 1-10 as a sufferer of "buck fever" and its musky fishing couterpart. If you're stricken to any real level (peeing your pants would be a yes) BEST NOT TO LOOK! Just reel the bait and when there is a fish on the line, set once or twice and just keep reeling. All that excitement about seeing a top-water strike may be true, but if you just missed three fish this morning, Don't look! For the steely eyed, dead steady among you, I like Mark Rotier's method he calls, "Parking the car in the garage." You see the gape-open mouth closing in the the bait (the car) and you slow down the retrieve just enough that the fishes mouth (the garage) overtakes the the car. Now that you've backed the car in succucessfully, you just pull the garage door down and call for the net. |
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Posts: 8717
| I'm finally getting the hang of "just keep reeling" prop style baits no matter what happens. My record is the same fish blowing up on a pacemaker 3 times in a single cast and missing each time. I was proud of myself for not once setting the hook. Walk-the-dog lures? Not so much. I've been lucky in that most of them have just smashed the bait and basically hooked themselves. Then there's the gulp, like you get bass fishing, where it barely makes a commotion on the surface. Those are easy too. But the ones where it sounds like someone dropped a bowling ball in the water, with water flying everywhere? Everybody has always said the same thing - don't set the hook until you feel the weight of the fish. That's solid advice right there. I envy guys with nerves of steel who can do that. The only advice I can give 'ya there is if you need to relieve yourself, do it before you even put on a walk the dog lure. Oh, and never set the hook up. If you do? DUCK!
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Posts: 357
| keep reeling, just keep reeling. watch muskies on the shield (dick pearson), tons of topwater hooksets. |
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Posts: 216
| Yup,Real till you feel, and then set the hooks hard like a bassmaster but sideways. |
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Posts: 815
Location: Waukee, IA | Practice makes perfect, go white/smallmouth/largemouth bass fishing with topwaters and practice ignoring the splash/visual aspect of the strike and focus on the weight. The rest has already been covered, the practice is the hard part. |
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Posts: 1168
| A few years back I had a guy out who had a pretty severe case of the topwater "yips." He'd set the hook hard before fish would make contact with his bait. To fix things I had him put on a blindfold to develop a better "feel" for the baits he was using. It's quite entertaining being in a boat with a guy fighting a fish while blindfolded and it cured him of his "yips." |
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Posts: 1023
| Great posts here. I think many of us could retire and have more time on the water if we had $5 for every time we've blown a topwater fish.
Practice makes perfect. My issue is concentration. They never hit when I'm right there with the bait, always when the mind is drifting. So be mentally sharp when using topwater baits.
Also stated, smallie fishing with topwater can help everything. Go to a great smallie lake and use prop baits and walk the dog baits. Get used to setting the hook when you feel the tug, not when your eyes see the hit.
And the one thing that has helped me and clients in my boat over the years is the hookset. Never set straight up. Always sweep to the side. Feel the weight side set, reel, side set again, then hang on. And even when doing everything right, you will miss some.
At that point, I recommend a nice shot of Brandy. |
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Posts: 410
Location: one foot over the line | tkuntz - 9/28/2014 5:53 PM
Practice makes perfect, go white/smallmouth/largemouth bass fishing with topwaters and practice ignoring the splash/visual aspect of the strike and focus on the weight. The rest has already been covered, the practice is the hard part.
this ^^^ |
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Posts: 134
| I am officially off of the no catches on a topwater list, finally just this year. If I had to guess the ratio I would say it was huge number of strikes I missed and even larger number of follows that I have seen. Highly frustrating. What have I learned from all of my missed opportunities? Buying more topwater lures seems to temporarily help ease the mind?!#$ but not the pocket book. It also seems there is a difference between a biting fish and a territorial fish. And some of those fish that are just out there to haunt all of our dreams!
Edited by BBT 9/30/2014 10:56 AM
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Posts: 23
| Topwaters have a tendancy of being a great searching lure as you will get tons of blow ups, follows, and everything else under the sun. But sometimes that topwater bite really is on, like everyone else has said, reel til you feel, then give it a powerful sideways sweeping hook set. once i do this i'll reel up any slack, fight it for a second, and then smack it again to make sure the hooks are set. even with the second hookset i've lost fish while fighting them. pay close attention to how the fish strikes and try to play it accordingly, sometimes changing the direction of the tension will mess it all up.
You need nerves as cool and calm as a cucumber to be successful and not lose your marbles doing topwater work. |
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Posts: 994
Location: Minnesota: where it's tough to be a sportsfan! | " They never hit when I'm right there with the bait, always when the mind is drifting. So be mentally sharp when using topwater baits."
Just the other night over a good bourbon we had this same discussion. We concluded that very possibly when we are all about the bait we may be too perfect. When the mind wanders we run the bait a little more erratic. We talked about a video of the two retrieves to see if we could spot some "good" tactics. |
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Posts: 83
Location: North of Sweden! | esoxaddict - 9/26/2014 6:14 PM
1. Fish blows up on lure
2. Scream like a girl
3. Set the hook hard, yank lure away from fish
4. Mutter profanities while boat partner makes fun of you
That's how I do it anyway, especially if I've got a fair amount of coffee in me that morning. ;-)
It seems I am reviving threads to the left and right here, but, I have to, this is too good!!! solid gold!!! made me laugh and cough coffee all over the computer due to me recognizing the order of events so hard... :D hahahahahahahahaha, so true!!! did this twice today... |
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | don't set the hook....just reel. |
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| vpsaline - 9/26/2014 11:01 AM
I'm starting to figure out the hook set technique for top raiders. It would seem to me that the technique is different for 'large walk the dog type' baits. I have a Poe's Giant Jackpot in my tackle box and would like to know if someone could give me some pointers on how to set the hook properly. Thanks
Sweep rod to the side as your hookset. |
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Posts: 1425
Location: St. Lawrence River | Like all these other comments.. I always tell my brother. Don't set the hook until you feel the fish! Wait for the weight, sideways booklet(for me). Pretty much just keep reeling.
And if she misses, don't stop. Keep reeling. Maybe even speed it up a lil!! |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | Mike gives great advice here. Particularily with big fish, actually setting the hook is more of a process than a yanking of the rod event, with the first few seconds being most crucial. Maintaining pressure by reeling fast/hard while 'pulling' down/back/sideways once the fish is felt, has been our best topwater hookset. Once engaged in battle, the hooks will find their soft spot. You'd be surprised how much that lure moves around in the fish's mouth before truly becoming seated when the fish turns or makes a run. |
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Posts: 1937
Location: Black Creek, WI | Reef Hawg - 6/1/2016 8:31 AM Mike gives great advice here. Particularily with big fish, actually setting the hook is more of a process than a yanking of the rod event, with the first few seconds being most crucial. Maintaining pressure by reeling fast/hard while 'pulling' down/back/sideways once the fish is felt, has been our best topwater hookset. Once engaged in battle, the hooks will find their soft spot. You'd be surprised how much that lure moves around in the fish's mouth before truly becoming seated when the fish turns or makes a run. Excellent advice.... |
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Posts: 39
| I haven't had a lot of muskies hit top water for me, but I have done a fair share of bass fishing with jitterbugs at night. The way I trained myself to only set the hook when I felt weight and not on the blowup is to wear earplugs.....now the question is will I be able to keep my cool when a muskie hits |
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Posts: 1126
Location: Minnesota. | They'll take a topwater?????????????????????????????????????????
Dang...... |
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