|
|
Posts: 13
| This is my 1st year pure strain fishing and I was using a jackpot. Had a couple of hits. The first one I got so excited that soon as it hit I set the hook and must have pulled the lure right out of its mouth. Teeth marks down to the wood of the lure. Do you think I set the hook to soon or just unlucky? 2nd fish was the same thing. Does walk the dog type lures have poor hooking % the way it goes from side to side causing the fish to miss. Should I wait to feel tension from the fish to set the hook? I tried bucktails, spinners, and crank baits and only follows on bucktails.
Any suggestions?
Jimus |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1137
Location: Holly, MI | First thing, if you havn't done so already is sharpen those hooks. I use the yellow handled file from Luhr Jenson. I have never had a factory hook that was sharp out of the package. File the point so it digs easily into your thumb nail with no pressure. Sharpen one point and check it against an unsharpened one and you will see/feel a huge difference.
It is hard not to set the hook before you feel the weight of the fish when you see the strike. Muskie fishing is pretty durn exciting huh? |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1996
Location: Pelican Lake/Three Lakes Chain | The general rule of thumb when fishing any topwater bait is to wait to feel the fish before setting the hook. It can be very hard because the hits are so visual, but you need to wait until the fish has the bait in its mouth. Sometimes the fish makes an awful ruckus on the surface right around the bait before eating it, and sometimes they miss it completely, so keep working your bait until you feel the fish.
The second question you had is if the JackPot is a poor percentage hooker. In my opinion yes it is, as a matter of fact all glide baits are. They do have an erratic action however that just drives fish wild. To increase the hookup percentages on these baits work them a little slower with a slight pause at the end of the glide. I have found that I may not get as much action working a jackpot this way, but I put more fish in the boat. I would rather have more pictures and less blowups any day. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 124
Location: Rice Lake,WI | Waiting for the rod to load...doesn;t get any better! Had a shortie come up the other day and snout pushed the burnt bucktail from behind then smashed it but if I had not been able to see this,who knows. You will lose and or miss fish on top but would you have raised them on something else? Something about the side to side they just dig it.
JT |
|
| |
hook set