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Posts: 425
Location: Elkhart, IN | OK, it took me until this last week to get hooks into a 'ski for the first time this year. While on vacation I hooked into 8-10 muskies and lost everyone of them. One was lost at the boat and a few of them were lost about halfway in. A couple were lost right after hookset and a couple good head shakes. I'm trying to analyze this and figure out why I've lost so many fish. Last year I only hooked up with a few fish but boated every single one I hooked. The only thing that I can think of that's different is I've gotten two St. Croix rods a 6'9" H and 7'6" MH both Premiers. My rod from last year was a Cabela's Fish Eagle II that has much more flex than the St. Croix's. What I'm wondering is could the stiffness of the rod be causing me to pull the hooks loose or am I just going through some bad luck and over analyzing the situation? |
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| I dont pretend to be an expert in the art of keeping a fish hooked but I did stumble on to a technique that worked for me last year. I figured out that from middle of the retrieve to at boatside that after hooking a ski I would keep the rod tip just under the water to prevent the fish from getting its head out of the water for a head shake. When they shake their head under water the fish gets less torque than if the head shakes out of the water. I learned this the hard way last year after losing 4 skis in two days, mostly at the side of the boat on strong, out of the water head shakes.
Hope this helps, and I hope you have a lot of opportunities to try this! Good luck. |
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Posts: 20281
Location: oswego, il | What hooks are you using? I like mustad round bends and eagle claws in the light wire. Lost way too many fish on 3 and 4X hooks to ever use them again. |
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Posts: 425
Location: Elkhart, IN | I'm not sure of the exact hooks, two were lost on a Ghosttail and the rest on a Viper. Both had stock hooks. |
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Posts: 8865
| Do you sharpen your hooks?
I would think you'd get better hooksets with a stiffer rod. Maybe you're not setting the hook as hard as you think?
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | I would guess two things probably happened, and I am sure you are totally unaware of it as 90% of the people I take out fishing are.
Is your rod tip pointed straight up??? Don't have your rod tip up during the fight, keep it low, even in the water if you have to. 90% of the people I take fishing, set the hook and instantly the rod is straight up in the air. That is a BIG no no!!! That is for T.V. not for real life applications. KEEP YOUR ROD TIP LOW
Did you only set the hook once? I also see way to many people doing the Tuna pump on fish, everytime they do this, the fish is lost. Jam the hooks once, keep tention on the fish, and simply reel her to the boat. If she runs, let her run. Don't force these fish to turn, or horse them in. |
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Posts: 425
Location: Elkhart, IN | I do sharpen my hooks. The hook sharpness wasn't the problem, but I'm thinking Mike might have touched on something there with the rod tip idea. Thanks for the input everybody, I hope I can hook into a couple this weekend so I can test out this theory. |
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Posts: 1887
Location: syracuse indiana | yes mark. i think i mentioned that too . mike is right. but u still can loose them that way too but not as mutch. heck u seen me loose a decent one sunday. and rod tip was darn near in the water when she got off. just wasnt hooked good. anyway keep those hooks sharp and tips low and see what happens dude...bill |
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Posts: 4266
| Quit worrying about it.
It's God's will.
Beav |
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Posts: 425
Location: Elkhart, IN | Bill, you had a fish on sunday? LOL  Joking. I wonder if Beav is right, a serious case of bad luck anyway. |
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Posts: 1536
Location: God's Country......USA..... Western Wisconsin | Having been there in your same situation I went back to my more flexible rods and had a much better time of it. We tend to forget that with the virtually no stretch lines we have today that it is easy to pull hooks. This is especially true at boatside. I have gone to a slower action more parabolic bend in my rods. Seems to be working so far. On the other hand maybe we should quit thinking so much and just fish. |
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| Hooks are too sharp.
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| I used the 6'9" Premier exclusively for the last three years and I have had no problem. I am now using a 7'6" Premier as well and it has been great. Just wondering if you are setting the hook over the opposite shoulder?? If not, you are losing power on the hookset... One good turn to the opposite shoulder and bury the rod like Hulbert mentioned and for god's sake.. dull those hooks a little.. lol
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| I agree with Steve R. I make it a point to put the rod tip underneath the water and try to keep the fish from fighting on the surface. BG |
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| I have gone through the same thing and after talking to a good friend of mine in Hayward with many years of muskie fishing under his belt he brought up a very good point . When a muskie hits with extreme agression and almost rips the rod out of you're hands , he does most of the work and I have realized those are not the fish I am loosing. The ones I am loosing are the ones that sneak up on me and kind of just clamp down and stop the lure. Muskies have extreme clamping force and even though I give them a good hookset I may not be moving that bait in the fishes mouth enough. It would be like the difference between me trying to pull a bait out of you're hand when you have a tight grip on it, and when you are holding it loosley and trying to pull you're own hand away from the bait. I agree with keeping the rod tip low, that has helped me alot but now when they take it like a bass sucking up a worm, I will get a little more agressive to slide the bait in their mouth. Lets face it, its like trying to pull a rawhide out of my dogs mouth and it gets harder as she gets bigger ( she is about a 40 incher now, LOL ) And after all, it's MUSKIE fishing. Doug |
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Posts: 63
| I would say the same as two of your other posts, one get an accross shoulder hookset!, Two keep that rod tip and the fish down, you don't want them coming out of the water and doing there whole head shanke thing. And don't froce things give the fish time! good luck |
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Posts: 141
| Use quality hooks, a stiff actioned rod and Braid for its low stretch qualities and you wont go far wrong, pull those hooks into the fish once you get a take, other than that its just bad luck. |
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| Keep your rod tip down as others have suggested, and keep tension on the fish at all times. Use a full body hook set and make sure your hooks are razor sharp. |
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Posts: 1504
Location: Oregon | From my experience when folks lose large fish it is caused by one or more of the following:
1. They don't set the hook hard enough to ensure that it gets a good "hold" which after some struggle allows the fish to pull loose;
2. They fail to keep the line tight. You should always have some bend in the rod, if not you should be reeling like mad, if the fish is taking line let him go, if not bring him in;
3. Improper drag set...the drag should be set so as to let the fish go if he chooses to but not so light that you can't crank him;
4. Getting too excited when the fish gets close....many big fish, in fact most big fish, are lost at or near the boat. As the fish gets closer, nearer the surface, and within sight, the tendency of many anglers is to "pull him in" as fast as possible. In fact it is now that you want to be slow as you have lost a considerable amount of buoyancy and line stretch (in the case of mono). Keep the line tight but be patient when the fish gets close, let him do those last few spins, turns, runs and then net him as soon as possible.
Jed
www.bikinibaitcompany.com
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Posts: 425
Location: Elkhart, IN | Thanks for all the tips, I hope to get to put them in use soon. I only got two hits saturday night and both of them blew my Viper completely out of the water while making a spectacular 5' jump. Sadly no hooks into either one  |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | a couple of ideas. first, Mike makes a great point .... here's something else to consider.
when the fish hits, pay attention to the orientation of her body before setting the hook. that's right, you can wait .... she's eating the bait and isn't going to let go until she feels pressure, you might as well apply that pressure in a way that will drive the hooks into the corner of her big fat yap. always set the hooks toward the tail.
also, if during the battle you see an opportunity to bury the hooks again with a rip toward the tail .... DO IT! you can never have too much of the bait sunk in .... that's what bolt cutters and spare hooks are for.
and think about free-spooling her under pressure before netting instead of muscleing her with the drag. it takes some getting used to, but puts you at a definate advantage overall.
finally, when you set the hook understand you've got to move the bait through her mouth while she's clamped down on the bait, the hook-set needs to be quick and deliberate enough to move the fish in the water, so look at what you're doing and give 'er a good one. |
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Posts: 425
Location: Elkhart, IN | Great tips everyone, thanks for the help. |
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Loosing fish.....HELP