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Posts: 119
Location: Cheyenne, WY most of the year | Do you do it? Thoughts for/against? |
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Posts: 20248
Location: oswego, il | If they let you set the hook back into the fish. Seems pretty rare to get one to eat and turn away at least the pressured waters I fish. |
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Posts: 3505
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hiya,
I set the hook in the opposite direction the fish goes. In most cases, this will be back toward the tail away from the head. I never pull straight up, but sometimes the fish is just thrashing so hard they hook themselves and I just hold the rod there and let the rod absorb the thrashing.
No matter how the fish moves after the fact, I will always do everything I can to keep a tight line in the opposite direction the fish is traveling, rod below level or very low to the water.
Steve |
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| I guess the only time I wouldn't set back into the fish is when you don't know which direction that is. Two years ago the first fish of the season came after dark on opening day. I was throwing a top water and heard a fish splash behind it, did multiple figure 8s at the boat with the lure down about a foot. On fifth or sixth 8 fish hit. I swept rod in opposite direction of the 8 and hooked the fish but I had no idea what direction it was going. |
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | There is no single right or wrong way, every situation can be different with different angles in play. A lot of times I will snap “down” and away and keep my rod tip down, then from there almost continue the figure 8. |
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Posts: 754
| The hardest part of a musky's mouth is the roof of the mouth. IMHO if the opportunity is there to set back it's your best play... |
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Posts: 170
Location: Alexandria, MN | Whenever possible, I try to set the hook back into the fish and hopefully slide the hooks into the corner of its mouth. What I try to do, however, does not always equate to what actually happens.
Edited by phselect 5/22/2019 11:33 AM
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Posts: 1828
| If you visualize the hook movement relative to the musky's mouth through the process of jerking the rod "back into the fish", you might conclude that this isn't the best idea.
Empirically, though, maybe it is. |
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Posts: 1760
Location: new richmond, wi. & isle, mn | Musky Brian - 5/22/2019 8:12 AM
There is no single right or wrong way, every situation can be different with different angles in play. A lot of times I will snap “down” and away and keep my rod tip down, then from there almost continue the figure 8. Great answer Brian! |
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Posts: 2308
Location: SE, WI. | I guess setting the hook back towards tail, pretty much pulls the head out of the water, and in my experience, just results in violent head shakes, and Lost Fish. Not Sure why you would want to set hooks into the toughest, Hardest, part of the Muskies mouth!!! I usually set the hook best I can downwards, shove rod in the water, then try and walk fish around the boat to keep hook secure, and to keep hook moving one way in fishes mouth to keep the hole from hook getting any bigger. Usually hooks that penetrate the sides, corners, or lower jaw, = boated Fish!!! JD
Edited by jdsplasher 5/22/2019 12:58 PM
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Posts: 8828
| It's nice when they eat coming out of the first turn, because they're already moving away from you, and you're in a perfect position to get a solid hookset and get hooks in the corner of their mouth. Even then it seems like a lot of them come off in the net, which makes me think they were never really hooked to begin with. |
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Posts: 2376
Location: Chisholm, MN | I've pulled the bait out of a fish's mouth in just about every possible scenario. Just read the situation at the time and hope for the best. |
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Posts: 267
| Back when I chased muskies a lot, I got pretty good at setting back into the fish. It took a while to have the poise to do it for me. Now I'd probably struggle to do it since I don't catch as many as I used to. Regardless what you do, you have to keep your cool and perform under pressure and excitement. |
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Posts: 281
Location: US | What do you guys consider a normal hookset? Up? away from the fish mouth? I guess for me I don't really think about it, but it usually depends on the situation and orientation of the rod when the fish hits |
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Posts: 1938
Location: Black Creek, WI | My experience has been those that bite in the straight-away of the eight and you set in the same direction as the fish is traveling... have the highest probability of getting off before they are in the net. Its also the most difficult location in the figure8 to have the discipline and mechanics to set back into the fish.
Ask yourself this. Regardless of where in your retrieve it bit, would you rather have a fish hooked in the beak (point of the nose) or in the corner of its mouth? I'd go with corner of the mouth. Snoot hooked fish are just tough to keep on and will highlight any line-angle mistake you make. |
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Posts: 8828
| anderj85 - 5/23/2019 10:08 AM
What do you guys consider a normal hookset? Up? away from the fish mouth? I guess for me I don't really think about it, but it usually depends on the situation and orientation of the rod when the fish hits
I don't think there's a "normal", more like "ideal"....
For me that's getting the fish to eat when it's moving in a direction away from me. If they do that, you're basically just setting the hook down and towards the tail anyway without having to think about it.
Out on a cast it seems like they usually try to hit the lure from the side so you kind of accomplish the same thing by default.
It's the ones that come up behind the lure and just nip the back hook that kill me. No matter how you set the hook, the fish is probably coming off. |
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Posts: 897
| jlong - 5/23/2019 12:57 PM
My experience has been those that bite in the straight-away of the eight and you set in the same direction as the fish is traveling... have the highest probability of getting off before they are in the net. Its also the most difficult location in the figure8 to have the discipline and mechanics to set back into the fish.
Ask yourself this. Regardless of where in your retrieve it bit, would you rather have a fish hooked in the beak (point of the nose) or in the corner of its mouth? I'd go with corner of the mouth. Snoot hooked fish are just tough to keep on and will highlight any line-angle mistake you make.
Totally agree. I recall reading or seeing Bill Sandy talk about how he would pull lures away from fish in the straightaway to get them to eat on the outside turns in the 8 as hooking/landing percentages were much higher that way. Combine that advice with Cal up on Eagle telling me to set back towards the tail and bury the rod to keep the fish from jumping/thrashing, Saric or Heiting talking about taking the fight to the fish rather than let it dictate terms, and Bucher continuing the figure 8 with the fish hooked on his show and you have a general framework for upping the percentage of fish you put in the net that are hooked in the 8.
Beak hooked fish get off more than those hooked in the corner of their mouth. Fish that come out of the water on the strike or during the fight are more likely to get off than those that don't. Fish that do the stalled out headshakes get off more than fish that are kept moving by the angler.
All that said, sometimes there's just not much you can do with a green fish next to the boat and things happen. Do what you can given the situation to dictate the terms of the hooking/fight and you'll land more fish.
Edited by whynot 5/23/2019 2:50 PM
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| fish usually gives the best hookset ........ |
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Posts: 246
| Like was mentioned above, try to read the situation and go with it. I had one eat on top of the outside turn yesterday. No need to set the hook since the fish slammed it and started pulling. |
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