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| I lost three nice fish in the last few days on Pounders. One I was asleep at the wheel and missed the bite, but the other too I was ready and I had a good hook set. They seem to hold it well and I get them all the way to the boat and I think I'm golden but as soon as they get near the boat and go crazy they spit they hook. I know fish spit hooks. It happens but I've never lost three fish in a row on the same bait on different days and conditions and was wondering if I'm doin something wrong with Pounders. Never had a problem with dawgs or mag dawgs. I seen on here where guys said to cut off the top hook and I've done that. And yes all my hooks are sharp. Any tricks like adding a trailer hook or something you guys do with yours? |
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Posts: 230
| What type of rod are you throwing them on? They have big hooks, you really need a rod with a stiff tip and plenty of backbone to hammer the hooks home on a Pounder. |
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| St. Croix Mag Dawg, 100 lb Power Pro. |
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| Oops. Big Dawg. |
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Location: Twin Cities | When they thrash, that lure gets a lot of leverage to pop out... |
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Posts: 717
Location: Grand Rapids, MI | Unfortunately, that's the one bad thing about throwing big rubber. Their teeth dig into the rubber, and it's hard to get a good hookset. I lost probably over 50% of my fish this year that hit Dawgs. If I was thinking about it when the fish hit, I would double up on the sets. 2 good jerks, then I would have them pinned. Remember too, those Pounders have 8od hooks I believe. Takes a lot to drive it in good past the barb. |
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Posts: 1938
Location: Black Creek, WI | If you held onto them long enough to bring them boatside before losing them... I hate to say it... but I suspect "operator error".
Try to keep your rod tip low, don't let the fish change directions, and try to keep them swimming parallel to the boat... not straight at you.
If you are losing them at initial contact... then I'd start questioning your equipment (rod choice, hook size, etc.) or hookset process.
Good Luck! |
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| rod tip low  |
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Posts: 375
| I tend to agree with JimtenHaaf above concerning it is more difficult to drive in a hook in past the barb on these larger hooks. think about it, the diameter of the hook just before it spreads out to form the barb is about 1/2 of what it is vs where the tip of the barb is which is why it is MUCH MORE difficult to bury a barbed hook deeply. i went barbless five years ago on every single bait (grind the barbs off with a dremel tool it takes only seconds) after reading about an experiment concerning this very topic in a muskies inc. magazine (wish i could find it) that proved that it is much easier to deeply bury a barbless hook, that is, all the way down to the bend of the hook. with all other things being equal, rod type, reel's drag setting, force used in the initial hookset, line used, keeping a good bend in the rod while fighting the fish, etc., i believe the vast majority of the time i am getting a deeper hookset using barbless hooks. i realize there are plenty of reasons why fish never get to the net, but i believe many are lost due to using barbed hooks because they are just not getting in deep enough vs when barbless hooks are used. personally my number of lost fish has gone down since going barbless...go figure! by the way i am using the same croix big dawg rod with 100lb on a luna with the drag cranked down super super tight.
Edited by STUSHSKY 11/30/2009 10:01 AM
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| If you are losing a lot of fish on pounders you need to do a few things.
1. make sure your hooks are very very sharp.
2. learn how to free spool during the fight, during any head shakes, big turns or runs, etc....I am free spooling Pounder fish ALOT...
3. keep your rod tip DOWN
I probably catch about 100 fish a year on big rubber baits and only lose a few here and there. |
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| If your losing 50% of your fish on rubber you are doing something seriously wrong. I say I am about 90% on rubber, in my opinion they are some of the better hooking percentage baits on the market. |
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Posts: 427
Location: Wausau | The questions to ask ourselves after we lose a fish is "why" and then try to correct next time. The first is to use proper "heavy" equipment, if not, make the investment if you want a higher success rate with Pounders. Example - I use a 9' St. Croix Tournament TM69XHF custom built by ProEdge with a Penn 975 w/ 100# Bronzeback with a 180# Stealth Leader split ringed to lure. Next is first contact; are you paying attention to the feel of the lure, the line angle and ready for a hook-set. I try to use a low-cross body set instead of the high rod over the shoulder one. As Jason mentioned, keep control of the fish and pressure on the hooked-side of the fish - sometimes I walk around the boat so the fish won't easily change directions. I also will stick my rod tip under water to avoid open mouthed-above water head shakes that will cause loose line and counter weight against the hooks. I don't want a fish just sitting there - keep them moving. To help reduce lost fish when they eat the head, I have either straight wired a new spot for the front hook and connect to eyelet and/or split ringed a #5 hook to the eyelet and bent one hook to stick into the head...I know BN has also tried this with success. I change hooks to Mustad #9's as well...extra sharp. Sadly fish will find a way to come unpinned, but changing our habits will help reduce their efforts.
Side note story about losing a big fish in MN on dubba 10's...fish made a run at boat side, turned belly up, scrapped the rocks with the lure and popped self free. Leaving me to trolling motor over to my stuck lure...amazing pea size brains. |
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| Thanks for the tips. I do fish barbless, and each of the losses has happened as the fish started rolling and thrashing. I held one on through a tail walk and a cartwheel, and she came unpinned when she got to the boat and just went berzerk. Another came off as she dove straight down under the boat.
It's only been three fish, and I've only really started fishing pounders this year, so my experience with them is not much. But my boated fish percentage has been upwards of 80%-90% and then i lose these three fish all on pounders, so it just makes me wonder. I think I'm a decent fish-fighter and I'm all about keeping the rod down, even in the water until it's time to net. These pounders are just shredded when I'm getting them back and in the boat, so I'm thinking like Jim said and they're getting their teeth into them and I'm not getting a good enough hookset. I've not had issues with regular or mags, but just so far on the pounders. |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | I like what Jimtenhaaf AND Jason said, both valid points. like J said, if you held onto them all the way to the boat, more than likely it may have been operator error. I hate to admit how many fish I've "hooked" into that came unglued in the first couple seconds on big rubber. It is, however, possible to have them up to the boat locked onto the rubber minus the hooks and then loose them - caught a 44 this fall on a sucker that without a single hook in the fish, I couldn't believe the sucker stayed hooked to the harness, but truth it is.
Rod tip low and keeping them parallel is dynamite way to ensure the most pressure and keep the hooks solid. Even if no hooks are buried, this reduces slicing and tearing of the rubber. |
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Posts: 100
| Cut off the top hook! |
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Posts: 717
Location: Grand Rapids, MI | Guest - 11/30/2009 11:22 AM
If your losing 50% of your fish on rubber you are doing something seriously wrong.
Hmmm. And I thought I was doing all the right things! LOL! Yes, I know. The problem was is I usually fish a Dawg with a sweep/jerk-take-in-the-slack retrieve. The fish almost always hit on the pause/fall of the Dawg. When I would take another jerk, there would be weight, and the first instinct is to quickly take in any slack that might be there, and muscle the fish closer. When I was tuned in to my bait, I would get the hit, then slam it backwards again to drive it home. One of my last fish on a Pounder was only a little 38"er. But with 2 good yanks, I was able to get her in the net. |
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| Make sure you gap your hooks too. |
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| I strongly agree with many of the points made by agrimm.
A 9' rod with backbone but some "give" in the tip will help keep steady pressure on the fish and absorb some of the energy from headshakes. While the fish is fighting, the hook holes can tear, especially with today's superlines - using a rod with some give can help minimize the tearing. I think some of the rods out there that are solid backbone from butt to tip are terrible fish-fighting rods, even if they can launch big plastic a mile. The hook-setting and fish-fighting tactics described by Grimm are absolutely right on. Low rod position and constant, steady pressure will all help keep the surface thashing and cartwheeling to a minimum. If the Pounder comes equipped with the short-shank, round-bend hooks, I change them to 8/0 Mustad 3551. I'm just not a fan of round-bend hooks with such a wide gap and a short shank - I just don't think they hold as well. As already stated, keep them very, very sharp. Always.
Every strike is different and every fight is different. I've felt the tell-tale, light "tap", set the hook, fought the fish to the net, and found nothing but leader sticking out of the fish's mouth. Seeing a whole Pounder in a musky's mouth will remove all doubt if one finds themselves thinking a Pounder is too big. Other times I've brought them in barely hooked on the outside of it's mouth with only one hook. Now that's a bad fighting situation - that's a lot of mass outside the fish's mouth. My point is, the Pounder is like other lures - sometimes they absolutly inhale the thing, other times they just nip at it as if they're just sampling. I say this based on how they get hooked, but even better, from plenty of personal observation from seeing them hit when the Pounder is withing sight.
I think the Pounder isn't the greatest hooking lure because of the problems with the plastic already mentioned, but they're not too bad. I do, however, think that Pounders successfully land hooked fish pretty well. You'll lose fish on every lure, no matter how good a hooker it is. Even with the highest-percentage hooking lures, everyone gets into one of those "streaks" where they lose a few in a row. It's possible to flip a coin "heads" three times in a row, too.
A lot of the tactics discussed in this thread will help maximize the percentages, but fish will get off, and that's part of the excitement. You don't fool every fish (that's for sure), you don't hook every fish you fool, and you don't land every fish that's hooked. That's all part of the fun. |
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Posts: 427
Location: Wausau | Great post Paul!
FYI - tried checking your site and a "Danger Warning" flashed.
I believe you have a well written report on using plastics and was going to add link. |
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