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| Hey guys,
So I just started getting into fishing bulldawgs and have so far had trouble getting hooks into the fish this has happened acouple of times including once when I lost the fish of a lifetime. Any tips on setting the hook with these baits would be great.
Thanks
Rob |
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Posts: 1184
Location: Iowa Great Lakes | Loosing fish are part of the game but on Dawgs my hook up % is great, most times they hit so hard you can't help but hook them. Sure we loose a few each year most on boatside hits. Normaly this is what you see..... 40" with a Mag Dawg.
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | Set that hook hard with rubber baits.
JMO
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Posts: 2275
Location: SE, WI. | Rob; Try a Hellkat from Smokeys bait shop. I know your hookup % will get better! |
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| Why are Hellcats better on the hook-up? |
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| maybe just because they have better treble hooks?
the mi hooks are easy to beat |
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Location: Twin Cities | Tackle Industries - 8/6/2009 8:55 PM
Set that hook hard with rubber baits.
JMO
+1 and change your hooks, go big or go home. |
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Location: Latitude 41.3016 Longitude 88.6160 | Any plastic bait you must set the hook hard, but most of my hookups, the musky will inhale the bait. |
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Posts: 462
Location: Madison Wi. Chain | I would replace the split rings on some of the cheaper ones. My partner recently lost a fish when the split ring failed. Got the dawg back and the front hook and split ring were gone. BG |
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Posts: 230
| Great tips guys. Also, try embedding one point of each treble into the bottom of the bait, so that they won't swing around and hook each other or the side of the bait. Also, I've noticed that the top jig hook doesn't even help me with hookups, so i cut it off of every Dawg i buy, to make releasing easier.
Thanks, Zach |
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| Thanks guys for the tips This helps a lot |
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Posts: 717
Location: Grand Rapids, MI | +1 more for setting the hook HARD. I myself have failed to do this on a few fish this year. But just last night, I told reminded myself to set it hard. So I did it twice! I ended up with a 38"er and a Pounder crossways in its mouth. |
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| i think the useless hook on the top can also be a problem for a solid hook set |
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Posts: 2275
Location: SE, WI. | Ranger 6; The Hellkat have a thinner profile, + a treble with a longer shaft that seems to hook fish deeper inside the mouth.
Bulldawgs have a treble hook that has a short shank...less reach , which I feel creates less hook in the mouth. |
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| Having caught a few hunderd fish on Bulldawgs, they are one of my best hooking percentage baits. Make sure you hooks are sticky sharp, set the hook ONCE with a snap to the side, and keep pressure on the fish.
Bulldawgs are great hooking baits, just make sure you set once and make sure your hooks are sticky sharp. |
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Posts: 298
| I upgrade all split rings and replace the original hooks with 8/0 trebles on all my magnum and pounder bulldawgs. This seemed to help quite a bit. I've noticed the newer pounders now come with 8/0's. Good luck. |
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Posts: 531
Location: Hugo, MN | No matter the bait, I always make sure the hooks are slightly wider than the body of the bait. This ensures that if the fish bites down and the bait lays down sideways in its mouth, the treble can still penetrate. On pounders I use 8/0's. Magnums I use 7/0's. I haven't had many hookup problems since doing this. With soft plastics you just have to accept that you're not going to hook every fish that hits. That goes for most jerk baits too. On Suicks I've changed to 3/0 wide gap hooks and have not been missing many fish at all. The hooks that come on them standard do not stick out past the sides of the bait. |
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| I recommend you only throw bulldawgs with a H or XH rod too. Not only for casting but also for setting the hook. It helps to have a beefy rod to bury those hooks on hookset. I use a 8' Avid Heavy for Mag Dawgs and that's about as light a rod as I'd feel comfortable with for setting the hook on a bulldawg. That along with extremely sharp hooks should help. |
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Posts: 264
| set the hook down and to the side, muskies mouth are hardest on top and the dawg hooks are on the bottom of the bait anyway. |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | mota - 8/8/2009 7:42 PM
i think the useless hook on the top can also be a problem for a solid hook set
Mota is exactly right. Every time I take one out of the package, the first thing I do is snip the dorsal hook. When the fish T-Bones the bait, it needs to sink its teeth in. That hook not only is uncomfortable and turns them wild in an effort to spit it, but more importantly, having that hook compete against the two treble's below can cause fish to come un-glued (Meaning, you don't want the belly hooks and the dorsal hook stuck in that fish or one will pull the other, sometimes ripping the hole in the fishes mouth enough that with the wrong headshake, one or the other could come out. |
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