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Posts: 141
Location: Minnetonka | I ended this season with a 7th missed fish on a pounder for the fall. This one left a decent sized tooth in the head of the bait. I never leave any slack in my line between rod sweeps and I am confident in the quickness of my hooksets. In fact, the length of some of the gashes in the baits shows me that I am literally pulling the bait out of their yaps. I’m not talking about tail nips, I am talking about t-bone and head-on strikes that leave gashes clear enough to see the jaw width of these fish.
My theory is that, since I am almost always fishing pounders deep, the upward sweeping hookset is opening their mouths and pulling those lower trebles up and out. The Mag Dawgs have the Dorsal hook and early in the season, of the three strikes that I had on Mag Dawgs, I netted all three. I am thinking about keeping the rod down very low next season with the pounders and making my hooksets low and away to try to drive the lower trebles home. Looking for some opinions on this and if others have experience this as often.
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Posts: 458
| I think Pounders require two hooksets. I lost a nice fish last year and on the first hookset she swam at the boat and I know if I had hit her again my odds would have gone up. My opinion is the first hookset just gets the bait out of their grip and the second drives it home. |
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Posts: 1292
Location: Walker, MN | It seems like some hits come and go so fast that there isn't time for even one hookset. I do agree though that a first hookset basically breaks the jaw pressure and the second one moves the bait in the fishes mouth. I think matt's theory on a low angle hookset is a good idea, especially on a short string. |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | I learned not to set the hooks in an upward motion,......Set the hooks to the side for better hookups...Unless your jigging.
I fish pounders a lot, and am getting better at not loseing as many fish as I have in the past.
Jerome |
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Posts: 441
| I hear ya, Matt!
Throwing those big baits, all day, then not hook up, sucks... 
On a happier note...Nice buck, buddy!!!!!
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| My theory: Larger Muskies generate so much jaw pressure, when they clamp down on big rubber, you are not moving the bait with a hook set. The initial hookset might get points in the jaw, but a second set as the fish relaxes its grip and prepares to expel the bait is when you can get a good hook set. Wait too long though, and it gets spit out. |
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Posts: 157
Location: Lincoln, NE | Put a top hook on them. I had a state record musky (NE not MN) hit my pounder right at the boat. The water didn't have much visibility at all and as soon as the pounder came into sight right by the boat a massive musky hit is at full speed on the drop. I didn't even see its head just the back 2/3 of it. It drilled it and went straight down and I set the hook with everything I had. Had it on long enough for it to double my Big Nasty and pull the rod down to the water, I dropped to one knee to get the rod out over the boat so it didn't pin the rod against the boat as it went under it and it let go. My cousin was grabbing me by the collar he thought I was going overboard. It hit it directly on the top of it and corkscrewed the pounder into a demolished mess. I pull it up and it was in a dawgball after that but I kept figure 8'ing and had my cousin and sister figure 8 their baits but she was gone. Now I put a top hook on every big plastic I own. Either put another Musky Innovations plasma treble hook to the eyelit w/ a split ring and bury one of the hooks into the head so 2 are sticking out or I run a small piece of floro from the eyelit back to a big single offset catfish hook and run it through the top fin. I could tell by the holes in it afterwards and the direction it came after the bait how it hit the lure. If only I woulda kept my Pounder Pro on I might have the state record right now. But then again maybe it wouldn't have even hit that color. That fish haunts me though everyday and I'll never run another without some sort of top hook. And all of this happened 20 yds from bank with about 10 people watching. I bet they never heard so many cuss words in 10 seconds in their life. |
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Posts: 93
| I think the double hook set is the way. I lost 6 huge fish last summer on Clair because of that. |
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Posts: 158
| Why do they make them now without the top hook? |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | I think the top hook gives Bigger Fish Leverage with huge Head shakes to wiggle off of the bottom hooks... I usually cut any top hooks off......
Edited by Top H2O 11/20/2013 8:19 PM
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Posts: 383
Location: SE Wisc and Vilas County | what kind of rod are you using? I also agree with Top H20 no need for the top hook cut them off. |
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Posts: 1292
Location: Walker, MN | I cut any top hooks off as well, I want to move the bait in the fishes mouth.
One other thing to ponder about pounders is that bigger hooks are inherently less sharp then small hooks. The thicker diameter makes them a little less likely to penetrate unless the hooks are razor sharp and the rod is super stiff. |
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| 1 strong hookset is all i need |
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Posts: 267
Location: Ft. Wayne, Indiana | jano - 11/21/2013 5:47 AM
1 strong hookset is all i need
Agreed. |
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Posts: 567
| Come on now give er two......like she says, if all ya got is one, you're doin it wrong.......bust em twice. Especially if the first hookset didn't feel like it did the job. |
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| if you do it twice the hole in the mouth just get too big and if you get some slack line you can say ciao to the fish.just make a test outside the water on a big piece of wood you will be amaze to see the power generated by a hook set.they don't have a really powerful bite once suckers get attacked they stay alive long enough to prove it when you have teeth this size you don't need a lot of power to do some damage |
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Posts: 141
Location: Minnetonka | honkermusky - 11/20/2013 7:31 PM
what kind of rod are you using? I also agree with Top H20 no need for the top hook cut them off.
Using a Big Nasty. I understand the double hookset as it it generally necessary to dislodge suicks or other wood/plastic baits from their grip before driving in the hooks. The odd thing with the hook sets on the pounders was that immediately following that "tick" on a taught line, I set the hook and there isn't even resistance the way that I would feel on a crankbait? Someone who didn't know that this subtle feeling is a strike wouldn't even know that a fish had it in grip...or, who knows, maybe that slight 1 or 2 second delay would allow for a second "chomp" to reposition the bait. Looking at the tooth only makes me think about how far off June really is...
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Posts: 141
Location: Minnetonka | Here's the tooth.
I would have loved to see the rest of this fish....
Zoom out to see it easier.
Attachments
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 Musky Tooth.jpg (193KB - 239 downloads)
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