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| This weekend, I was in about 2.5ft of water casting a pink odyssey dragon lizard on one of there jigs. After the bait hit the bottom, I would give it about 5 quick turns of the reel. I had a very nice hit after a few turns of the reel. This fish was about 5ft max away from the boat. I set the hook straight up and she came straight out of the water, I continued to give the fish steady pressure as I hit the freespool. Right before the I hit the freespool, she got off. I finished reeling the jig in and did numerous figure eights. I pulled the jig from the water and noticed that the leader that came with the jig looked like a spring. Obviously I have a lack of experience with jigs. Should've I given this fish a few seconds and then set the hook? Clearly there was stretch with that leader, would that have hindered a solid hookset? Can anyone else see some beginner mistakes?
Thanks,
MJB |
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| The 'spring' effect you see on the leader is from the leader pulling through the fish's teeth. I would guess the fish hit in front of the jig, a not uncommon event. Hit them the second you feel them, and hang on![:bigsmile:] |
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| I'll "second" what Worrall posted.
For that reason I switched to rigging all of my jigs with .013 piano/solid wire and went away from stranded leaders. I got bit off a few times ahead of the jig head, since switching I haven't had that problem.
Steve still uses 7 strand successfully and I can't argue with his success on creatures. It's just that I have more confidence in the solid wire.
Your experience is not all that uncommon, you fish creatures enough and it'll happen again. My personal theory is that because Muskies suposedly can't see much below the horizontal plane that they sometimes miss a bait they are trying to grab on the fall, hence hitting ahead of it or nipping off the tail, as opposed to a glider/crank that is nuteral or rises when paused. They rarely if ever miss these.
Just my .02 cents worth..
Good luck,
Mark |
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| Very true, the fish got a hold of the leader and not the jig. I caught one once that had the seven strand tangled in it's teeth and not hooked at all. The leader was kind of weaved in and out of it's teeth. Could not see any place where the hook had ever been stuck. Mighty lucky I would guess. Hmmm, a pink lizard you say, I may try that this weekend. By the way, I still use the flexible seven strand in the weeds 30# and solid wire when on the stones. The solid wire seems to hold the knot off of the rocks a little better. Just my preference but it works for me. |
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