Josh,
Most of my fish this week have run sideways. Piece of cake ..set the hook in the other direction.....bass in the boat. Yesterday was terrible and I lost some nice fish.What do ya do in this case.

Fishing because of front is slow.So I'm reaching over deep in the cattails. Theres only a 3 inch circle big enough to drop my best soft bait in. I jiggle it a few times.TAP. The line rips straight for the boat which is a massive underwater jungle. I tried doing my gentle lift.NO WAY!! Hook is stuck in the structure. I've triedsnatching before and pull the bait out of her mouth. I lost 6 of these yesterday. Water is about 3 foot deep BUT HEAVY BRUSH or CATTAILS.
C7

Nows the time to break out the heaviest rod you have. Load it up with 50 lb braid (super braid, powerpro, spiderwire). Tire lure directly to the braid.Let them have the bait a few seconds.. Get them a good THUD hookset with BOTH arms.. Then keep the pressure on them - They will eventually tire and come out that hole.

Thanks Josh...Next time i'll try thudding them hogs.{ I will take your advice and get my rod out of the trash.I was honestly throwing my med, heavy flipping rod away. I'll take your advice }I can tell how they slammed my rod into my boat they were decent fish. all the fish were good tournament fish but I found out the biggest ones are in deeper shoreline pockets OR super heavy cover. Most people don't realizwe all the cover you can cover by flipping. I don't think another boat caught a fish. Fishing was slow but I got around 15 hits. I boated 7 nice fish around 15-17 inches long. I was down to one worm. They make an awesome plastic worm here locally.It was hard ot find but when I did I bought the only 5 packs they had. The color is called Christmas Tree. Something like June Bug but with a little red glitter. The best part. Although you can catch 4 bass on one worm the plastic is the softest I've ever felt. They just about hook themselves.
C7

Josh,
Still having problems . Yesterday was slow but went like this.

6:45 AM Felt a fish ...let her run. Wind the line down. I set it hard. Saw the 2 pound fish nearly pulled it out of the water. Got away. The hook hadn't even went through the soft rubber worm. I filed the #4 Mustad hook.

6:47 My partner got a hit. he reels down. Goes from 6:00 to over the head hard. Hook nearly slaps him in the face. Nothing also ...his hook does not penetrate the worm.

WE each missed two more.

9:00 AM. Got a hit . Set the hook so hard I pulled the 1 pound bass out of the water and across to the other side of the boat.First bass.

9:30 AM Got a hit. Tried ripping his head off 7" bass in the boat.

10:00 AM looking for a new spot. Deep water in the shade. My buddy complains about being in the back of the boat so I'm driving backwards . He fishes the easy spots ..I fish deep and thick.
I stick the worm as far back as possible and wait 10 seconds. tap tap.
rip there it goes. I sweep the darn worm as hard sideways as I can expecting it to get away. Not this time. I love my braided StrenI'm pulling sticks ,spider webs and fish .And I have a nice girl trying to wrap me around the trolling motor. Finally I net a 3 pounder. I'll post when film is developed.

10:15AM My friend gets a tap. This time he reels down so far the rod tip is 8 inches below the surface. He crosses the fishes eyes and.....catches his first and only fish of the day.

Not good though..We each had at least 7 hits.
C7

I seriously think you need to upgrade to a 7' or 7'6" rod. It will help you immensely. Also, put some megestrike on the first 2" of your worm. The fish will key on the duped portion and you'll hook more.

If the tubes and jigs strike out ...I'll seriously consider it. Also some of them hooks which start with a G ...could help too.Shoot those things ae so sharp they prick me when I'm looking at them in the package.
C7

Josh..I think I've fixed the problem.I just went to Wally and bought some weedless hooks. That way I can fish the hook outside of the worm. I fished the tube that way tonight and it worked fine.Simply lift up the fish with a little grunt and it is hooked.
C7