Chuck7

I get lots of hits while pitching and flipping. Fifteen hits today to be exact today. When you sucessful flippers set the hook, do you lift the rod up easy or pull that rod back quick and hard.

Once when taking my wife out in a hot spot. So it wasn't a 'total waste of time' she held the rod with one hand and a book with the other .When she got a hit she simply lifted the chunky bass up. She was 2 for 2

After loosing too many to say by setting the hook hard I remembered her technique and got 6 in the boat today. My son landed 4 more. I lost 4 trying to set the hook.hard. Any advice. How do you folks do it. You only have about 10 ' of line out there.
Chuck

killer243

what i do is this, i real up all the slack there might be to the point where i can feel the bass, then i set the hook somewhat hard but not to hard. whenever i don't set it hard he hook never sets real good and i lose a lot of fish

Chuck7

Thanks for sharing. Do you catch most of your fish? Last week I was 2/10 today I was 6/ 10 I'm working on getting 10/10
Chuck

killer243

i catch about 8 out of 10 most of the time, however i also forgot i don't set the hook right away i let him eat it a little. a lot of times when you set it right away they are just nibbling and havn't really taken the bait yet.

also what kind of jig or plastic are you flipping?

Chuck7

I hate to give out my secrets but here it goes LOL .I use a light 3/16 bullet sinker {pegged with a tooth pick} with a #3 mustad straight shank hook. My worm is a 6" Red Shad Salty Renegade Worm or Black with blue tail Curly or Black with Chartreuse Tail Curly. With the big hawgs sometimes you have to react pretty darn fast. Today my son and I flipped side by side.He used the black /green ,I used the Red Shad.We both had 15 hits. I tried to set the hook 10 times.Only got 6 in the boat. He only got 4 in the boat. He's a body builder and sets the hook to hard I do believe. We fish in the cat-tails.The beds have 1" fry on them everywhere.
Thanks,
Chuck




However; when I'm looking for a 10 lb or bigger I drift the middle with a 12" worm on a Carolina Rig. That will come after it gets warmer.

killer243

nice rig i think that most of the reason you where missing so many fish wasn't due to the hook set but the fact that the bass didn't get to the hook yet. when bass are slugish and not real aggresive many times they will just grab the tail of the worm and slowly work there way up it. when they do this i try to give them a little more time to eat the bait and then i give a small pop with my rod tip and if i can feel the fish is there i will make my hook set. if i don't feel the fish but get a little tug and nothing else i will let it set for 3 maybe 4 seconds and try again. i've found many times that it will be just enough to get it out from the bass's mouth and normally the bass will come up and unload onto the bait.

also try to get the tip of the hook just out of the worm so that it will sink in more when you set the hook

good luck and have fun

Chuck7

Thanks,
I believe your right.The ones I missed had starting to run and stopped.I presumed it was time to set the hook.Obviously it wasn't.When I checked out the worm the hook was still buried in the worm. I told my son I should of let it run with it more.
Thanks,
Chuck

mez

I set the hook hard when pitching and flipping. Usually pull the fish out of the water when flipping. If I get a fish that picks the bait up and runs with it I reel the down so the rod tip is about at knee level and hit them. I think you need to do this fast with a runner, the fish I have waited on when they run I generally miss. I think with runners it is a territorial bite, they inhale the bait and try to move it from their area. If you wait they are spitting it out. When I feel a fish tap the bait or I feel it on there when picking the bait up I give them a little time. I think they are mouthing the bait then and take longer to eat it. On these fish I reel the slack down to about knee level again and then pick up with the rod, if they are still there I set it hard. I like to set it hard for two reasons, one to get the hook through the plastic and deep into the fish, second I always pitch and flip in heavy cover and when I hit them I want to bring them up and out of whatever trash they are in. I always set it hard and straight up and catch probably 75% of the bites. The most misses come when I wait on a runner and when I hit a tap tap quick.

Chuck7

Thanks, sounds good.

Deerslayer_37

I usually reel down to the fish, and set the hook fairly hard. This weekend, i had 2 or 3 small bass(8-10") grab my tube but they wouldnt let go, and i coudlnt get a hook in them because i couldnt get the hook point through the plastaic. was using a lighter spinning rod. When using a heavy rod, i set the hook hard and reel fast to get that fish out of the cover. I NEVER peg with toothpicks. It can damage your line. Instead, using bobber stops, the rubber kind. The tie on ones work too. They keep your sinker pegged and dont hurt your line. Also, when you set the hook, the sinker can move up the line, which doesnt let the fish use the weight of the sinker to throw the weight.

slayer