Hooking Your Bass

Summer means many people will be out on the water bass fishing. Catching the attention of your fish is half of the battle, but what about the other half of the battle? As soon as you have lured that bass into the vicinity of your line, you now have to worry about hooking that fish so that you can reel it in. Here is the best way how to go about this:

When it comes to setting your hook, lures with treble hooks will sometimes cause the fish to hook itself once it bites the bait. While this is convenient when it happens, it isn’t always that a fisherman is so lucky. A bass’s jaws are extremely thick and difficult to penetrate. It usually takes an extremely sharp hook and solid hook set to catch a bass.

Set your hooks with a slack-line method. Once you feel the bass strike your lure, face in the direction of the fish with your rod in between ten and eleven o’clock. Then, quickly drop the tip of the rod, snapping the slack right out of your line with a swift overhead snap. This action will set the hook nicely in the mouth of the fish.

The drag on most fishing reels will allow for some slippage of your line. This is designed to prevent a larger fishing from accidentally snapping your fishing line. Never set your drag by adjusting the setting and pulling line from the spool in the front. This could cause the line to become buried which can impact your line pull reading. Instead, first adjust your drag and then pull your line from out past the tip of your rod. You can also tie up a heavier object to the opposite end of your line and then adjust the drag that way. One of the best fishing tips you can remember is to always set your drag to no more than half of your fishing line’s pound test.

Since bass do not have any teeth like most fish, you can easily land them without having to resort to using a net if you are willing to put in the time to practice. Many nets only serve to harm bass that you would otherwise intend to release back into the water. Once you have your fish, reel him in slowly and with a gloved hand, pull the bass into the boat.