setting the hook to the left

[Dana Lee]

OK so now I've lost @ least 3 fish(seen them and broke my heart) north of 20 this year for one reason. I can't set the hook to the left. Does ne one else have this problem? I can set to the right peachy cream, but the left doesn't cut the mustard w/ a right hand baitcaster. Any assistance would be appreciated and maybe I'll tie ya into one of these bronze bombers as a pleasant reward.

[Guest rich mc]

i'm wondering if your feet are in an bad position. a hookset to the left should work better if the right foot is out a little more .

[Jonn Graham]

Sounds like Chevy Chase's problem in European Vacation........................."I can't get left"!

 

Seriously though have you tried to use your hips when setting the hook to the left? This might sound funny, but I have noticed that many times for me setting the hook is not just done with arms and wrist, I also swing my hips away from the fish upon hook set. Works for home run hitters, why not anglers?

[Jim J]

I think this is all about position as to a number of things.

 

Did the fish hit on the upstream side of you and coming at you?

 

Downstream and swimming away?

 

Right on the splashdown or close to you?

 

Using a large slider head with a big hook gap or small crank bait or pointer with much smaller hooks.

 

Lots of slack when it picked up the plastic or hit a moving spinnerbait?

 

I'm not trying to confuse this but wanted to point out that there are a whole bunch of variables when it comes to this.

 

Slack in the line from current or wind?

 

Stiff rod or lots of flex in the tip? (no jokes here)

 

We've all lost fish and I when I lose one I try and analyze (especially if it was bigger) why I lost it.

 

How about dull hook point?

 

You can set your brains out but if that point is bad, your odds decrease greatly.

 

Just some food for thought.

 

On a personal note, I always set the hook hard except on topwaters, cranks and pointers.

 

 

 

 

 

[ronk]

Keep rod tip low during retrieve to increase the sweep of the hookset.After initial hookset lower rod tip again while retrieving slack line doing this creates and do another hookset.Accept the fact that it is in fact the biggest fish that are most likely to get away. They fight harder and longer and have tougher mouths.

[Jonn Graham]

Ron made a good point - big smallies have tougher mouths than their smaller brethren.

[Bterrill]

Make sure your hooks are needle sharp, I doubt you weren't setting hard enough. It is usually the opposite that I see. Anglers swinging and wiffing and yanking the bait so far away there is no second chance bite. 'Set' in the opposite direction the fish is swimming.

 

My hooksets are a simple wrist flick or tightening up with a lean. Large fish rarely get away, usually only if the hooks on a topwater are old.

 

If the hook doesn't catch when drawn across your fingernail- replace it.

 

If using a plastic, make sure the plastic rides out of the way of the hookpoint or you will miss fish.

 

 

[Scott Ferguson]

The type of line and amount of line out also has an effect. Mono has a great deal of stretch. It take a huge sweep just to get all the stretch out of 50 feet of 8 pound test. A 50 foot piece 8 pound line that is wet when weighted with a 4 pound weight will stretch between 5 and 10 feet depending on the brand of line used. Braid on the other hand has almost no stretch (3 to 4 inches in the same test) so once the slack is out, it only takes a small movement to set the hook.

Line stretch test: www.shallowwaterangler.com/features/line_stretch_test/

[Jim J]

Yea Scott, I forgot about the mono superline thing

 

I consider braid to a MAJOR help in hook sets.

 

Ron is right about big fish which I why I always set hard but especially fast. Unless you're into a bunch of dinks (and even then you're not 100% sure) you absolutely do not know what how big a fish you're setting into. After losing some big fish early in my stream smallmouth days, I never want to set a hook lightly thinking it's a small fish.

 

When I started catching bigger fish, I could not believe how tough and leathery some parts of their mouth are. The smaller ones have those softer almost panfish mouths. You start get to 16 and above and it toughens up quite a bit.'

My other feeling about always setting hard is that you just don;t get that many chances to get a big fish, maybe a couple of times in a day (hundreds of casts) With only a chance or two in a day, are you going to risk it by not setting hard and then regretting it?

[Guest Don R]

Hook sets are free.

[Jim J]

I HATE clichés

 

 

[Mike Clifford]

I HATE clichés

 

 

It is a cliché that most clichés are true, but then like most clichés, that cliché is untrue.

 

The cliché is dead poetry.

 

At the beginning there was the Word - at the end just the cliché .

[ronk]

As Scott pointed out line stretch inhibits hooksetting. Flylines stretch way more than spinning lines which, while protecting the light tippets often required when trout fishing where a wrist flick is all that's necessary to set the hook of small trout flies, inhibits the stronger hooksets needed for warmwater/ saltwater fishing.Because of that I've recently switched to Airflo flylines for my 6wt rod and the heavier of my 2 4wt rods that I use for smallies.In addition to not kinking from being coiled on the reel they are the only line that doesn't stretch.Of course this requires playing a large fish with greater care once the hook is set to avoid a breakoff such as happened to me with a 20+ smb on the Kank last month.

[Bterrill]

Worst place to hook a bass for me- behind the upper lip in that paper thin flesh. It doesn't matter how hard you set when it goes in there, if the hole rips bigger, all you have is the bend of the hook keeping the fish on.

[Jim J]

You have pressure also. If there's no slack line, even with a hole you can land it.

[Norm M]

Follow up with multiple hooksets especially when the fish is swimming away from you.

 

Can you switch the reel so it's left handed retrieve and have the rod in your right hand?

[Dana Lee]

i wish they made baitcasters interchangable like that! I honestly think it is just the raw pull of a big fish that causes me to not be efficient to the left. O ya fish at Powerton are turning on again. Hint Hint.