Fishing 101: Setting the hook?

"werlax" wrote in message
om...
Perhaps this is a stupid question, and something that can't be

Remember, there really are no stupid ?'s, just ones that you do not yet know
the answers to.

explained but I am wondering if someone can explain the process of
properly setting the hook. This weekend I watched 2 good size
Northerns hit my lure near the boat and take off. I feel that if I
had reacted better I might have hooked them. They may have been just
bumping my lure, but it's hard to tell. I watch the fishing shows and

If you are using hard lures, i.e. wood, hard plastic or metal, those bumps
could have been strikes. It is amazing how fast any fish can spit out a lure
that does not feel right to it, and any hard lure just does not feel like
food to the fish. One other problem, that I am guilty of ;-), is "sight
setting" the hooks when I can actually see the fish. Just because I can see
the fish coming towards my lure, AND they have their mouth open, does NOT
mean that they have the lure IN their mouth. That fish can still be up to a
foot behind the lure at that time. For me, this is the single biggest
problem I have when fishing waters that are clear or only lightly stained.

Any of these types of lures work on triggering the strike reflex in a fish,
sometimes by just irritating the fish and sometimes by exciting the need to
feed in them. Of course, this also means that the reactions from fish and
from you will be different if you are using soft plastics or live bait.

see the guys ripping their rod back like they're swinging a bat.
Most, if not all, fish I've caught I've barely had to set the hook.

I have had many strikes where the fish self-hooks itself, but the best
reaction on your part is to set the hooks, and as hard and fast as possible.

Where should I start? I've tried setting the hook harder when I think
I have a strike, but I believe I'm ripping the hook out of their
mouths. Certainly, I'll keep refining but if anyone can give me some
idea of where to go with this I'd appreciate it.
Thanks!

There are three possibilities here. One is that you are getting some strikes
from the side, and unless the fish really hits the lure hard, it will not be
well hooked if at all. The fish may be hanging onto the lure, but the hooks
can actually be outside the mouth of the fish. Two is that you are not
reacting fast enough and the fish is already spitting the lure out before
you are setting the hooks. Three is that you are bumping the bottom, or
other underwater structures.

With the exception of a few species of fish that have very soft mouths such
as Crappie, no rod, reel, and line combination that I have ever used, can
actually rip the hooks out of the mouth of any game fish. Bass, Northerns,
Walleye, Muskie, etc., all have a mouth structure that is boney and more
than strong enough to keep the hooks in, if they are set well.

Some ideas to help;
1 - Use a hook sharpener regularly on all of your hook sets.
2 - React immediately to anything that even feels remotely like a strike.
Even after you get used to what underwater timber (logs, stumps, etc.) and
rocks feel like, you will still occasionally "set" your hooks into these
items. In these cases you may very well lose some lures, but this is just
part of the game.
3 - Keep your hooks sharp. If necessary, replace your hooks, as some lures
come with hooks that cannot be sharpened to your satisfaction.
4 - If you do miss a fish, keep doing EXACTLY what you were doing when the
strike occurred. The fish may still be there to try another swipe at your
lure.
5 - Do not pause when you feel a strike, react NOW. And as the old saying
goes, "Try to cross their eyes"! After the fact, then you can analyze the
strike, if it was one. And if it was a log that you hooked, or a rock that
your lure scrapped over, try to memorize the feel so that you can learn what
is going on with the lure.
6 - Practice often, go fishing as often as necessary, or even more often.

Did I mention sharp hooks and reacting fast? :-)

Good luck
Cast far
Leave a few for the rest of us
Bob