Hawaiibassfishing Forum

Don't set the hook?

Yesterday Chris took some of his friends fishing on the lake. When I ask about how they did, he said the peacock bass were active, but they only caught 2. Looking at his friends and shaking his head.... "We had lots of blowups, but they missed them all."

I knew his friends were all good saltwater papio fishermen... why were they missing the strikes?

According to Chris, when the peacock bass "blew up" on the lure, his friends would rear back and set the hook with a strong sweep of the rod. Set the hook hard... cross their eyes. LOL Then the lure would come flying back at the boat.

When the peacock bass chases or strikes you lure..... Chris suggests you just keep reeling... DO NOT set the hook. Even when you feel the fish.... just keep reeling. Don't worry, the fish will set the hook for you. By not setting the hook, you keep the lure near the fish, if it misses, you still have a chance of it striking again. If you set the hook before you feel the fish the lure goes flying through the air........ the fish doesn't have a second or third chance to grab it.

That's easy for you to say... you try to remember not to set the hook..... when a big peacock bass blows up on your lure with a loud splash.

I'll give it a try. Who knows?

Has Chris been having luck right now with surface lures? I got a couple HUGE Tucanare plugs with props but i thinks these lures are Amazon Tuc size.

A friend of mine, another very novice angler, showed up on our first fishing trip with a 6"+ Rapala lure claiming "They" say this is for peacock bass. Thank goodness he got it stuck on the botton on the 3rd cast!

There is a guy from Japan who fishes with Chris every year. His thing is: "If you can't catch it on a topwater lure, it's not worth catching."

The first day he always uses those huge Amazon size lures. He gets a few follows and a blowup or two... but he's never hooked a fish. (Chris says he's just scaring the fish and trys to get him to use small lures)

The next two days he uses smaller topwater lures and always catches.

You know those big swim baits? The ones that look exactly like a 6 to 8 inch trout or bass? I have seen those catch on the lake. The guys were flipping the huge lures to the edge of the grass and right against the shore. it was hard, slow work, and they didn't catch that many fish...
but the peacock bass they did catch were all over 5 pounds.

Go figure.

In general, letting the tuc set the hook works for me too, Stan. There are times when I will set the the hook though. For example, when the tuc hits on the drop I will set the hook. Tucs hit hard and have tough skin so the hook gets caught easily, unlike largemouth bass which have bony mouths.

It is ironic that you mention the papio fisherman because I do the same thing when I whip for papio. Papio do not have a fleshy mouth like tucs but they slam lures really hard and set the the hook themselves.