Lee, I know you posed the question directly to Buddy, but I promise a bass will not hook themselves, and if by some chance they do, they will probably throw the hook by shaking their head.

The perfect spot to hook a bass for purposes of not loosing it, is through the roof of the mouth in nose. That is the hard spot where the skin won't tear and the fisherman possibly loosing the fish. The only way to get the hook into that area is to set the hook with force.

These are just my experiences.