Bass tidbit .2

Fishing Warm water Forum
1

Bass are what are called ‘engulf’ feeders.

They capture their prey by rapidly opening their mouths and flaring their gills, creating a vacuum that pulls in both the food and a large amount of water. Once the prey is inside the mouth, the bass kills it by crushing it between two crushing plates located on the roof of the mouth and lower jaw, expelling the excess water through the gill opeings.

This should give you some insight into how to construct flies for bass and when to set the hook. It also explains why bass sometimes miss a fly, and why sometimes WE miss the bass.

It’s also ‘the’ major difference between how a bass eats and how a trout eats.

Good Luck!

Buddy

2

I read someplace that when you fish for bass or crappie you will sometimes feel a “tick” on your rod, kinda like a bee bumped it. The article went on to say this was from the bait (in our case fly) hitting the back of the fish’s mouth during the rapid into of water by the fish. I have experienced this feeling many times and alway set the hook at that time.

Tim

3

Is it fair for me to ask on this forum how a trout feeds?

4

In the case of bass bugs it is the WE. They are such a visual fly that we sometimes set the hook the moment we see the boil or splash. If you can wait that extra half a beat after a top water strike you will hook more fish.

I’ve watched many guys I took out miss fish due to fast strikes, and heck have scolded myself more than a few time for doing it.

5

With respect to what Buddy said, (Hope this is contributing and not Hijacking) that tick you feel isn’t always the bass inhaling the fly or lure but spitting it back out.

6

Rookie - It seems to me that if you feel a tick you should sock it to em - That way you can get them coming or going :stuck_out_tongue:

Tim

7

If you set the hook going, :oops: too late. There have been studies with underwater video cameras showing bass inhaling the hook and it virtually could not be detected. A bass can take your fly or lure and the only thing you feel is a light line. Set the hook.

I came up learning to watch my line for the slightest movement. This was the only way to detect the strike. I hope this is still on the subject :?: :oops:

8

This whole ‘setting the hook’ thing is fascinating to me.

Not the ‘when’ (we ‘know’ objectively when it should be done) but what eveyone ‘thinks’ is the best time.

There is a ‘time’, though, when a bass has the bait in the mouth when you CAN’T set the hook.

It’s when the bass ‘crushes’ the bait. If, for some reason, your hooksetting force arives at that pricise instant, the hook won’t set.

You can ‘prove’ this to yourself with a simple test.

Use which ever rod weight you want.

Stretch out 20 to 30 feet of line, with leader/tippet/fly attached.

Now, you need another person. Have that person hold the hook of the fly by the bend between their thumb and forefinger, and extend their arm straight toward you. Tell them to hold tight.

Try to ‘set’ the hook. The results will amaze you. You’d think that the hook would pull free, but it won’t.

You can’t do it, even with heavy casting gear unless you go to one of those no stretch super ‘braided’ lines.

The flex of the rod and the stretch of the line/leader/tippet disipate the application of force.

So, if the bass has the fly ‘held’ between his crushing plates, the hook can’t move and it won’t ‘set’ unless it moves…

This explains some of those times when you feel the fish, set hard, have it on for a few seconds, and then it comes unbuttoned on you.

For the guys who’ve ever felt the distinctive ‘tap-tap’ while fishing with a plasic worm or jig, the first ‘tap’ is the fish engulfing the lure, the second is the fish ‘crushing’ it.

As far as when to ‘set’ the hook on a bass. Do it as soon as you feel the fish. Don’t ‘hurry’, but don’t ‘wait’ either. Faster is better than slower.

If you are fishing a lure or fly that the fish will hold (bass are agressive, they intended to eat it, and absent a serious reason why they shouldn’t they will swallow it) setting quickly reduces deep hooking and killing fish.

If the fish isn’t likely to hold your fly for some reason, then there is never going to be a better time than ‘right away’ to hook it. The WHOLE thing is in the bass’ mouth the fist time it ‘touches’ it. It will never be ‘more inside’ the fish, but it can be expelled. All waiting does is give the fish longer to get rid of your fly.

Good Luck!

Buddy

9

Buddy,
Interesting posting, thanks. I remember an article years ago where some new lures were being tested, a scuba diver with camera was observing the bass behavior. After several minutes, the diver surfaced and yelled to the fisherman,why are you not setting the hook,you had a half dozen bass inhale and spit out the lure? The fisherman replied that he never felt the fish.

Many theories suggest that we only detect a very small percentage of actual bites by fish.

Regards,
FK

10

FK, that is correct. If my memory serves me correctly, the guys holding the rods were well known pros. They were somewhat flabbergasted when they saw the footage. I do remember the interview portion of that as it was televised. I just wish I could remember who the pros were.

11

Tim, I did that last week and hooked a real dandy piece of river cane. I almost landed it, but it rolled and threw the hook about a couple of feet from the shore. (Really happened…)

Still had a lot of fun.
:smiley:

Ed

12

Buddy,

This issue of not feeling the bass take the fly (I don’t use the term “strike” because the word hardly fits) is one that Jack Ellis addresses in his book, Bass with a Fly Rod. Jack’s solution is soft, plastic baits. Bass hold them longer and attempt to swim away with then hence you are more like to detect a take. About the best that we feather merchants can do is to keep a tight line at all times. This includes a rod tip low to the water, density-compensated line and always keeping a tiny bit of forward motion on our fly. Even when I’m doing a countdown, I slowing take in a little bit of line as the fly sinks. Works for me—sometimes! The other option is to fish the surface exclusively :shock: . 8T :smiley:

13

NO! :oops:

14

I remember Homer Circle, in an OLD Sports Afield article, talk about Glen Lau filming him and reporting that bass were hitting his lures without him feeling anything on the line.

I have had problems using circle hooks with bass, and hooking them in the roof of their mouths. It is next to impossible to get the hook out without killing the fish, which is why I stopped using circle hooks for bass. Now I understand why!

Russ

15

I had a guide friend up in Maine teach me to set the hook twice on smallmouth bass. We both thought it was because we had habitually light hooksets due to all the trout and salmon fishing we did but the fly crushing thing explains it a lot better.

16

E.T. wrote “Jack’s solution is soft, plastic baits.”
This is one reason many of us like to use spun hair for bass bugs, thinking maybe the squishy feel is more natural, thus a “longer” grab. 8)
Halibut seem the same in that you often cannot “set” the hook until they “let go”. :roll:
Do you think light wire, STRONG hooks aid in penetration when they (the fish) DO let go…like tiemco 8089’s?
…lee s.

17

Lee,

I tell all of my fishing partners to not get into a big hurry with deer hair bugs, or foam poppers. The bass will hold these for quite a long while. I’ve had bass swim for forty or fifty feet with one of these before I knew they were there (distracted by something…happens a lot…). You really don’t want to wait around, but too fast can be a problem too, especially with topwater baits.

Most of what we as fly fishermen throw at a bass will be ‘held’ for at least a bit. We aren’t fishing with ‘hard’ baits, most times, and feathers and fur just ‘feel’ natural. Bass are used to ‘food’ that is prickly and hard, thus they hold most things longer than you may realize. Normally what causes a bass to ‘reject’ a bait has to do with it’s ‘taste’ or ‘odor’, more than it’s ‘feel’.

I don’t think the ‘brand’ of hook makes any difference, as long as the hook is sharp.

I use Mustad 3366 and Eagle Claw 455 hooks (nickled) for all my spun hair and foam topwater bass baits. A couple of strokes with a hook file, and these are sharper than any out of the box hook. They also won’t ‘break’, something I have observed with the Tiemco, Daichii, and Gamagatsu hooks.

The ‘trick’ if there is one, with fish hooks and bass, is having a VERY sharp point on the hook. The bass’ mouth is large, much of it is hard. You need for the hook point to ‘grab’ or ‘catch’ into whatever it touches inside the fish’s mouth. This will give you few moments to get the line tight and get the hook buried.

Good Luck!

Buddy

18

Razor sharp hooks and slow sweeping and strip hook sets are essential for hook setting in any type of bass. The flex on a fly rod totally negates any hard jerks on the rod to set the hook. I had a friend show me last year that test Buddy talked about. The only way you could pull the hook free was the slow but steady sweep of the rod, uilizing the very base of the blank, while using short hard strip set.

While using spinning gear the ideal hook set is to crank on the fish, same principle as the strip set.

Rarely do I ever feel the taps of a hit. For me it usually just a dead feeling, resistance, on the end of my line. Lots of my fishing is done at night so watching my flyline is very difficult.

Can’t stress sharp enough hooks. If it doesn’t sink into your thumbnail, you might as well be fishing hook less. Every couple fish and my hook gets a couple passes of the file, and I usually check my hook ever ten casts or so no matter what. I sharpen often enough that when my flies wear out it is because there is no point left, not because the fly has fallen apart.

19

Boy … I don’t know what kind of wimpy bass y’all have out your way, but around these parts bass hit like a ton of bricks! The secret to setting the hook is not by jerking the rod up like you would with a spin cast outfit, but rather by pulling sharply back the fly line with the tip of the fly rod pointing at the fish.

Dale