"Setting the Hook"

This weekend I landed an 18 inch Largemouth on Saturday and then a 21 1/4 inch Largemouth on Sunday.  Both of them were hooked with a green 7-inch power worm on a Texas rig.  I am fairly certain of two things which enable me consistently catch really big fish; 1) Fishing deep water 2) Using a big bait.  

But today I wanted to share my knowledge on how I set the hook on these big fish.  

The first thing I do when I feel a fish pick up my worm is to point the rod tip at the fish and slowly reel in any slack.  Once I feel I have taken up all the slack, I know I have pressure on the line.  The next step takes a bit of imagination, but at this point I imagine the bass' mouth is shut and he is swimming around with my plastic worm and hook inside his closed mouth.  I will then raise my pole from the 9:00 position to about the 10:30 position, or until I feel the weight of the fish.  What I am trying to do here is bring that worm and hook to the front of the bass' mouth.  For an analogy, imagine somebody pulling a spaghetti noodle out of your mouth and all you can do to try and stop it is to hold the noodle with your lips; unless at the end of that noodle there was a big meatball you could hold on to.  This is how I imagine the fishing line coming out of the bass' mouth.  At this time the eye of the hook is at the front of the bass' mouth (with the worm) and the pointy side of the hook is resting against the inside of  the bass' mouth, lined up like a surgeon resting the head of a needle against your skin.  When I bring my rod from the 10:30 position to the 12:00 position, I simultaneous give a the line a quick jerk by flipping my wrist to "pop" the hook quickly through the bass' mouth (hopefully, the top).

 In all, it is a little exhaustive process but I feel it gives me the strongest hook-set without without "ripping" the fish's mouth, gutting him with the hook or poking his eye out.

Here is the 18 inch Largemouth I caught Saturday using this hook set technique.

Texas Rigging in Early Spring

Last year I was really turned on to the Wacky-Rig 4" and 5" Senkos for fishing the Delaware.  And I learned what kind of awesome tool the Senko is in the river.  However, this Spring I am back to lake fishing and there is no greater setup then the 7" Power Worm on a Texas Rig.  My color of choice is dark green with black flecks.  I also like to put 3 or 4 red beads on my line as I feel their 'clacking' together resembles the Largemouth Bass' #1 predator during spawning season, the crawdad.

I usually put the Texas Rig worm weight on as it gives me more range and accuracy when I am fishing from my kayak.  However, given my new home at Lake Mohawk and my fishing from the docks, I suspect I'll do more flipping and will go with the natural fall of the worm.

Silver Lake was Good to Daddy on Father's Day

air temperature 65 degrees
water temperature 71 degrees
Fishing with a floating broken rapala and a 6 inch power worm on a Texas Rig.

I hit Silver Lake early with one of my fishing buddies Ty, who is a volunteer firefighter for Sussex Township.  It was an overcast morning that never warmed up.  We thought we were going to get rained on once or twice and the lake temperature was warmer than the air temperature.

I threw the Rapala for about 4 casts and still got some weeds.  I switched poles and on my second cast I got young largemouth.  There would be no putting the Texas rig down at this point.  Overall, the lake had a lot of vegetation and a lot of rocks.  My Eagle 360c depth finder was picking up a fairly rocky\sandy bottom as well as some big rocks in 6 to 9 feet of water.  Silver Lake never got any deeper than 10 feet but she was beautiful!  Although section (D) was very overgrown with small lily pads, I caught my second bass in section (D)!

I worked my way back to the other side and Section (C) was as sweet as I thought it would be.  In section (C) there is a rock about 15 feet from shore where there is another rock; this little bit of structure will most likely produce a fish every time, it really is that nice of a spot.

Ty finally hooked up a pickerel as we were heading back in and he gave the fish a nice sportsman release, although he did get his hands on it.  By the end of the day, all three of my largemouth bass were about the same size and there were two strikes that I missed.  I am sure there are some 5-pounders in Silver Lake, but I'll have to come back for them on another day.  However, I may have to bring a new worm as today's worm got beaten up.

Heading out on Silver Lake

I strongly believe on fishing day, the longer the line is in the water, more fish will be caught.  So to cut down on the time it takes me to change baits, I hit the water with two poles; each with a distinct setup and I will rarely vary from either two as I prefer to be casting instead of tying.

The floating broken Rapala (left)

From viewing the google map of Silver Lake, I suspect the lake will have lots of weeds. The floating broken rapala will  allow me to fish the surface, avoid most of the weeds and provide me with the best opportunity to cover as much of the new lake as possible.

The 6 inch power worm on a Texas rig (right)

Bar none, my favorite and most effective lure in my arsenal.  There is no circumstance in which I will throw this with no confidence.  I expected to find lots of big rocks and natural structure on Silver Lake and when I did, I want a setup that will kill it.