Not sure what’s been going on, I used to think I was good at flipping and punching grass. But lately I just cannot hook up to fish when getting bit. Went 3/14 on Sunday. Set up is shown in the picture. Fish were absolutely smashing it while flipping matted grass clumps in shallow reeds, and punching matted grass that had floated into the pads. 1oz tungsten 5/0 Berkeley fusion 19 flipping hook, snell knot, 50lb power pro. Felt like I wasn’t driving the hook in rolled a few of them.
In short how would you modify the set up? Or just chalk it to having a rough streak? It’s not one bad day that’s making me reevaluate, seems to be an on going problem the last two seasons.
Posted by dogsandguns
14 Comments
I mean, from the picture it looks like your hook is too deep in the plastic.
It should be sitting just on top of it, with the tip tucked into the top of the plastic.
[deleted]
Hardly ever. They’re about the only hook I use. I like the 4# G-finesse
Try a Jackall Archelon they are hollow inside so better hook penetration. I doubt it, but could be hook as well. I use the Owner Jungle Flippin hooks. The Trokar’s work as well. Could be something simple like not setting it hard enough. When I flip in and I feel that doink I am trying to take the face off that fish. What I do know is it is not your rod I used to flip/punch with that rod and it was great!
I’d probably bend the hook to make it more open and if that didn’t help I’d switch to a different hook that was exposed with a weed guard just to see.
Depending on the conditions, if you can keep the hook tip exposed and even spaced away from the soft plastic a bit, you’ll get more consistent hookups.
Use a smaller hook or whole rig. You might have smaller bass under that particular mat than you would expect and they are just looking at this battleship anchor sized hook that crashed down near them.
You need to chill for an extra second or two once you feel the initial hit. I bet you are just getting excited and trying to set the hook too early and just yanking it straight out. I fish barbless and give an extra beat or two and very rarely miss a hit/hook-up on soft plastics in open water or thick cover. Try that next time you go out and see if it makes a difference. Good luck and tight lines brotha! 🤘
When I flip with a straight shank hook I like using flatter baits, like beavers, just a little less plastic to have to get through, not saying I don’t ever use rounder profiles. or take a hook sharpener and really make that thing sticky. The rig looks absolutely fine, almost identical to what I have tied on my flipping stick rn. Like others mentioned too, might have been swinging too soon or you had bad luck and they were picking up the claws. Could always try switching to an EWG for a day and see if the hook ups improve
I was fishing a pond this past week that also held large/aggressive blue gills. They were biting the appendages off my creature baits constantly. Definitely swung at a few thinking they were bass bites before I figured it out. From your other comments you sound like a fairly experienced bass angler so you’d probably know if that’s what’s going on, but figured I’d throw it out there.
ETA: the bite and run behavior you described is exactly what the gills are doing when I get on their beds 🤷
Looks like a lot of plastic.
What brand craw is that?
Try the posing the hook, hook it so it so the hook just pokes out the top then reinsert it just a little. Also just my belief but anything sliding should be on mono or fluoro because braid has poor abrasion resistance
Used to do A LOT of flipping heavy mats in Florida. It’s just part of the game when flipping. A lot of times they grab it only because it startles them so it’s a reaction bite and they don’t normally hang on to it for very long. It’s a lot of feeling it and instantly trying to rip anything on the line out of the water as fast as possible. If you drop down and try to feel them like finessing a Texas rigged worm you’ll end up missing a ton of chances. Once you do hook up with that 8 pounder with about 15 feet of line out it’s hand to hand combat to get their heads up and out of the mess before they take off through the brush. And there is no better fishing experience in the world in my opinion.
If me and my dad were both in the boat together it was always a “heads up” cuz that big weight would be flying through the air multiple times a day since the fish let go already but we were already into the hook set before we knew if there was a fish there or not.
Try an EWG instead