Hooks on large lures....

[Tigerhunter]

Hey all,

I primarily fish for Tigers and will start fishing for pure Muskies when the season starts in June.

I recently was on a lake and landed 11 Tigers in 3 days, some of the best fishing I have ever had with them. I was mostly using a large 1 ounce Daredevil.

I have two problems.....

1)I missed at least as many fish as I landed due to I believe the hook...including two that would have been personal bests by far. We have had poor hookup rates with Daredevils ever since we started using them.

2)Most importantly, a couple fish that I landed, one trolling and one casting had the lure pretty deep in the mouth and were bleeding.

My man question is....do you guys change out the hooks for better ones or are both of these problems I had just part of the game?

I would rather not catch the fish if it is going to be injured. Luckily I used some of the techniques from the video posted and surely helped at least one of them.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[old man]

wow,if you catch 11 in three days you don't need much of my help! getting bit without hooking up is real common with all esox. i've had days with a dozen of those "hits" and never hooked any of 'em. some of 'em seem to just want to toy with the bait. as far as deep hooks and bleeders go i'd say a daredevel would be an easier than most bait to take deep. maybe try a bigger one? i take the barbs off all my hooks which helps with unhooking.

[Ronix 51]

nice tiger much better than ive been doing at conesus! those 1 oz spoons are much easier for them to inhale but also depending on how your fishing them they have a real erratic action making misses possible. when i fish spoons i rip the rod hard and have had a lot of swirls on spoons rather than actual hook ups. you could try what old man said and use the bigger versions of the daredevil so there is more for them to strike at or you could change the hooks out for a larger sized hook and bend the barbs back so that way theyre easier to remove. Or even use a weedless spoon like the silver minnow or the weedless poppa doc. if youre talking about the lake i think youre talking about me and my buddy are gonna plan a few trips down there within the next few weeks here!

[Tigerhunter]

Nice Ronix, let me know when you go out there. Did you get anything out there on conesus?

I am going to try some of the bigger spoons, I didn't know they made bigger ones.

I will probably try bending the barbs on the hooks though.

My problem isn't with getting them to actually strike it, I will fight them between 10 seconds up to a minute and they just randomly come off. At one point I was 0 for 5 on landing fish I had on for over 10 seconds.

I did get 3 or 4 on figure 8/ovals right at the boat which is really awesome in person....especially when they try to pull you out of the boat.

[Ronix 51]

we fished 14 hours on opening day and then 7 the next day with 2 dink pike to show for it! A bunch of follows and 3 misses on the suckers we had out behind the boat. My excuse was that everything was behind due to the weather but with 11 in 3 days youve clearly disproved of my excuse haha. were you out deep or in shallow?

[Ronix 51]

check muskyshop.com, if youre a spoon fisher theyve got some nice big spoons. your hooks probably werent sharp enough most lures even brand new out of the box dont have sharp enough hooks for esox jaws.

[NitroMusky]

Try setting the hook a couple times with hard hooksets to drive the hooks in...sort of like they do with marlin.

You need to dislodge the lure from their teeth to bury the hook in the mouth...like ronix alluded to, those are tough, boney mouths.

Great action though...nice going

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[Tigerhunter]

The 11 I got was over this past Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Opening weekend was really slow like you said with the weather. Water was 48 degrees for me on opening day and only had one follow in. The following Thursday the water was up to 64 and when I got out there after work the tigers were out "sunbathing" by the dozens....needless to say they weren't too hungry while they were getting there tan on.

I am gonna have to get some bigger spoons, bigger/sharper hooks, and set the hook like I'm deep sea fishing.....I love it....thanks all !!!

[old man]

when using live bait the old rule is let 'em run til they stop. when they go again you set the hook. that's cause pike take the bait sideways in their mouths,then hang on til it dies and then turn it in their mouths and swallow head first. with your daredevelle which only has one treble on the tail, the hooks could be swingin in the breeze during those 10 seconds to a minute before he lets go. like nitro said,hit 'em hard and then hit 'em again.

[Ronix 51]

how big was that lost personal best??? that one you got ice fishing was a beauty ur telling me u had some bigger? damn!

[Tigerhunter]

Very good point old man.....I think the monster hook set will help out.

Even though the one we got was a "team effort", we consider it my buddies fish since he pulled it in.

My personal best is about 30", one I lost yesterday was upper 30's and one I lost a few days ago I didn't see but I could tell it was really nice. All the ones I landed were mostly 20-30" with maybe one or two in the teens. I have put my time in....I can def. catch them, now it's just waiting for the big one(s).

[zach]

You guys setting the hooks a few times- that has always given me bad results. Just my opinion. When I used to fish spoons a bunch I had no issues going to a single hook. Tigerhunter- you using braid? If your using braid and a half way sharp hook, imo set once and the fight is on. Personally, I would never set more than once as things happen like ripping a hole too big in their mouth where the hooks can fall out easier or ripping hooks out of a skin hooked fish. Even though they are small now, later in the season some bigger tigers should show up in the shallows. Usually the hooks on those spoons aren't the best- if you having issues try a VMC conecut hook (best big hook they make, imo) or a single siwash and make sure they are sharp, check them all day when fishing and resharpen as needed. Best luck and congrats on banging up the tigers on your lake. Is it only spoons you have trouble hooking up on?

[Tigerhunter]

I am using braid, I had changed the hooks to sureset ones on two of my spoons, but I lost them, so I was using the original hook on the new daredevil I bought. I am pretty confident where I am the big ones are there also, I had a really nice one on, but I lost it... the weeds still were only a foot off the bottom in 6-13 feet of water so I am hoping they might come into the shallows as you were saying.

[Has Been]

The Hooks on Daredevels are Mustads coated w/ cadmium I belive. Not very sharp out of the Box & kind of hard to sharpen well . I use spinnerbaits w / Oshaugnessy hooks & had a lot of misses. I I now sharpen all hooks , lazer or not. & open the hookbend a tad so it is a few degrees up .Some are bent down a bit which causes misses IMO. This drives the hook into the roof of their mouth better & helped out w/ hookups conssiderably. I do it with a lot of my hooks now. I also change to better ones if I can.