I fished plastic worms for the first time in a lonnnnng time. I'm used to fishing brush hogs,frogs etc where you let the fish "gobble" at the bait before you set the hook. Today I figured it would be the same since the worm was long , BUT I ended up gut hooking about 2 and hooking one thru I the eye. Basically my question is should I let her rip as soon as I feel a nudge or is there something else I'm doing. Just to let everyone know all the fish went back in the water with No problems or bleeding , I just cut the hook and tried to do the least damage possible.

At night when I feel the bite I reel down gently and count to myself "one thousand one, one thousand two and set the hook on 3). My hook sets got better when I started using that method. Daytime, I still do that some but usually I'll just reel up slow and if I feel any resistance at all i'll set the hook. Usually takes about 2-3 seconds. So its basically the same. But daytime, If I don't feel the resistance I'll let it sit there and twitch it and sometimes get the secondary take. Its hard to do that at night.

I'll definitely try that method. The take seems a little bit softer than hogs so I didn't want to look like a loser attempting to set the hook left and right with no fish to show for it

Don't worry about what you look like. I would never think anyone looks like a loser for missing a hookset. It ain't like that.

Keep at it and you will get good at it. You will never achieve 100% clean hook sets. With todays scented baits they gobble them up quicker. Just tune in to what you are doing and focus and develop your own style. Some days they are aggressive and you may need to set the hook quick, other days if the bite is light and they take it slow you may need to wait another second or two. Adjust to what the fish are doing.

I had a buddy that used to come to Cypress and fish with me at night a few times a year. We would stay out all night. He was a good fishermen in the daytime but struggled with hooksets at night. If one of us were throwing a texas rig both were. Its just how we fished. And that's what we threw 80% of the time. I always got amused at him because he would get every bit as many bites as me but I hooked 10 times more fish than him. He was stubborn and didn't adjust for night fishing. And he always looked at it as a competition between us and would get so frustrated when I would have him chasing that net all night! lol. I would just giggle as I reeled them in. I tried to teach him my way of setting the hook but he was too stubborn to listen. I guess you had to been there....

I fish soft plastics 75% of the time.....if I feel a bump, I reel up slack and if there's pressure on the line I pop them.....I never wait.....for any plastics.....the bump is the fish taking it in.....

Set the hook as soon as i feel the fish. Fish don't have hands, if you feel him it is in his mouth.

Agree with the no wait crowd. Feel the bite, if slack take it up and set the hook. If you wait, in my humble opinion, the next tap you feel might be the fish spitting it out.

The fish don't have hands. The bump means it is in his mouth

I would say that you have to develop a feel for it. Most of the time I set the hook right away unless I am fishing a drop shot. Sometimes they will just nip at it without taking it. Sometimes you won't feel a bite at all, you just see your line move or it will just get heavy.

I usually set the hook one second later after i feel her knock it.

I set the hook as soon as my line moves. sometimes the only tick you will feel is them spitting it out, especially with large loner bass sitting still next to cover.