I wanted to share this tip for all of you fellow bass fishing addicts out there as I see this commonly made mistake far too often when I was guiding or even fishing with friends. Many times when an angler hangs up a lure on a fishery like Lake Fork which is full of standing timber / exposed root systems they immediately try and free the lure by pulling very hard on the bait. This is the absolute worst way to free a lure regardless if you are fishing in standing timber or in expansive rock cover. This may work around aquatic vegetation but is very seldom successful in hard cover. Usually after trying to pull the lure free, which typically just buries the lure even deeper into whatever it is hung up on / in, anglers will say their goodbyes to the lure and pull as hard as possible with their rod tip pointed towards their hung up lure in order to break their line. This is not only hard on your fishing reels but is does substantial damage to your fishing line. It stretches / weakens your line and also buries some line into your fishing spool which damages the line below due to the friction and pressure it creates.

The best way to successfully get your lure back after it is hung up is a combination of finesse and patience. As soon as you realize your lure may be hung up resist the urge to pull hard on the lure. Imagine the lure is sitting in your own hand and do not try to free it with sheer force but rather lightly pop the slack line / lure VERY gently. If this does not work the first few tries then allow your line to fall completely slack for about 5-7 seconds then try again to shake your line, again do this as gently as possible! Sometimes this may take up to a minute to free your lure but you will be surprised at how well this actually works. If you still cannot free the lure by very gently popping your nearly slack line / lure then if possible bring your vessel up to the opposite side of where you lure is hung up at then you can try pop it free, once again do this very gently. If you still are not successful you can now use some slowly increasing force but make certain you are on the opposite side of the snag. You will be surprised at how a very gentle and patient popping of your line will help to free a lure. If you find that your lure is still stuck and will not budge when you are on the opposite of the hang up do not pull your line to break off the lure unless you have no issues with damaging your line, rather try to pull quite tightly on the line using your hands and cut it off as far as you can below the waters surface to preserve the integrity of your line strength. Another option to minimize pollution is to have a gardening glove or some type of thick glove that you can use in order to wrap the line around your hand and then break the lure off, this will not damage the rest of your fishing line and will usually break the line near your knot. You can also use a lure retriever sometimes with success but often times as long as you never pull very hard on the lure you will never need to.

One of the only times in which I Iose a lure is when it hits a ball of heavy line such as braid that someone else broke off in the past. These balls of braided line are quite often found on highly pressured lakes like Lake Fork and will steal a lure even when you try to use a lure retriever to free them. This technique to free a lure with extreme finesse and patience helps me to very seldom lose any lures when fishing on Lake Fork and other fisheries with hard cover. It works more often than not with great results and I hope you will try this the next time you think your lure is hung up as you'll see the same successful outcome as I do. Good luck fishing!

I have freed up many lures by just sticking my rod tip in the water and making circles with it. Circles about the size of a 5 gallon bucket lid is usually enough. Do it pretty fast. 3-5 circles usually is enough.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Thanks for the info!

Thanks for the tips Mr. Fatherree. Good read. I like the tip on cutting the circles also, Polly Gosh Lizard. Have you guys ever seen anyone use the bow technique. David Welcher is the best that I have ever seen in doing this. Maybe he will come along and explain the full process of bowing the rod then popping the line.

I use the pop slack method with pretty good success. Sometime easy pulling the line with your fingers will release the bait. Brokeoff line I get snagged in has resulted in most all my losses. Lots of line in Lewisville. Rocks/riprap gets me pretty good too.

I use a method of getting on the backside of the snag and pointing my rod tip toward the snag but very close to the water, then backing off with the TM and allowing the line to free spool while controlled by my thumb. As you move away from the snag, the angle of the line to lure is flattened and you can make the line pop by using your thumb pressure to go from high to low pressure on the spool. Kind of hard to describe but it works well on CBs stuck on rocks.

Try this method, plus you will be amazed at how many times your lure come unhung when you grab the line by your hand and pull back

When I snag a lure, I do it for real. I'm talking hook-one inch-in-a-branch real. The kind of snag that you can pull your boat to the hook kind of snag.





I'm really good at catching trot lines and crab pots, too.

Thanks for the technique -- I'll give it a try.

That is really good info...thank you! I see the video below your original post but is this the only method for fishing around rocks/rip rap? Most of my break offs are fishing Texas Rigs or Ned Rigs. This gets quite expensive when using tungsten, therefore, I have gone back to lead when fishing rocks/rip rap. Any help is appreciated!

If it's hung on timber, why not just reel down to the lure and push slightly past the lure or hook. This almost always works. Generally only lose a lure if it's a deep diver and you just can't get that deep with the rod tip. Do have to be careful not to push your rod tip into a rock so you need to know the depth you are in. Only issue with this technique is you pretty much hose the area you were just fishing as you have to TM over to the timber.

When it really gets tough, I have a reel on a rod that I cut off just ahead of the reel, has 80# braid on it, hooked to a lure knocker with small chains on it, to put on the line and goes down to the lure. Works most of the time. I just have never mastered the popping the line technique.

drop a 2 oz weight down your line it will free most everything but A rigs

There a different way to get carolina rigs loose, Bill Wilcox showed it on Honey hole but they pulled all those videos off youtube.

With a C rig get right over where your snagged and stick the rod tip in the water a foot or two pointing down at the weight and then bring the rod tip up and away quickly like your setting the hook and most times it will pop free.