The damn gut hook! I don't know what the deal has been lately. Seems like the last 20 bass I've caught at least 4-6 have been gut hooked. I don't know what the deal is all of a sudden. I always carry some wire cutters and needle nose pliers with me in case I need to do surgery, and I've been having to do it a lot lately. Sometimes they're hooked so awkwardly that there's just nothing you can do. Luckily I'm able to safely remove the hook on most occasions. I have no problems at all sacrificing my hook to save a fish. I hate that feeling of reeling one in, and it's just bleeding all down its side, and you know the odds of survival are minimum. I'm no PETA member, but I just don't enjoy the feeling of killing fish. From everything I've gathered in doing research in the root cause of the gut hook it appears to be waiting too long to set the hook, but I don't feel like I'm delaying setting the hook by any means at all. I'm not doing anything differently than what I was doing before.

Anybody else been having the same problem lately? Any tips or recommendations to prevent it from happening?

I don’t think I’ve ever had one I couldn’t get out by flipping the hook over and popping it out. Certainly nothing wrong with filleting a few every now and then and having a fish fry rather than wasting them.

set the hook before you detect the bite!

That only works with NRX rods

Are you experiencing this with any particular set up or technique? Crig?

Telepathic series?

I'm a drop shot angler by trade. I'd say 60% of the time I'm fishing it's with a drop shot. Texas Rig about 20% of the time, swimbait and top water for the remaining 10%. That adds up to 100%, right?

I use a 2/0 EWG on the drop shot rig. 4/0 EWG on the Texas Rig if it makes any difference.

yes! the new Sprague Telepathic series

Have you tried using braid mainline to leader? Doing so would facilitate earlier bite detection.

I'm using 50 lb Power Pro to 12 lb Sunline Sniper. I have no problems with feeling the hits/bites. My two main rods are a 7'3 Dobyns Fury, and a 7'3 Lews Custom Lite Speed Stick. Just set the hook like normal and viola, gut hooked!

Just means you have some hungry fish around you...learn the through the gill trick to unhook them. Using this, my percentage of cutting hooks has decreased to next to null.

I've actually seen this video before. I've used the through the gill hook many of times. Sometimes you can hook the fish just right smack in the middle of the gullet to where you can't see it on either side of the gills. If you were to yank it out you'd be taking half of its throat with the hook. These are the ones that there's nothing I can do but cut the hook as close to the gullet as possible, and give them a fighting chance.

Happens to me with Carolina rigs.

Use an 8/0 hook, problem solved .

I've had it a few times on Texas rigged worms and C-rigs. Drop Shot came to the bass fishing world while I was away along with the ned rig. I've fished a little with both but haven't caught anything with either yet but I have seen videos and read articles about this being an issue with both. My biggest gut hook lure is actually the frog. The fish just get so agressive going after them and it seems like it is worse over thick cover.