Seems like I catch as many snags as fish from the banks.

Anyone got some good tips to lower my snag stats?

weedless hooks and waders to go get your hook back. i was fishing at marshal creek not long ago and i hooked into a nice sandie after a very trying day. he got snaged up on something as i was bringing him in about ten yards for shore, i said screw it and just waled out there and got him. i wasnt going hime empty handed.
not sure if the spark plug idea wuld help you or not, from the bank you may not be able to get enough velocity on the plug to dislodge it, may be worth exploring though.

What are you fishing for?

If you are fishing for bass then you are using to heavy bait/lure.

There's been lots of times where I will strip down to my underwear and wade out to save my favorite lure. And my wife wonders how I ruin my shoes, I just can't tell her!

If you are bass fishing, try to make casts somewhat parallel to the bank. If you get snagged, walk your line up the bank (or down) to get to the other side of the snag.

That different angle can make it easier to pop it loose sometimes.

depending on what you are getting snagged on there are things you can do to limit your snags

Wood: fishing square bill crankbaits rather than round bill crankbaits seems to let the bait slide off the wood more often than not. Also tune your crankbaits to run as straight as possible, those that run to one side or the other tend to snag more often in my experience. Make sure you have the hook point buried in the bait if fishing soft plastics, "Texposed" will still snag wood on occassion. If you do get snagged...try "popping" your line by pulling it almost tight with your reel/rod and then grabbing the line in your hand give it a steady pull and let it pop back as hard as possible (it should go from tight to slack almost instantly)

Rock: Most hangups I've gotten on rock are either from weights getting wedged in cracks or fishing line that was wedged in the rocks. There's not much you can do about fishing line other than hoping yours is stronger than what's down there but there is a few things you can do for getting wedged. I use football head jigs instead of flipping or swimming jigheads when fishing around rocks,especially smaller rocks where there are alot of crevices. I also tend to use very bouyant crankbaits and as soon as they touch rock I'll let them free float up a few seconds. Crankbaits can wedge line under rocks aswell but you can still try the "popping" method to free them,sometimes the bill or the hooks catch on rocks.

Vegetation: I always downsize my weights or even go weightless and trim my knot tag lines as close as possible when fishing soft plastics in vegetation. If I'm fishing spinnerbaits I'll downsize the weight and/or upsize the blades for more lift. Crankbaits I've just gotten confident at fishing in vegetation and as far as I have experienced if the lure bogs down with weeds in light weed growth you can give the lure a sharp pop to free it of the stuff. I also use very bouyant crankbaits and as soon as i feel it ticking grasstops I stop reeling. If you keep reeling you can bury it deeper into the denser weeds or even near the base where it is thicker.

Don't fish with treble hooks unless you have money burning holes in your pockets.

I heard I should replace the trebles on my slabs with singles. Would that help?

I've done that on slabs when fishing saltwater with some success although trebles will hook more fish that swipe at the bait and don't really eat it.

Use liter weights.

If you use 1/2 oz worm weights use 1/4 oz worm weight and slow down.

Work the bait slowly.

what's a liter weight? Are they rubberized or something?

Get yourself one of these, they're indeed a true money saver.


http://www.basspro.com/EZ-Lure-Retriever-Kit/product/52869/

not as effective if at all from shore

Well, it does help me alot.
I have recovered over 20 lures with it (saving well over $100).
Even if you save just 3, its pretty much already paid for.

Sure, sometimes in the process I bend or break some treble hooks off of cranks and such when recovering a lure. But I rather spend $0.25 on a replacement hook and splitring than another $5.00 on a replacement lure.

Haha.