When fighting a big fish

Do you try to keep it from jumping ? I always do especially with crankbaits, what about tx rigs and jigs ? I lost a couple nice fish recently on shakey head, I had rod down trying to keep them from jumping, they came out of water and hook came loose, bad luck or am I doing something wrong ?

You actually get to go fishing?

I always try to keep them from jumping...it looks great on a fishing show or in a picture, but doesn't impress me too much when a lunker spits that bait back in my direction- "ptewy"!

Really just depends on the situation for me. I will say there is one thing I have definitely learned watching the MLF guys. They really take their time with just about every fish. I think most weekend guys like us rush fish most of the time especially in a tournament. I've really slowed down on reeling them to the boat in the last year and it's made a big difference in not losing fish. Of course if I have a net man, I don't worry about taking it too slow.

Controlling the head of the bass at all times is key. This starts with a good hook set, even with treble hooks
*with finesse gear, small single hooks, using drag to tire out the fish is key on larger bass, but always some pressure on the head
With larger single hook presentations and heavy gear, you can just waterski most bass under 6lbs
With treble hooks, rod tip low and keep pressure on the bass

Bass over 5lbs, get them in the boat ASAP. The more time they have, the more likely you’ll get wrapped up (in stumpy or grassy lakes) or make a mistake

The smartest ones will swim straight at you as fast as they can; and if they can, go under the boat and jump on the other side

This spring I had a monster ( my guesstimate 13+) jump and spit my buzz frog back at me. I was bank fishing so not much I could. But yes I try to keep them from jumping. My opinion is to keep line tight and don't get in a rush unless you need too. Most people get to excited and make unnecessary mistakes.

I use heavy line. I am not going to risk breaking off a big fish when it dives deep into cover. I have used the this method my whole life to slide the fish to the boat and that includes Big Bass. When the fish surfaces I never let it get back down. There are lots of variables involved here; so start practicing this method with your smaller fish and just work your way up. Like all techniques it takes some practice. One of the most important variables is being ready to land the fish and of course that is much easier when you have a partner on the net.

Those that use lighter lines, have no choice but to play out a fish, allowing it to jump and run. In my opinion this doubles the chances of it getting off the hook.

My experience tells me that there are times when you cannot keep a fish from jumping. I hooked a big fish I would estimate between 10-11 pounds at Fork on Memorial weekend on a 1 oz jig at the end of a LONG cast in 20' of water. That fish immediately came up and jumped and then jumped again twice more. The last time she jumped the hooked pulled out.

You may be able to control a fish 10 yards away to some degree but not fifty! You simply don't have much leverage on a fish that far away from the boat. The angle of the line to the fish is too flat at that distance.

I lost two big fish in tournaments this year by trying to be a little to easy getting them to the boat. I think moving forward I will rely on getting them to the boat a little hot and having a great net man to scoop them up.

The two big fish I lost were on 12 pound line and a shaky head, I did not feel like I could try and hurry them in. If I am fishing heavier line I will get a lot more aggressive with them.

I try my best to keep them from jumping. Sometimes that means burring your rod to the reel in the water. Even that may not be enough in some cases. One thing for sure, unless I'm fairy wand fishing with ultra light line, I do not mess around getting them to the net. The longer they are on the line the higher the probability something goes wrong.

What kind of shaky head are you throwing? I have used almost all of them and found the owner ultra head stays buttoned up better than most . Also throwing on 12 lb seaguar and a 7 ft rod.

I like to get them to jump. Its cool to watch.

If he throws it so what? If you caught one big fish you can catch another one!

Rod tip buried as soon as I know I have a big one on. Only variance is if I'm fishing reeds as they go down and snag the exposed hook on the roots. In that case, I'll not just reel but start to walk towards the other side of the boat and keep the rod tip high to get them from diving and get them out of the reeds and to open water as fast as possible. Still I'd say I loose 25% of them in heavy reed cover. It's worse than stumps.

I spend the majority of my time targeting large fish with large swimbaits, 50-65 pound braid and 20-25 leaders. When I connect, my only thoughts are to get a quality hookset, control their head and grind them to the boat as quickly as I can. Every fight is different but the last thing I'm going to willingly allow to happen is having a large fish jump. When I fish conventional presentations I'm fine with them jumping even if it means losing a portion of them. But then again, I'm not doing it for money.

Owner

tournament

There is something cool about seeing a good one jump and wondering if you will get it in.

My brother once caught a monster on his little finesse rig in a flooded forest lake- Calling Panther in MS. That fish was stripping drag and I thought he was hung over a stump. I was running the trolling motor and he was saying it was a fish, and I was like dude your drag is stripping because we're moving. I was going straight towards the stump and about 20 ft. away to the right of my boat that fish jumped about a foot out of the water. My jaw hit the water... he was fishing with 10 pound test and was about to break it off I almost slapped him. We fought that fish for about 5 minutes getting it un wrapped from the trees. We landed it though and I still have the picture.

I don’t want them to jump, but sticking your rod tip down doesn’t help. Wishful thinking. Best I’ve come up with is begging “don’t jump, don’t jump....stay down, stay down!” It doesn’t work either. Good idea to keep a little tension on the line when they do jump. A free flinging crank bait will fly out easier than one with slight tension on it. Some of those 6-7pounders on Fairfield will throw your 8-10XD regardless of what you try.

Another good idea is to ditch the stock hooks on cranks and replace them with Mustad Triple Grip EWG. Those things are super sticky. As for the Shaly head loss? Those big ball weights aren’t helping. Better to use a small tungsten pegged bullet weight. Same action(trust me....no shaky head stands up) and the smaller weight will help with hook blow out on hookset.

Another thing....set the drag looser. Let the fish run a bit. If possible based on structure. You have to be patient and trust the GOOD hooks you swapped out. Let them do their job.

Unless you really know what you are doing and really know the area you are fishing, you should never bury your rod tip in the water. You lose all of your ability to react and adjust when doing that. I have seen many fish get hung in brush, short-lined or lost by slack getting in the line while the angler can't react quick enough with the rod buried in the water.

You ain't stopping a 12+ in 2ft of water about 35 yards away from deeper(8ft) water, from jumping, running, jumping, jumping, running...

I squat down like I'm about to take a duece. Then act
Like you're fighting a tuna. That usually helps them from not jumping.

I'll worry about that if and when I ever get another big one on. Been awhile.

I think your worse off sticking your rod tip down on Texas rigs,c-rigs and jigs. Cranks keep the rod to the side cause that’s usually how you set the hook. I have found that when they get closer to the boat and try to jump burying the rod does seem to pull em down sometimes but it does no difference when they are far away.

I have been getting schooled by Falcon Lake over 5 lbs crank bait fish for the last couple of months, both shallow and deeper. By paying close attention to my hook quality and also setting the hook (or not) and fighting the fish differently depending on how and and at what depth / cover they are biting the crank bait my landing percentage has increased from 50% to 75%. I am still getting my heart broke but far less often now.

When they get to 7+ range and bigger I don't think you can stop them from jumping if they want to, especially on a long cast.
Of course heavy line will give you the chance to horse them in faster but that is not always an option if they won't bite.
Tight lines, sharp hooks and pray they don't jump. It's all part of the fun.

I agree.
Sometimes there are things you can do to help but enjoy the ride and let um jump. Fishing colder water helps.
Single hooks help. Letting weight slide some helps. Not using fat plastics that block hook helps. Using line with give helps.
Keeping line tension helps. I usually don’t bury Rod under water.

This right here.....I agree 110%. Been fighting fish like this forever and very seldom, as in almost never lose a big fish. I've watched guys piss away more big fish than I can count trying to be gentle and play them down. Get her in the boat and we can all play with it.

I agree there too Donald and Cmack. I stopped losing as many really big fish when I vowed to NEVER be surprised when they hit. If you are dumbfounded then they get the upper hand quickly. I always assume the next fish is possibly a giant(sometimes I have to assume for a very long time). Visualization of the fight considering the water, depth, bait, tackle, at any given time helps—-what am I gonna do when I hang her with what I have in front of me? Often getting them up quickly and in the boat fast is better, even if they are head shaking-plus awesome to see.

If you had a faster boat you wouldn't lose so many fish!

Well by Gosh I am about to fix that problem.

get them to the top and water ski their [censored] to the boat!! if I lose one something broke.

Trying to hold a fish down, to keep it from jumping, especially on a crankbait, changes the angle of your rod tip to the bait. Often times, this results in the fish coming unbuttoned because you've just given them leverage. I've caught a ton of 10+ pound fish in my life. I try to get their head turned immediately and let them tell me what to do after that. Reel as fast as they'll let me then let off if they won't. The only time I change the angle of my rod to the fish is when they're on the surface and going back and forth, Then I will change the rod angle to turn them back toward me, but that's with my rod basically level to the water's surface and the fish close to at hand. I use this same technique with any lure, and very seldom do I lose really big fish. But I don't fish light line. I fish the heaviest line I can get away with because I'm almost always targeting BIG fish.

That's 200 10lb fish. Ain't many anglers gonna beat that not even Mark Pack.

Pack's caught way more than 200 LEGIT 10 lbers. My total is in the 160's, but many of those fish were well above 10lbs.

p.s. - when I said "ton", I didn't mean it literally. Have never added up combined weight, other than a running tally of the top 5. Didn't intend to turn this into a measuring contest, just sharing my personal experience for playing/landing big fish.