Put More Fish in the Boat Fishing Article

Putting Fish in the Boat

These tips will help you hook more of the fish that hit your lures and then successfully land those fish.

As valuable as it is to learn new techniques, most anglers could increase their catch rates dramatically by simply increasing the number of strikes they convert into landed fish. Here are tips for hooking and landing more fish.

-Keep Their Heads Down: As exciting as it is to watch fish jump, few tricks in a fish’s arsenal are more likely to make a fisherman the looser. Professional anglers often fight fish with rods low – even in the water, to keep downward pressure on fish. This is especially important with smallmouth bass, which are great acrobats.

-Communicate: Anglers who work together when fish are on the line can put far more of their fish in the boat, but it’s critical to understand one another’s preferences regarding things like going after fish with the net vs. waiting for the fish to be led into the net.

-Change Colors: Color may not seem like it has much to do with hooking and landing fish. However, when fish are hitting a bait but aren’t getting hooked, it may be because the fish are taking the bait tentatively. When that’s the case, something as simple as changing from a green pumpkin YUM Notta Worm to a cotton candy Notta Worm may make all the difference. Downsizing to from a Bomber Fat Free Fingerling to a Fat Free Fry can have the same effect.

-Add A Trailer Hook: If bass or redfish are striking short on spinnerbaits, you’ll hook and land far more fish simply by adding an Excalibur Trailer Hook to the bend of the spinnerbait hook.

-Check Your Line: Re-spool your reels before a trip if you have ANY uncertainty about the condition of your line, and feel the line for nicks from time to time. One bad spot in the line from a rough edge of a dock can cause a broken line and a broken heart.

-Add A Feather: If fish are short-striking topwater lures, jerkbaits or crankbaits one of the best ways to get them to zero in on the target is to trade out the back treble for an Excalibur Tx3 Feather-dressed treble hook. Adorned with feathers and Flashaboo, these hooks give the fish a highly visible target. Because the hooks are ultra-sharp 6-degree, three sided point, Tx3 rotating treble hooks, the fish end up solidly hooked.

-Match Your Tackle: Many anglers lose crankbait bass during the fight because of rods that are too stiff, which pull trebles out. A soft and gentle touch would land most of those fish. On the other hand, a medium-action rod won’t drive the hook into many fish if you’re flippin’ a YUM Mega Tube.

-Check Your Drag: The only thing worse than setting the hook and coming up empty because your drag was far looser than you realized is to hook into what you know is a big fish and to loose your trophy almost as quickly because your drag was set too tight.

This article is provided by Lurenet.com and is used with permission. jB0405.