Bass Fishing Tip of the Week 10/21/08: Fighting a Bass

Bass fishing is a challenging sport and probably the most important aspect of being successful is the ability to locate the fish and find out what they are hitting. An often neglected skill set found in many good fishermen is knowing how to fight the fish properly without becoming "unbuttoned".

Here's some tips on becoming more successful in getting the fish into the boat:

1- When setting the hook don't always pull the rod straight up over your head. The key is to have a powerful hook set in the direction opposite to the way the fish is heading. For instance if the fish strikes and is headed left, set the hook to the right in a sideways but up direction. This ensures maximum hook penetration!

2- Set the drag properly so that when you set the hook the drag doesn't immediately give or isn't set too tight so the line breaks when a fish surges. I generally set the drag on the high side and adjust drag during the fight if the fish is very large. In fact, if I have set the drag much too high I will depress the freespool button to prevent line breakage if necessary.

3- If you can feel the fish attempting to surface, lower your rod to help prevent the fish from breaking the surface. This is especially important with heavy crankbaits like rattletraps. On these heavier lures a simple headshake on the surface can release the hooks and result in a lost bass.

4- When flippin' using heavy line and in heavy cover you've got to get the fish out of the cover as quickly as possible. Once the hook is set, pull high overhead and winch the fish as quickly as possible i.e. horse the fish in. This will prevent your line from getting entangles in underwater cover and come loose because of lack of tension on the hook.

5- On smaller fish less than 3 pounds try boat flipping the fish. This will get the fish in the boat as quick as possible and lessen the chance of loosing it.

6- Large fish should be netted! Attempting to boat flip these monsters will only result in tearing out the hook or straightening the hook.

7- If the fish is caught in underwater timber, keep tension on the line but don't pull extremely hard. Let the fish swim it's way out.

By following these fighting tips you'll certainly have a better chance in doing more catching with less fishing.

Largemouth Herald