Horrible Hook up ratio HELP!!

[aluminumboat22]

So I’ve been throwing some soft plastic paddle tail swimbaits lately. Cane Thumpers and swimmin flukes. I feel like I was missing even more fish on the EWG than just the regular offset round bend hooks. I’m still probably missing like 5-6 fish out of every 10 bites. Is this just normal? I feel like maybe since the hook point sticks out taller than the line tie on the round bend instead of inline on the EWG might be why I seem to land a few more. Never really noticed how the hooks were like that until I really too a hard look at them. Any help would be great thanks.

My gear:
#1
7’3 Heavy fast Amistad
50lb braid
#4 round bend offset
3/16oz weight

#2
6’10 Heavy Fast head turner
50lb braid to 17lb mono leader
#4 ewg
3/16oz weight

[Orion922]

My number one top water in Florida is a Skinny dipper with weight pegged depending on vegetation. Only hooks I use are a 3/0, of 4/0 game superline hook. Again, top water above pads and grasses. Braid with drag tightened. IMO it is your rods. I use a custom rod that is 7' 8 inches, extras fast, e-heavy.

[Bassjam2000]

Ditch the braid and go to a 15#(ish) copoly. When you detect a strike you have to give the fish a second or two to get it in its mouth which means stop reeling immediately and give your rod tip to the fish, count off... one thousand one one thousand two then reel the slack in quickly and slam it home when and only when you feel the weight of the fish. It takes practice and discipline to get this down but this has worked well for me and others and is common hookset protocol in swimbait circles.

[ridgerunner6901]

https://jewelbait.com/shop/details/g...em-spin-1-pack​
this will help

[Ben Danbleume]

Ditch the heavy/fast rods, you need a softer tip, let them eat a little..

[John Jackson]

I had the same problem last year, and I got up close looks at them hitting them alone, and on an Alabama rig. This was lake Hartwell.
I think the fish are responding to pressure, as in both cases they would hit the tail but not the body, as if they were testing to see if it was real. In years passes they always engulfed it.
I've thought about putting a small stinger hook in the tail, but have not been back to Hartwell yet.

[DaveBrabec]

need a bigger hook 3/0 at least

[Les Young]

[QUOTE=John Jackson;10975935]
I've thought about putting a small stinger hook in the tail. QUOTE] I thought about trying this with a shakey head.

[Wackyjig]

Ditch the heavy/fast rods, you need a softer tip, let them eat a little..

Yep. Especially with braid. Swimbaits are different than just about every other moving bait in that you have to give them time to load up before you set the hook. If you feel the bite and yank immediately you're going to miss them nearly every time unless they're biting aggressively.
Feel the bite, keep reeling until you feel weight, then yank.
That no give braid plus that no give rod isnt going to let them load up on it. They'll feel the rod and bail before they eat it.

Just for reference I throw 1+ ounce 6" magdrafts on a lighter rod than what you're throwing 3/8ths small swimbaits

[aluminumboat22]

Thanks guys. So maybe a medium heavy fast action with mono? I’m fishing thick grass so any lighter would be a real struggle I would think. Should I stay away from the EWG hooks?

[Ben Danbleume]

Thanks guys. So maybe a medium heavy fast action with mono? I’m fishing thick grass so any lighter would be a real struggle I would think. Should I stay away from the EWG hooks?

You can stay with the braid if you want just go to a lighter rod and don't set the hook till you get pressure, not nips. I always use a EWG with regular flukes, no experience with swimming flukes other than on jigheads.

[born 2 fish]

I would try 15 - 17 lb mono just throw some big game on your reel and give it a shot. You might be feeling them before they really get the bait and your pulling it away. Your heavy rod will be fine with the mono and with less sensitivity the have a better chance to eat it.

[Bassbme]

Yep. Especially with braid. Swimbaits are different than just about every other moving bait in that you have to give them time to load up before you set the hook. If you feel the bite and yank immediately you're going to miss them nearly every time unless they're biting aggressively.
Feel the bite, keep reeling until you feel weight, then yank.
That no give braid plus that no give rod isnt going to let them load up on it. They'll feel the rod and bail before they eat it.

Just for reference I throw 1+ ounce 6" magdrafts on a lighter rod than what you're throwing 3/8ths small swimbaits

this ....^^^^^

I've tried using a stinger or trailer hook on 5 and 6" baits. A treble hook tied to 65# braid and embedded in the baits back about half way between the tail, and the main hook .... and I've also tried a spinnerbait trailer hook that I hook up like you normally would on a spinnerbait, and just run the hook up through the tail of the swimbait. The treble hook worked best for not killing the action of the bait, but hung up a lot in weeds.

The spinnerbait trailer hook was more weedless, but it really hurt the action of the bait.

[DrewFlu33]

Agree with letting them load up on it. It took me a long time to get this down and I missed a lot of fish as a result. The way that I think about it in my head to force myself to do it right now is to imagine that you've reeled into a brush pile and you want to do whatever you can to make sure you get hung up...let it settle a bit, get taut, maybe even lean/pull into it a little, then when you're sure that you're absolutely buried in it, go ahead and set the hook hard to make sure you're never getting that bait back. It's screwy, but it works for me!

Also agree that a much lighter powered rod would help tremendously. You're probably in a position now to where you can't let them load up on it. I throw baits like you're mentioning on a MH Phenix Feather that really fishes like most companies' medium power.

A probably much smaller but not insignificant issue might be the EWG. Once you get a fish really hooked on one, they're probably not getting off, but if you look how the hook point is oriented on an EWG vs. a round bend, you see pretty quickly why you might miss more fish on them or otherwise not get them hooked good. It's angled right at the eye of the hook, so the fish really has to chomp down on it to make sure you're driving the point into their mouth.