behind or below, which are the typical angles fish see your lure from.
It will take time, but your goal is to develop your ability to feel what
the lure does as you retrieve it steadily, and what it feels like as you
impart various changes to the swimming action. If you know what it feels
like when you're in control, it becomes much more obvious when something
else changes the lure's swimming progress or action. You should be able
to feel when it catches on weeds, or deflects off a downed tree stump. When
it bangs into something hard, that should be fairly easy to notice.
Real progress comes when you can sense 'life' in the contact, or change.
It's extremely difficult to articulate what it feels like when a fish
hits a crankbait. But there's a 'clamping down' to it sometimes, almost
a 'wiggle' in it other times, and sometimes it's almost a complete loss
of tension, when the fish's surge overtakes the lure as it tries to eat
it.
Because it's hard to recall what something felt like after the fact,
it pays to concentrate on feeling for these things before they happen. When
you start fishing like this, train yourself to pivot at the waist and sweep
sideways with the rod tip (to snug up the connection) when you think you
have a bite. You'll do it a bunch of times as the lure catches on weeds
or wood, but that's okay. In fact, the surging forward of a lure as it frees
itself from an obstruction can often trigger a strike, so be ready for that,
too.
In time, your mind should become sharper at discerning subtle differences.
Depending on whether you're trying to get your lure to dive deeper or
shallower, you might have to hold the rod tip up or down. So that can limit
other options, when it comes to how you hold the rod as you present the
crankbait. Fritts likes to point his rod toward the lure, so the line slides
straight through the guides while hardly touching them. He says it helps
him detect slight differences in the lure's swimming action, and helps him
feel that surge when a bass "turns" on his lure.
You may never be able to feel this well, but try this technique and see
how it works for you. Fritts uses mainly fiberglass rods, primarily for
their forgiveness as a hooked fish thrashes at boatside. But today's graphite
rods do an amazing job of helping you feel the steady progression of the
lure toward you as you retrieve. Many anglers prefer graphite to glass for
this reason. Preference is a personal thing; choose your own tools as you
develop your fishing skills.
Realize that bites don't all feel like car accidents. Many crankbait
bites are subtle-so soft, in fact, that they go undetected. Fish can grab
the lure and move along with you, or surge forward so you feel nothing.
If you're not in tune with the action of the lure, and don't notice the
interruption, or the sudden loss of tension, you can easily miss the split-second
opportunity for a hookset.
Yes, a certain number of fish essentially hook themselves when they mess
with the trebles, but it's amazing how many swim off after a close call.
The new Sure Set hooks were designed, in close concert with Fritts, to try
to capture more of those fish, along with those notorious short-strikers,
fish that nip at the bait but don't commit. That technology absolutely helps,
but the best hookup ratio comes from knowing a fish has bit, and sweeping
across instantly to snug the connection.
Note: This article was crafted by the Rapala Pro Staff. For more fishing
insights, go to www.rapala.com.
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