Story by Hunter Sales | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
At the St. Lawrence River this season, halfway through my fishing time on the third day, I hooked a near seven-pounder that I had caught in practice. I had two fish in the livewell for nearly 8 pounds and this fish would have anchored a solid tournament bag. I was hung up on a rock when the fish ate the bait and I just never got a good hook in the fish. Nevertheless, these lost fish often teach us far more than the ones we land. The hallmark of a really good angler is the ability to analyze everything. Far too many people say, “it just came off”. Very rarely is this the case. There’s always a reason.
Three of the most common reasons we lose fish are poor hook penetration, bad leverage, and slack line.
Hook penetration is something we often overlook in fishing. Modern equipment such as low-stretch fluorocarbon lines, ultra-sharp hooks, and stiffer rods have helped this problem. However, there is still a relatively fine line between not getting penetration and cutting too large of a hook in the fish’s mouth with big hooksets. When using light line and soft spinning rods, it can be a challenge to put enough pressure to drive the hook through the hard mouth of a smallmouth or spotted bass. This is most often a problem when using a hook with too large of a diameter.
When I was first learning to fish, I lost a ton of fish when using a 1/0 drop shot hook. Now, I rarely use anything other than a #2 Hayabusa DSR132 Drop Shot Hook, and I land the overwhelming majority of my bites. The key here is matching the rod, line, hook, and hookset power. If any of the four don’t align, lost fish will result.
On the other end of the spectrum, fish can create leverage that rips the bait free by shaking their heads. This most often happens with heavy baits that can be slung around but can also happen with any hard bait that uses metal split rings. When a fish makes hard turns, it can bind these split rings against themselves and create leverage against the hook.
The solution for leverage is to reel the fish in as hard as possible when using heavy lines, by tying braided split rings onto your baits when using lighter lines, or both. I go into detail on braided split rings in this video.
Slack line is probably the first thing most of our fishing mentors warned us about. Beginning anglers let this happen far too often due to poor mechanics when fighting a fish, but even advanced anglers can let this happen unknowingly. Even a millisecond of slack can be enough time for the hook to pop free.
When fish are airborne or making hard turns, it can be really challenging to keep the line 100% tight. I’ve lost a lot of fish when changing the rod direction around my trolling motor head. You want to keep them headed in the same direction as much as possible until they are in the boat. This is one of the reasons you see so many top anglers keeping their drags super loose and reeling as fast as they can when fighting an important fish. Having a spinning reel with a smooth drag is key here, but the quick reeling against your drag ensures that there is constant pressure on the line without risking a breakage.
I’ve learned all these lessons the hard way, but there is no doubt that I wouldn’t be the angler that I am today without those frustrating losses that have happened along the way. The best advice that I can give is to analyze every loss, figure out what could have happened, and try different approaches until you find one that works. A mentor can help greatly here. Never accept that lost fish are a normal part of the game and always work towards understanding why and how fish are able to free themselves.
I hope this article can help prevent a few losses, but more importantly motivate us all to keep improving!
Hunter Sales – Angler Profile
