Truth on hooksetting...

[freezorburn]

There seems to be some conflicting advice out there on setting the hook. Every Captain seams to have his own favorite method.

I personally believe in patience let the fish take it for a good 15 to 20 seconds then reel down.
Shark, I give a tug once the line stretch is out.
Sword, fishing No tug just reel.

Worked for me time and time again, However every now and then the hook pulls.

:?: Can anyone share there knowledge on a fool proof hook set? I'd be willing to alter my mehods to never drop a fish! :razz:

[Threesenough]

Freezorburn,
Your methods are sound except I have had plenty of fish that where not hooked in the mouth when they got to the boat. Even had some that where not hooked at all, just wrapped up in the leader. When the fish is foul hooked it's hard to have a concrete plan as to the best way to keep them hooked up.

Had a hook up on the tip rod baited with a tinker last night. The fish was swimming around with the bait until we noticed the LP on the other side of the boat near the surface ( no indication on the rod that he was even there). Came tight on the fish and fought what felt like a good fish for a bit until the hook pulled. In my opinion I think it was foul hooked. The fish had lots of time to devour the little tinker and should have been a positive hookset if the fish had the bait in his mouth.

From my own personal experiance I tend to put a little more drag on a rod hooked up with live bait just to see if it will pull early on in the fight. I have had to many bad experiances fighting a fish with a light drag that was baited with live bait only to have it pull a couple hours into the fight.

Once again that is why live bait sux! And everytime I tell myself I am going to set all squid, I always send out something alive and usually end up with a pulled hook. Last night that was the only live bait we had out.

Good thing we had some success with the squid last night.

[hannaman]

Let em eat.