Lately, I’ve been getting out early enough in the morning to try some top-water plugs for trout. I get strikes but very few hook-ups, probably about a 25% hook-up rate. Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong, or is it the plugs that I’m using.
What hooks are you using? I swap out the trebles for small owner circles on my topwater lures. Much easier to release the fish and they last longer for me. If you are missing a lot of strikes, try adding a 1/2 second pause in your retrieve. Most of my fish strike on that slight pause. “Twitch twitch pause, twitch twitch pause” Sometimes they like it fast and aggressive, sometimes they like a slower meal. Keep varying it until you find the magic recipe.
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Make sure you’re controlling your reaction to the strike and not jerking immediately. You’ve got to wait until you either feel the fish on the line or see it take the plug under. A lot of people jerk the plug right out of their mouth.
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Originally posted by bellyupMake sure you’re controlling your reaction to the strike and not jerking immediately. You’ve got to wait until you either feel the fish on the line or see it take the plug under. A lot of people jerk the plug right out of their mouth.
This. Very good advice, it is hard not to react immediately. There are also times where you can tell they are being lazy swiping at it as well and I will switch to a suspending bait and start catching them. Not sure if they just do not want to exert the energy on the top-water or not.
X3 on this ^^^
Then again, sometimes the fish aren’t actually trying to “eat” the bait. They’re simply trying to “kill” it.
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X4, but also sometimes bluefish will do that, so it might also be pesky blues short striking ya…
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Good thread. I’ve had hits but no catches. I’ll file this info away…hopefully I’ll remember some of it when I get to fish again.
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Unless it’s windy you shouldn’t have a belly in your line. If it’s windy topwater isn’t going to be much good, regardless. Make sure you’re fishing with your rod at least horizontal to the water, at best with your rod tip inches above the water, if not touching the water. When you have a blow up, wait until you feel the fish before you react. It’s hard to discipline yourself not to react to the visual part, but that’s the way to do it.
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Make sure you're controlling your reaction to the strike and not jerking immediately. You've got to wait until you either feel the fish on the line or see it take the plug under. A lot of people jerk the plug right out of their mouth.
I agree with this too! Probably the biggest issue with trying to get a solid hook up with topwater lures.
I change hooks on a lot of lures to better ones. There are many good surface lures on the market now, but not all have sticky sharp hooks.
If you can’t easily stick the hook point in a finger nail, it’s not as sharp as it should be.
If the hooks not sharp, it needs to be either changed or sharpened.
These are all great suggestions! The plugs I’m using all have the original treble hooks, which I actually don’t like. So I think I will switch them out.
And the waiting,…yep, probably am pulling as soon as I see the splash of water.
…have…to…slow…dooowwwwnnnn!