Bare Hooks and no fish

[kkyyoottee]

We set throw lines while still fishing with rods. Breaks up the monoity. Lately all we see are bare hooks. We are using #4 J-hooks with 2-3 inch bluegill. But no hookups. Hooking them back of dorsel fin. Nothing 3 nights of baiting and nothing!! Anyone got any ideas on hooking bait different? Thanks

[beeheck]

Sounds like turtles to me. They can eat right around your hook like it isn't there. I would try a different bait or if you don't mind fishing with dead bait get a threader and thread the line right down the throat of your bait and bring it out their, ahhhh, well, oh my.... let's just say the end of the fish and then tie your line to your swivel. Might try putting a few trailer hooks into your bait so you have several hooks on each bait. I would do that only to try to catch what is cleaning you out and to see what it is. If it is turtles all you can do is move and hope they move the other direction. If you find out what's doing you wrong let me know, you've got my curiosity up now.

[kkyyoottee]

What do you think about using circle hooks do you have any experience with them?

[kkyyoottee]

Well again no fish bare hooks except where the bait was killed during baiting. Heads ate off of some others looks like they had been mauled!!! Im going to catch one of these things if last thing I do!!!

[beeheck]

In my opinion circle hooks work great if you are using a very stiff rod. They work by slipping in the mouth to the corner of the mouth and then they gently hook the fish before he knows what's going on. If you have a limber rod I think they grip the hook hard enough to hold it and not allow it to slip to the corner of their mouth. I have done no infield study on this because my brother in law refuses to put a hook in his mouth and run but I'm still working on him. I would say you need at least a Med-heavy action rod and a heavy would be better and a 2"X2"X1/4" thick piece of angle iron with washers welded on it for eyelets would be even better. OK, back to reality.... I use med action rods and I have great difficulty in getting a circle hook to do its thing but have had great success with them using a med-heavy action rod. One other little thing, with circle hooks you don't get the thrill of setting the hook. Nothing better than waiting with anticipation and then when your rod doubles over you jerk like your trying to remove your 1974 Gremlin car from a mud hole it's sunk in up to the top of its wheel wells. Man, you gotta love it when the hook and sinker come flying past your head faster than a major league fast ball. Just a thought.

[jeffjbeard]

In my opinion circle hooks work great if you are using a very stiff rod. They work by slipping in the mouth to the corner of the mouth and then they gently hook the fish before he knows what's going on. If you have a limber rod I think they grip the hook hard enough to hold it and not allow it to slip to the corner of their mouth. I have done no infield study on this because my brother in law refuses to put a hook in his mouth and run but I'm still working on him. I would say you need at least a Med-heavy action rod and a heavy would be better and a 2"X2"X1/4" thick piece of angle iron with washers welded on it for eyelets would be even better. OK, back to reality.... I use med action rods and I have great difficulty in getting a circle hook to do its thing but have had great success with them using a med-heavy action rod. One other little thing, with circle hooks you don't get the thrill of setting the hook. Nothing better than waiting with anticipation and then when your rod doubles over you jerk like your trying to remove your 1974 Gremlin car from a mud hole it's sunk in up to the top of its wheel wells. Man, you gotta love it when the hook and sinker come flying past your head faster than a major league fast ball. Just a thought.

Now that was funny Bill Remind me if we ever fish together to run when you get a bite or dive overboard lol

[mad catter]

I agree with Bill, circle hooks with a stiff rod. Let that old catfish set the hook on himself.

[mad catter]

As far as bait, now would be a good time to try mud leeches. They would be hard to get off that hook.

[CatFishingFinatic]

Personally what I think is swiping the bait off our hooks is a combination between turtles, bull heads,and small stripers , who knows could even be some small walleyes in there robbing bait... the little thieves!! I'm gonna fix them, we have a family fishing war going and I have a couple secrets up my sleeve.

[kkyyoottee]

Thanks for the list!!! I have a couple that you mentioned on my list!! Thanks again!!:big_smile:

[SubnetZero]

Well again no fish bare hooks except where the bait was killed during baiting. Heads ate off of some others looks like they had been mauled!!! Im going to catch one of these things if last thing I do!!!


You've been Turtled :sad2:

[Longjohn119]

A circle hook might do the trick, they were originally developed for 'longline' commercial fishing (A sort of a troutline used for ocean fishing with hundreds to thousands of hooks per line) and have only become popular with sport fishermen in recent years

That being said, if it is a turtle or gar a circle hook probably isn't going to work very well

Memorial day weekend a buddy and I went out and we set out lines with sunfish on Friday night and ran them a couple of times before bed .... Well before we got a chance to run them Saturday morning it started raining .... and I do mean raining .... so we didn't get out until about 11:00 am (still raining a bit) and the turtles had gotten to all our catch including one that was probably in the 10-12 pound size judging by the head because that was all that was left, a big head and had 3 other fish that were only half a fish by the time we got to them .... Luckily we did make up for it Saturday and Sunday nights but nothing we caught was as big as the one with only a head remaining ... something about the rain made them brave enough to go after our catch because it wasn't a problem the rest of the weekend or before or since then