Don't you hate it when.....
 

The fish are telling you what to do, but you think your smarter than them. I am sitting here getting ready to go to work and wondering what went wrong yesterday. I realize the only thing that went wrong was me. I went to OH yesterday afternoon. Conditions were favorable for flipping. So, I went to the grass and started flipping. Lost a nice little 2.5 lber immediately. I set the hook and the fish comes flying out if the water and my bait goes flying over my head. The hook was still nicely tucked inside my D-bomb. 5 minutes later, exactly the same thing; then again a few minutes later. So what do I do? Pick up another bait that if a bass bites it then im probably gonna catch it. 1 hour later and no bites, I pick up my flipping stick again. 2nd flip: I get bit and set the hook and fish comes off again. Frustrated, I pick up another bait and go a couple hours only catching a few small dinks. My point is that the fish were trying to tell me that I could catch them flipping. Instead of making adjustments to my flipping setup, I just kept changing baits. This made for a sub par fishing day. I should have made a color change or maybe taken off my bobber stop. Ok rant over. Hope you guys are getting to spend some time on the water

What a great day! The Fish schooled you on hook set and in the future you will think twice about leaving a pattern!

As for me well....Nothing but buck bass this weekend so that was a schooling for trying the Bedding Bass tricks.

Crossed the Old Hickory Bridge again today and as like for two weeks the water is in the trees so once they quit pulling so damned hard the lake will
be on fire!!!

I don't think color change was your answer. Don't know what kind of hook you were using or the way you had it in your bait. But that seems to be where the problem lies. What kind of line? Rod? Maybe even the reel speed? I think sometimes a fast reel will pull it out of their mouths just enough to get a little skin and they sling it right out. Greg Hackney just posted a similar rant on bassmaster. I'll post a link. He doesn't answer the question because we all have theories and he's mainly talking bout a jig.

https://www.bassmaster.com/greg-hack...ss-shake-loose

If your hook was "tucked in" then it never even hit the fish...try running the hook all the way through and just barely putting the point in the skin of the bait. Good luck and hope you figure it out.


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My light flipping set up
Kistler 7'1" heavy fast action rod
Shimano curado 200 7.2/1
20lb sunline flouro
Trokar tk130 with bobber stop and d-bomb
Snell knot

My theory is that I was just blowing their mouth open while setting the hook. Im not sure what adjustment to make. I was only flipping with a 3/8 tungsten weight. The bites were very agressive so Im pretty sure they had the whole bait in their mouth. But a couple times the hook was still in the bait when I reeled in. When I'm using a straight shanked flipping hook, I never run the hook all the way through the bait. Maybe I need to go to a wide gap hook and texpose?

D-bombs are really thick baits. I've had the issue your having at G'ville. A wide gap hook solved the problem for me.

Wide gaps are recommended with chigger craws and crazy legs baits. I've had better luck and hook ups with an off set hook. I'm not a fan of wide gaps myself. But then again that's a confidence thing with me.


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I flip only 4/0 or 5/0 wide gap trokars with my D-bombs. I also don't peg the weight and I've never had any issues keeping fish on. I like the 3/8 ounce weight too.

Thx for the suggestions. I'm off to the lake. Hopefully I'll have some good news to report later

Wish You had came and rescued me from work!!! I'd like to be out there right now


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Well today was much better. Changed hooks to a trokar big nasty flipping hook and changed baits to a rage bug. Caught around 25. Only lost 3 or 4. Had a limit in about 1.5 hours. I caught every fish flipping grass beds. Also had a nice kicker. Then, on my run back to the ramp I hit a log and bent my brand new prop.

Sounds great, except for the prop..

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Nice fish! Glad to hear you had better results


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T-Rig what was the water temp and clarity? Hard to tell sitting 20 stories up in an office downtown. Nice fish too.

Buccaneer, water looks good. Water temps in the creeks are 68-75. Main lake is 60-64. Lots of logs and debris in the river and creeks, but the clarity is fine.