Joe, I am using the hook bass pro John Bitter told me to use on his baits- either a 4 or 5 EWG. It may be the better choice for his custom poured baits, but I still believe they are too thick and bulky and actually get in the way of many a good hooksets and I wind up losing fish I believe because of too much rubber in the way.

When I switch to a thinner bait, my hookset percentage goes up.

LOL funny stuff here. First off you can't compare salmon or steelhead fishing, to bass fishing. You're not fishing the same baits, and the fish aren't close to being in the same kind of cover that bass can be in. When was the last time anyone has pulled a salmon or a steelhead out of a matted bed of hydrilla or mil foil? Hmmm ..... my guess would be never.

When was the last time someone fishing for salmon or steelhead pitched a bait dead into the middle of a willow bush that was 3 or more feet behind other willow bushes and then just did a pull hook set and gotten the fish out of said bush? Again ....hmmm ..... my guess would be never. How many salmon and steelhead fisherman use Texas rigged soft plastic baits, or large bulbous head jigs with heavy fiber weed guards? My guess would be very few. See what I am getting at?

If you're going to make a comparison, at least make it an apples to apples comparison, because the apples to prunes comparison isn't working.

True dat David! No comparison!

Today I should have landed 20 bass but wound up only landing 9 of them. On some of those fish I was trying to be a little more nice too and not set the hook so hard and wound up not even getting the hook out of the rubber much less into the fish's mouth.

Looks like I gotta just cave in and go back to superman hooksets! It will put more fish in the boat.

If it is a worm tied on t-rigged or carolina try hooking the the point through the worm offset from the middle. It remains weedless, is still straight when under water, and the hook goes through less plastic and will increase hook ups. With bigger baits that use EWG like beaver, creature, craws etc... I always bend my EWG off center of the shank. just a bit is all you need. Not as much as say a circle or dropshot hook has. Then bring it all the way through and nest the tip back in the plastic. the bite exposes the point and hook ups will increase. Just try it next time out.

Added:

Also note when T-rigging to keep the worm straight when hooking it offset from the center I actually found that when I slide my worm past the hook eye and over my line tie performance improved. The weight looked more natural against the bait, the line was not being bumped by the weight, and the worm has a bit more freedom. Don't take my word for it though. Try it and see if it works for you.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2021 10:46AM by Aaron Petersen.

Aaron, aside from hooking the bait offset from the middle, what you're describing is Texposed rigging. It works great for EWG style hooks, and I use that rigging whenever I am using an EWG style hook, or if I'm using a tube with a Trokar TK190 tube hook, and it works great. I still use the same style hook set when Texpose rigging a bait, because IMO and it's not really an opinion because I have tried being gentle on a hook set like Kent talked about in his post, and being gentle can and will cost you fish. As I have said numerous times, the a fast powerful hook set has more purpose behind it than simply starting hook penetration.

As far as skin hooking a bait with the hook offset from center goes ..... I've tried in and I just don't like it. I don't know if I am imagining it or not, but the bait seems to spin more than it normally does when the hook is rigged in line with the bait, when being retrieved. Some baits, in particular, slender or ring bodied worms don't lend themselves to using EWG style hooks. At least I don't like using them for worms. With worms I use straight shank hooks. As Kent said in an earlier post, it's not easy getting a hook to come through some thick bodied plastic baits. Some of the factory made baits are made using pretty tough plastisol. Couple that with the fact that the bait can and sometimes does fold over on itself in a fish's mouth, and you're trying to drive a thick wire hook through multiple layers of soft plastic.

Anyhow .....

My steelhead rods are by far many time lighter powered the the worm rod, I also have caught hundreds of bass with Texas and tex- posed worms with light finesse rods for decades. My bass flies all have mono, or wire weed guards and taken on 8 wt., and sometimes lighter fly rods, the equivalent of a light to med light steelhead rod. 4 to 8 lb. line rods. I use an awful lot of one and two power spin jig rods to good effect bass fishing.

David,

I am definitely not advocating against a good hard hookset. Rather sometimes even with a fence swinger you end up missing due to the hook pulling out or plastic in the way. When I started twisting out EWG and rigging my t-rig on offset worm hooks or flipping hooks as described the misses went way down. On a t-rig I set the hook between fence swing and snappy personally. By no means is it soft.

90% of fishing is confidence. That is why everyone has their own modifications and tricks. I rarely fish any bait straight from the package hard or soft. IMO it is one of the best things about angling because I am a tackle junky.