05-15-2021, 06:23 PM
There can be several variables: species and size of fish, activity mode of fish (active, neutral, negative), type and quality of the bait, etc. When larger fish are active and hungry they gulp and go...with little problem getting hookups. Smaller fish peck at the bait and finicky fish might pick it up and drop it when they feel anything that is not quite right.
If you are fishing below a bobber, the fish are going to feel that resistance. And if they are anything but active and hungry they will not totally commit...just swimming around with the bait held loosely in their mouths. I often fish without a bobber...and an open bail...to allow biters to commit without feeling a lot of back pressure. And there are still times they drop the bait before I can get a hook set.
One thing I discovered about the open bail system is that after giving the fish some time, you need to close the bail, point the rod at the fish and let them pull the line tight as they swim away before whacking them. Setting the hook while the fish is doing anything else has a much greater chance of simply pulling the bait out of their mouths. Waiting until they have a good hold of the bait and are moving away tends to pull the hook into the corner of the mouth...with or without a circle hook.
I suspect that some of your aggravators are probably just bullheads. They are notorious for hitting big but catching small. They will chomp a large bait, even if they can't easily get it all in their mouths. There have been a bunch of times when bullheads keep ruining the larger baits I am fishing for big channels. Sometimes they even mess up and have the hook in their mouths when I pop them.
![[Image: BIG-BAIT-BULLY.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/JRVVgnX/BIG-BAIT-BULLY.jpg)
![[Image: MINNOW-THIEF.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/10VZ0sb/MINNOW-THIEF.jpg)
If you are fishing below a bobber, the fish are going to feel that resistance. And if they are anything but active and hungry they will not totally commit...just swimming around with the bait held loosely in their mouths. I often fish without a bobber...and an open bail...to allow biters to commit without feeling a lot of back pressure. And there are still times they drop the bait before I can get a hook set.
One thing I discovered about the open bail system is that after giving the fish some time, you need to close the bail, point the rod at the fish and let them pull the line tight as they swim away before whacking them. Setting the hook while the fish is doing anything else has a much greater chance of simply pulling the bait out of their mouths. Waiting until they have a good hold of the bait and are moving away tends to pull the hook into the corner of the mouth...with or without a circle hook.
I suspect that some of your aggravators are probably just bullheads. They are notorious for hitting big but catching small. They will chomp a large bait, even if they can't easily get it all in their mouths. There have been a bunch of times when bullheads keep ruining the larger baits I am fishing for big channels. Sometimes they even mess up and have the hook in their mouths when I pop them.