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How to land a fish:

(By: Matt Keith)

Start with hooking the fish...

Most baits that have treble hooks (3 hooks on one) will actually hook themselves. But a quick backward snap of the rod will make sure! When fishing a top water bait be sure to wait an extra moment or even wait until you feel some weight on the line before setting the book. When you see the splash of a bass take your lure it is hard not to set the hook but this will normally pull the lure out of the bass’ mouth before it is closed. On occasion a bass will try to “stun” the bait and just hit the lure but not take it into its mouth so you may find yourself landing a bass with a face full of treble hooks or it may miss the lure all together.

When fishing a single hook lure make sure to set the hook hard but leave a little slack in your line to snap the hook into place using a straight up sweep and not a sideways sweep. To do this you will want to be facing toward the fish and have the rod face upward and pointing at about the ten o’clock position you should not have much slack in your line so that you can detect the bite. To get a little slack you will drop the rod tip down by pointing toward the fish at about the 3’oclock and snap it straight back toward the eleven o’clock position and maintain constant pressure until the fish is landed.

If the fish looks to jump or has jumped, keep the line tight and keep applying pressure but keep the rod low toward the water and some what parallel with the water

Most bass will sort of lay on their side when they are tired out and this is the time to land them. If you are fishing heavy line they can be lifted directly into the boat. If it’s a heavy fish you will want to use a net.

"Go Fish"
-Matt