Fish throwing mepps trebles

[mainbutter]

I was throwing a mepps 'musky killer' around yesterday and picked up a number of pike and LMB. The lure was brand spankin new out of the box and the fish were definitely on it.

However, I missed a number of fish who I saw strike, I'd set the hook pretty hard, but then they'd get off immediately or at the boat after a short fight. I probably didn't land 30% of the fish that took a swipe at it.

The hooks seem sharp for sure (haven't sharpened it but they had good hook points right out of the box), but I'm wondering if that mass of bucktail on the treble is causing problems for a good hookup. Has anyone else had this problem?

Luckily it seemed that only the smaller fish were throwing the hook (which may be the issue?), my biggest bass and biggest pike weren't getting off and were impaled past a pretty strong barb. I always thought that inline spinners were supposed to give fantastic hookup rates since there isn't much for a fish to chomp on other than a big treble.

[Huntin&Fishin]

Hmmmm Only thing i can think of is you said you "saw them strike"? Maybe you prematurly set the hook before feeling them??(simalar to topwater) Or maybe the fish were just taking aggressive whacks at it and not eating strikes?

[Nick Kuhn]

You will never land all of them. With bass I find that inline spinners generally get hooked in some fairly soft tissue, so if the fish jumps or anything like that it's fairly easy to lose them. With pike it's a little different. Generally you will hook them well, but occasionally they really clamp down on the bait and you don't get a very good hookset no matter how hard you set it (you'll move the fish's head as opposed to the lure).

It also depends on the fishes mood. I find with inline spinners a lot of fish just bump the bait without much of a strike. These fish are very difficult to hook solidly.

[mainbutter]

Ditto on "you will never land all of them" nick I was just wondering why I was having such poor hooking with an inline spinner compared to some of the other things i was fishing.

[deadeye]

Maybe swap the hook out for one that's a bit bigger or has a longer shank? While your more likely to snag you wont have the blade getting in the way of a good hookset.

For the most part I have pretty decent luck with inline spinners. Once in a while they do seem to just tag it instead of really going for it though. Those days its right to the terminator or booyah, bass can't seem to resist that if they are willing to bump a mepps. The single hook always gets them.

[shizzy]

I have had a few of them not quite as sharp as I would like right out of the box. I would hit them with your hook file and see what happens.