Flathead Hooking Percentage??

[SgtCaesarfishinguy]

Okay fellas, my brother and I have been targeting flats for about a year now and we were curious on what you all would say is your average hooking percentage on runs to fish landed. This year we have experienced a plethora of different types of hits, from hard and fast clicker runs, to ones that don't even take clicker, just load up the rod tip a bit. We have had nights of ten runs or more and only landed one flat. Lately we have been having a lot of fish come unbuttoned after the hookset, and some have ran fast and steady, only to feel nothing but 3oz no-roll and bullhead on the other end.... WHIFF! I think we figured we are at about 15 or 20% on average and that may be generous, seems pretty low to us..anything we can do to put the odds in our favor a bit? We are just writing it off as that is the nature of flathead fishing, and maybe our ratio as low as it is, is just "normal" for cattin'? Thanks in advance for your replies, just curious how you would rate your hooking success! I searched back a ways within the forum itself and didn't see much on this topic, but I am sure it is there somewhere buried in the 83 pages.

[DTro]

This comes up quite a bit, and I will give you my opinion. A lot of the fish you think you are missing are one of three things.

1.Small Flats

2. Channels

3. Another species

It's very hard to calculate percentages when you don't know what's taking your bait in the first place.

I can tell you this. When I see a hard "thump" on my rod, it's always a flat, and it's normally a bigger fish. Of those types of bites, I rarely "miss".

When I do miss, it's a screaming run from the get go, which leads me to believe they are channel cats with only a part of the bait in it's mouth.

When you see you rod do one of two things, hard thump/sharp tap, or a slow load up (you probably missed the tap). It's probably a flat and your probably going to hook it if you are using the right gear.

Just my opinion

[harvey lee]

What are you using for hooks, circle or Octopus? I used circles all of last year and started out with circles this season. I didnt do well on my hooking percentage at all, maybe 40%. This year I started out with circles and would not take the rod out of the rod holder until the fish had it doubled over for a minimum of a few minutes and my percentage went up to probably 60%.

Two weeks ago, I purchased some 10/0 Octopus Gamagatsu hooks and I have caught the last 5 fish that had made a run.

I'm pretty new to this flathead game and some nights it justs seems to not work.

Other things you may suggest is are you using a clicker, type hooks and how are you hooking your bait. Also, when you have a run, what are you doing right before you attempt to set the hook? many different sized fish may be hitting your bait and that might explain the different runs

I had a 40#er hit like a 3# fish last night so you never know whats pecking at your bait. All the other runs were hard last night.

If you could answer these questions, many on here will be able to give you some direction.

[rushing]

I know first hand how frustrating it can be missing fish but you just have to adjust until you find something that works for you. You can experiment with your hooking technique or trying different gear like different rods, different style hooks, or hooking your bait differently. But most of all is experience. Time on the water.

If you are still managing to hook some fish then you're not doing too bad.

[SgtCaesarfishinguy]

Quote:

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Other things you may suggest is are you using a clicker, type hooks and how are you hooking your bait. Also, when you have a run, what are you doing right before you attempt to set the hook? many different sized fish may be hitting your bait and that might explain the different runs

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I am using standard 7/0 and 8/0 Octopus hooks (non-circle), my brother is using 10/0 Gamakatsu Big River hooks. We are both using clickers (6500) and typically letting the fish run for around 20 seconds or so. I then switch the clicker off and lightly thumb the spool, then engage the reel. I then point the rod at the fish and once the line tightens up and the slack is gone, I set the hook. We are hooking the bullies a couple ways, hook through the top of the mouth and also tail hooking, still experimenting a bit with that part. Maybe our issue lies in the run and hook - set part of the game? Thanks!

[hanson]

My thoughts are with Dtro's thoughts on this. I think we might have had a big talk session in the boat a few weeks ago about hookup percentages and thats why we have the same thinking.

If you can identify that it is a flathead bite, and then feel the fish and not set the hook blindly, your % will go way up. My hookup percentage this year is good, I will say over 90%. I have had 1 swing and miss, and a couple others were my line, sinker, or something was hung up in wood and couldn't get a good hookset. I've now had 4 fish come unbottoned on the way back to the boat including one real nice nightmare on Saturday night.

The trick is-

1) Identify the bite

2) Feel the fish

3) Let the rod load before setting the hook. When the rod is loading up and pulsing/throbbing, you know the fish is there.

Sometimes you might just have to blindly set the hook if you can't discern a fish or not. Its better to take the chance.

I hook my baits about an 1" behind the dorsal fin, right in front of the adipose fin on a bullhead. Also when hooking your bait, realize that your hook has a bend (offset hook) in it and the point will either point down or up when you hook it through the bait. When I'm holding a bullhead in my hand, it head is in the palm of my hand and tail by my fingers. I then insert the hook from the left side to the right side. This will put the hook point slightly up. I gave up on lip hooking my bullheads, never had good results.

[Larry FlatCaster]

Quote:

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My thoughts are with Dtro's thoughts on this. I think we might have had a big

talk

session in the boat a few weeks ago about hookup percentages and thats why we have the same thinking.

If you can identify that it is a flathead bite, and then feel the fish and not set the hook blindly, your % will go way up. My hookup percentage this year is good, I will say over 90%. I have had 1 swing and miss, and a couple others were my line, sinker, or something was hung up in wood and couldn't get a good hookset.

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HA HA.

Refresh my memory Hanson. I'm looking at my notes from the stellar night out we had. We boated 6 fish and missed 5 runs. If I caught half of the fish. Did I miss all five of those runs?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? mmmmmmmmm I don't quite remember it that way... Maybe too many tonics for me that night... LOL

[hanson]

Did I swing and miss a couple that night? I can't remember.

I know we had a lot of action, a lot of short runs and drops, stuff like that, but I thought I connected on all the fish that I actually set the hook on. Maybe I did miss one... I do remember that is was a loooonnnngggg night.