Livebait hook placement

[Cooter]

You all prefer lip or back when fishing bottom in current? Lip seems more natural so the bait can face the current but maybe back hooking results in more struggling and attraction. Might also reduce the amount of time your bait stays alive. Then consider hookup %. Thoughts?

[DTro]

That’s a tough one.

Some of us have even struggled with it from one day to the next.

I like to hook all my live bait near the tail. I try to hook the smallest section of bait that I can to maximize the action and also minimize the force needed to set the hook.

The further back you hook it, the more the bait will struggle, but too far back and that Flatty might say the heck with it and find an easier target. Not only that, too much freedom means the bait can find good hiding places.

I’m kind anal about my hook placement on the bait. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve set the hook right into my bait. Especially when I had used circle hooks.

[hanso612]

I have always used a quick strike rig for cats. I snell a 5/0 kahle syle hook for the nose and trilene knot on a treble for the the tail. I like to put the treble just behind the dorsal.

My rig goes line, sinker, swivel, line, clevis and spinner, bead, kahle, tag line,treble.

The length of my leader section varies. Longer equals more snags and better chance bait can hide or evade cat. Shorter means less end over end on cast. Too short limits bait movement and shorter minnow life.

Northerns love the spinner in front of this rig and I have had many hit at the side of the boat when I'm reeling rigs in in the morning after a long night soak. Hans

[SteveD]

I read an interesting post on another HSOforum by a guy in North Carolina that catches some impressive flatheads. He uses about a 7/0 kahle hook and he primarily fishes sunfish for bait. He hooks all of his bait through the open mouth and out the roof of the mouth near the nose. He claims the bait stays very lively and he seldom misses a fish. He made a point of advising not to hook the fish too far back in the mouth - you want the hook to come out of the fish on his nose just in front of the eyes. Hooking too far back will kill the bait.

He got his first two flatheads of the year last week and one was a 56 lb hog. After seeing his success I'm going to try that nose hook up technique this year and see how it works out. With a bullhead you will want to go through the roof of the mouth and out one of the nostril holes. The roof of a bullheads mouth is almost impenetrable if you have tried it before - you almost have to hit the nostril for it to work.

[aanderud]

Last year was my first year fishing cats, so it isn't like i have lots of experience with various hooking styles. But here's what I did.

I hooked my bullheads last year through the bottom lip. Start on the inside and push the hook down through behind the jaw. Make sure you don't start too far back in the mouth, or else the hook might hook back up into the jaw while he's out there struggling on it. You want the tip of the hook (I use octopus hooks) to be in FRONT and below the bullhead's fact to avoid having him re-hook himself. That's it. I liked that the bait seemed to stay lively (though it probably stays just as lively with a back-hooked approach, if you're careful), and I liked that it faces upstream into the current. While this technique seemed to be pretty effective, maybe this year I'll hook the other way (top of mouth) just for something new.

[Shack]

aanderud's way is the way I do it most times. Steve ways is a way I would like to try. I also go threw the mid section/tail also.

I switch it up, depending on the thump, thump, pull/ miss. But I do feel if you get your bait down to them, if they want it, they will take it.

[Cooter]

Another factor to consider is that I use bluegills about 80% of the time for flatties.

[Tyler Holm]

I've tried many of the methods mentioned. One outing sticks out. Once in a while you get that bullhead that struggle like a champ. After a few casts the hook was getting loose in the back of the bullhead so I lip hooked it. It wasn't out 20 minutes and I got wacked and caught a little flattie.

[Slowhand]

1st post; good topic to break my forum bing. Personal preference, call it comfort factor, takes precedence unless fish tell you otherwise. There are times I have hooked bigger baits not liking the hook penetration/placement; throw out the bait and wonder whats happening "down there"....only to feel fuzzy after turning Mr. Minnow into cut bait or resetting hook.