How to avoid losing your fish

Fishing is one of the most popular pastimes in the world, whether for work or play. Landing a big catch can create lasting memories. If you like to fish, you know how exciting it is to have a catch on your line. However, you also know how easy and disappointing it can be to lose your catch. Here are some practical ways to avoid losing your fish.

Tie your hook

Some fishing lines can break, or hooks can come off the line. Learning how to get the most out of your hook will help keep your fish on the line.

Sharpen your hooks often.

Although most hooks come ready to use, they can become dull with normal wear and tear. Hooks can lose their sharpness if you use the same one regularly.

You may need to keep a few extra or have a hook sharpener on hand to keep them in shape.

 Set your hooks properly

Your fish will catch when its mouth stays on the hook. Get and set the best hooks possible to increase your catch rates.

Most hooks will warp over time. Buy high-quality hooks that can handle the pressure.

A strong hook will help keep the fish on the line long enough to reel it. Set the hook by reeling in the slack when you feel the fish’s pull.

Use a quick, firm lift of the rod tip. All it takes is a flick of the wrist and elbow. Never raise the rod above your head.

Hooks at the right time

Setting the hook too early or too late will affect your catch. If you set the hook too early, the bait may dislodge from the fish’s mouth. Similarly, if you set the hook too hard, it may tear and release the fish. If it’s set too lightly, it may not attach well to the fish’s mouth, and the fish may fall off.

Try different fishing lines.

Many traditional fishing lines don’t always hold up well, especially when fishing for larger fish. Some ordinary lines can break under the weight of larger fish. It’s a good idea to try some better quality reinforced lines that can help you minimize the loss of your fish.

Try changing rods

It’s discouraging to see your dream catch on the line, only to have the rod break and release. Choose fishing rods that can give you more flexibility to ease the tension when you release the pressure.

Adjust your drag settings

Pulling hard on the drag can cause the fish to fall while still in the water. By adjusting your drag settings, you can release the drag when you need it most.

Avoid spinning the reel handle while pulling the fish. Constantly adjust your drag before you catch a fish. Hold the rod tip up, almost vertical, but never over your head.

 

Practice tying knots

Tying knots is a valuable skill that also helps keep your fish safe. If you tie your knots too quickly, you can end up losing your fish. Whenever you have the opportunity, practice tying the most popular knots from line to hook to avoid disappointment.

Know your rigs

When fishing, it’s best to have a variety of tackle selections on hand. Choose smaller hooks for smaller fish and heavier rigs for larger fish. A reliable rig will translate into a strong hook.

Position the rod properly

Try to hold the rod at about a 5-degree angle in line with the water. Point the rod directly at the fish and watch for drag activity as you hook the fish.

Wait until the fish stops fighting and pulling on the line before you start reeling. Reel in the slack only if the fish stop running. Adjust your reel to the size of the fish.

Larger fish tend to weigh the rod considerably as they latch onto the line. While you’re lifting the rod, avoid reeling in the fish. When you begin to reel in the fish, lower the rod closer to 45 degrees while maintaining constant tension on the fish.

Pumping the fish

Pumping the reel is most effective for pulling in larger fish. Pump the fish as long as it doesn’t pull on the line.

Leave some slack in the line by lowering the rod tip. Take up the slack by reeling it in quickly. Keep pumping until you can land the fish at close range.

How to land your fish safely?

When trying to land a fish, avoid chasing it. The fish will likely try to escape. Let the fish struggle until it gets tired. Then lure the fish as close to your feet as possible.

If you’re using a net, carefully cast the net into the water, but away from your catch. Guide the rod and pull the fish head first over the net. Lift the net and pull it quickly out of the water.

If you’re new to fishing, you’ll be excited to hook your first fish. The idea is to stay calm and alert, so you don’t lose your fish at this point.

 

 

Avoid losing fishing lures: Top tips from anglers!

 

 

Losing fishing lures is both frustrating and expensive. Unfortunately, few of us pay attention to how we can limit the number of lures lost in our rush to get on the water and start casting. In this article, we’ve highlighted some of the steps you can take to help keep your fishing gear expensive.

You can reduce the frequency of lost fishing lures before and during fishing. Fishing lures are expensive. By being aware of your environment, using proper rigging, gaining local knowledge, speeding up line retrieval, and using lure retrievers, you can limit the number of lost fishing lures.

We’ll look at steps you can take before your first cast while lure fishing and what to do if you encounter a problem. None of these steps are foolproof, but they will help reduce the number of lost lures. We end with some tips on safely breaking fishing lines for different test weights. Most of us do it wrong, so it’s worth checking out.

 

Before casting: How to stop losing fishing lures

Many problems can be solved before you even make your first cast. How you tie your hooks, how you retrieve, and what you know about where you’re fishing will help you keep your lure in your possession rather than on the bottom of the lake or sea.

Cast accurately: Although ninety-nine times out of a hundred, you might get hooked underwater, I feel like we’ve all found ourselves at one time or another looking up at a tree, a bush, or worse yet, a friend’s clothes with our lure hooked after an overly enthusiastic cast.

Look above the water and below: In new fishing areas, take the time to look around for potential hazards above you and those you should sense underwater. Keep a special eye out for power lines for obvious reasons. If you’re in an area where foliage can cause snags, try casting to the side rather than over your head. You’ll lose some distance, but you won’t lose as many lures.

Look for local knowledge: When it comes to underwater snags, it’s less of a problem if you know the water. If you don’t and there are other people fishing when you arrive, a five-minute conversation with them or the game warden could save you time and frustration.

Fishfinders can find more than just fish: If you’re on a boat, a few laps around with a decent fish finder (we’ve tested some on this site as well) can be well worth it. To find the fish, give you information about the underwater obstacles you want to fish near, but not over!

Attack the hungry spots: Watch out for piers and well-fished spots. If you’re fishing on docks or piers, you can bet your life that you’re not the first person to throw a fishing rod into the water. These places can be very gear-intensive fishing spots. All the fishers who have gone before you have lost their gear at one time or another.

This means that underneath these waves, there will undoubtedly be plenty of fish but even more, broken tackle and lines for you to get caught in. My local fishing spot is terrible for this. It has become virtually impassable for anything but surface fishing now.

 

How to stop losing lures: Fishing tackle, rigs, and equipment

Braided line

The braided fishing line is thinner and more resistant in width. It also has a very little stretch. This allows you to feel what’s going on with your lure or bottom rig and, in theory, gives you more control to bounce it before it sets up.

Feeling how you react with the bottom allows you to control the speed of your line retrieve and keep moving. They are also easy to see (for you and the fish, unfortunately), but for you at least, if you know there are snags near you, you can see that your line is getting close and start keeping the lure high in the water.

If you’re fishing with braid, we recommend a fluorocarbon leader for most fishing, and there’s an article on fishing lines and test weights for a selection of species here.

You’ll find the link below if you want to know what braid we use and recommend. It is XXXXXX and a solid brand at a medium price.

Use a Texas rig

The Texan rig (see link for where the name comes from) is a rig used primarily for bass fishing, but it’s perfectly transferable to other types of soft lure fishing wherever you go. It’s a bullet-shaped weight and an optional bead with a worm-shaped hook.

When the hook is set in the worm, we move the worm (soft lure) up the hook and then reintroduce the body of the soft lure so that the tip is on its side.

This means the hook tip is inside the lure and is less likely (but not completely) to snag on heavy grass, rocks, or other underwater obstructions.

It’s not foolproof and only works with soft lures, but fishing in a particularly weedy or rocky area can save you from losing some lures.

Invest in a solid fishing rod.

Solid fishing rods give the angler the power to work their way through weeds and kelp when necessary. Unfortunately, it’s not the cheapest option, but a good rod that lasts and doesn’t break will outlast the three or four more affordable options that might.

We tend to use other options, and not ten of us look for the rough rocky bottom to fish.

Invest in a fast-recovery reel.

A reel with a high ratio gives you more options with rough fishing areas. You can get your tackle, lure off the bottom faster, and keep it off the snags more easily. If you know, you’ll be fishing regularly. It might be worth investing in something like the Penn Battle II. It will give you more than 34 inches of line per spin and make managing your lures much easier.

How to stop losing fishing lures during your cast

So you’ve got your reel, you’ve got your lure, you’ve checked the bottom, there are no trees around, and you’ve just cast into the water. You can keep a few tips and techniques in mind while fishing to minimize snags. It won’t eliminate them, but it should at least reduce the frequency with which you find yourself losing lures.

• Feel the bottom, don’t automatically pull your rod up if you feel resistance. Feel if it’s a bite or if you’re on rough ground.
• When the lure or rig hits the water, strike and retrieve so you can catch the slack before your lure hits bottom. That way, you can feel what’s happening immediately.
• Keep good speed while retrieving to keep the lure off the bottom. (Unless, of course, you’re fishing there.) ) In that case, more speed will make it easier to bounce the lure off the rocks.
• Keep your rod tip at about 10 o’clock, especially for weeds and rocks. This gives the lure an angle and makes it easier to reel in and out of your line.

Tips to stop loosing your lures.

We’ve all felt that sinking feeling when pulling your line in by hand, trying to add pressure to it, hoping that whatever your tackle is hooked on will give way first. This is the step right before you shake the tap back and forth in case it works on the fifth attempt.

Then pop, everything goes slack, and you start reeling in, feeling a noticeable lack of weight on end and knowing you’re going to spend the next 10 minutes reeling in a lost lure. Losing terminal tackle is bad. Losing fishing lures is worse.

We’ve all been hooked, and we’ve all been in the situation of losing fishing lures. So here are some tips on how to get out of a snag when it finally happens.

Some of these will only work if you get close to your hooked lure. (We’ll mention this when necessary)

Use the tip of your rod to free your lure.

This is probably a boat retrieve. You don’t need any other equipment to try it, just your rod. (and shallower water) It would help if you tried to use the tip of your rod to guide the line down and push the lure off the snag. You’ll need to tighten the line a bit. If your rod tip is very sensitive, we do not recommend this.

Getting lures out of snags: Lure retrievers

If you have a large collection of lures that are expensive to assemble, a lure catcher might be a useful addition to your tackle box or backpack. Losing lures cost money, and if spending a few bucks on one allows you to recover a few, they’ll pay for themselves quickly.

They come in many sizes and models, but there are two styles: one that moves along your line to get to know the lures and one that comes with a pole if you can get close to your lure and hit it!

Both examples are shown above and below on Amazon. We suggest you read the reviews to ensure they work for your fishing situation. One thing we recommend is that you read the instructions. If you don’t, you risk losing both the lure and the retriever!

 

The Robin Hood method of recovering a lost lure

We named it ourselves, even though it wasn’t our idea. The credit goes shopping Karls. Robin Hood, I don’t hear you ask? Well, for two reasons: if your lure is hanging in the lake, on a rock, on a tree branch, it’s very unlikely that it’s the only one caught there. In terms of lures, I can be sure that he has many more lures than you do. So getting it back means you rob the rich (the lake) to give to the poor (you).

I know it’s pretty tenuous, but the second reason makes more sense. It would help if you tried to use the tension in the line to pull back and dislodge the lure from the snag like a bow and arrow. It isn’t easy, but anything is worth trying at this point.

• Release the arm from the handle of your reel.
• Align your rod tip horizontally over the snag.
• Pull about a yard of the line from the top of your rod to the reel.
• Release the tension line and let it run to the snag.
• If you’re lucky, the movement of energy will push the lure back enough to release it.
• Try it several times.

How to break a hooked line safely?

So you’ve done everything right, but you still find your fishing rod bent in half for all the wrong reasons. After trying to retrieve it using the methods above, you’ve resigned yourself to losing a lure.

You can do several things to protect your rod, reel, and especially yourself when trying to break the line.

Protect your rod and reel by breaking a fishing line.

The construction of rods and reels has come a long way since we first set foot on a boat or riverbank, but they’re not entirely indestructible. Snags, unfortunately, rather than monster fish, are the main reason they break while fishing. The main reason is high sticking (moving your rod over 90 degrees from the vertical.) and then trying to jerk the line.

It would help if you let your reel do most of the work for you, but even then, you can also take steps to protect it. If you lose a lure, you don’t want to lose a reel, too. While you can hold the line against the rod and line it up with the blood and pull, this is only really effective if it’s a relatively low test weight line. For higher test weights, see the guide below.

 

Protecting yourself during a line break.

Here are a few tips on avoiding hurting yourself by breaking a hooked line.

• Keep a cool head. Sometimes during the break, the lure will suddenly dislodge and come out of the water at a speed that can be fast enough to break the gravitational pull of the land. You don’t want to be in the way of this exit. Get ready to duck and keep the direction away from you in general and your face in particular!
• The fishing line under tension gets very sharp. The braid is narrower and can cut your hands if you try to pull the line by hand. Don’t do this. Use the method described below to break a line if it snags.
• Beware of the release. If you use a heavyweight line, it can break suddenly and send you forward or backward. At best, it’s pretty funny. At worst, it’s dangerous.

 

Conclusion

Fishing can be rewarding, whether it’s for fun or profit. Keeping your fish on the line takes patience, skill, and the right fishing equipment. Knowing when to reel in, how much tension to maintain, and how to hook safely will help you avoid losing your fish.

Make sure your knots are secure, your bait is placed correctly, and practice proper reel techniques to land your fish safely.