Thread: Missing a lot of bites

I fished today and paid closer attention to how many strikes I missed. I figure I only caught at best 1 in 3 strikes. I never broke off and did sharpen my hooks several times during the day. I caught a total of 75 fish and of that I kept 24 crappie that were 13" or better and gave 17 that were between 10" and 13" to the people that were fishing near me and returned the rest back to be caught again another day. It is my opinion that sharpening hooks improve hook set numbers greatly. Here is what I cleaned.



Here is what I use to sharpen with.

It is a diamond hone and takes me nearly 6 seconds to sharpen a hook. The same sharpener works well on a chainsaw also.

So based on crappie wrangler's outing of 33% bites vs fish in the boat... my original post of missing 50% of the bites I was getting is normal??

Originally Posted by NightShift

So based on crappie wrangler's outing of 33% bites vs fish in the boat... my original post of missing 50% of the bites I was getting is normal??

no, sounds like both of you need to work on improving your skills if you are missing that many actual bites. just saying...

It is different at different times of the year. In the summer when they are feeding heavily catch to strike ratio is much higher. This time of the year when they are on beds they are trying to chase away something they think want to eat their eggs. They are not necessarily feeding but are protecting. Which translates to more missed strives. That is of course just my opinion and it is worth all that you paid for it. I occasionly have one hit my float I assume because they consider it to close to their bed.

If you caught every strike you could only fish 20 minutes a day

They are short striking.... move your boat to the other side of them and try throwing your jigs from that direction. The jigs will be moving towards them and in a different direction and they will swallow it to their tater holes! Haha - no, I'm just kidding. I read these posts from work everyday and just wish I was out there missing fish!

Originally Posted by NightShift

So based on crappie wrangler's outing of 33% bites vs fish in the boat... my original post of missing 50% of the bites I was getting is normal??

As others have said, I think the vast majority of your missed bites are small fish you'd never hook in a million years.