Light hits on soft plastics

When a musky grabs a soft-plastic (Big Joe, Bulldawg, Super D, Dunright, Castaic, etc.), it often doesn't feel like a solid hit. It's easy to assume that when a really big musky hits a really big musky lure, the strike will be really solid. Wrong. If you're new to soft-plastics, it is very important to understand that a hit is often very light. The grab can feel like a light tap, sometimes a very light tap. At times, you may not even feel a tap at all, just a sensation that you lost contact with your bait, or your bait disappeared. If you feel a tap, DO NOT assume that it's a rock or a weed or just your imagination - SET THE HOOK. If you feel like your bait disappeared, don't believe for a split second that it just vanished, because it is most likely in the mouth of a musky that is swimming toward the boat - SET THE HOOK. I'd even say that [U]most[U] hits feel like a tap. The sensation is sensation is similar to a walleye bit while fishing a jig and minnow. Or, think about the tap you feel when a bass hits a Texas-rigged worm or drop-shot rig. If you feel that tap - SET THE HOOK. If you're wrong, and it was only a weed or a rock, you've done no harm. All you've done on a mistaken strike is make the bait jump up and forward, followed by a brief pause, during the retrieve. That doesn't hurt anything and sometimes can be good. If I have someone in the boat that false-sets over and over all day it doesn't bother me at all, in fact, it gives me confidence that they're focused and won't miss a grab.

If you feel something, anything, don't pause, don't hesitate, don't guess. SET THE HOOK. The first time you set the hook on, and catch, a musky after feeling a light tap, you'll wonder how many other strikes you ignored. I know I did. I'm sure I missed a lot of opportunities before I learned how light the strike can feel. I know I still miss one every now and then.

Why the long-rambling post about soft-plastic strikes? Yesterday a guest held back on a "tap" that I'm pretty sure was a musky, based on how deep we were fishing and the way he was working the bait. Though a very experienced musky angler, he hadn't fished soft plastics before and didn't know about the light strikes. Missing that fish was totally my fault and I felt bad.

+1 on that. Had a few phantom teeth marks in brand new dawgs too where you'd swear you never ever felt a thing. Seem the mille lacs fish just nip the tail too, over and over and over on the way in, like they know it's a fake and just want too see if the colors taste any different than the last one they saw.

Here's a question, Paul - how big of a factor is being able to feel the bump and getting a good hookset in the way you work your dawg or teach your clients how to work them?

For me, that is key. I see a lot of people work the plastic really fast, really hard twitches which leaves them out of position at times to react quickly and set the hook. I like a slow 9:30 to 11 oclock lift and drop, semi tight line. I figure I probably don't trigger some fish like I would with a more aggressive retrieve, but I feel that bump and don't miss fish. What are your thoughts?

I agree totally. This is very important. The companies that sell soft plasic muskie lures should explain this on their packaging for people that are new to plastics. People would have success more quickly with those baits and keep throwing them and buy more. When I catch a fish on a new lure it keeps getting used. If I throw a new lure for a long time and don't catch anything, it sits in the box and doesn't get used, or it ends up in a box in the garage.

The first time I caught one on a light hit I felt sick when I thought about how many I'd missed.

Here's a reply to Marc's question about how I work Bulldawgs.

There probably isn't one "right" way to work a Dawg, but I'll describe mine.

First, I'll cover the erratic retrieve Marc mentioned, which I rarely use. As Marc rightly pointed out, working the Dawg real erratic with lots of jerks, pops, and rips makes it harder to feel the light tap that is so often the only signal that a fish has taken the bait. I consider that retreive for shallower situations, where you're taking up line fast enough to stay tighter to the bait, due to the faster retrieve speed. Also, that retrieve is more effective for Wisconsin strain vs. Leech Lake strain. I don't have a huge amount of experience with WI strain, but they seem to like real erratic presentations, while a more straight-line retrieve works well for the Leech Lake strain. Steve Genson wrote an article for MH awhile ago comparing and contrasting the two strains and I agreed with everything he said.

I like a fairly straight-line retrieve with periodic "jumps" added to the presentation. I keep pointed slightly below waist height and slightly to the side. To give the lure a little action I sweep my rod down and off to the side, kind of at a downward 45 deg. angle. The rod is then returned to the starting position while reeling up the slack, staying tight to the bait as much as possible, yet letting it drop during the pause. I vary both the frequency and the energy of the downward sweep but don't get into a super-erratic Wisconsin-style retrieve. I guess I'm doing something to what Marc described but do it with a low rod position. I don't like a high rod for two reasons. First, it puts you in a terrible hook-setting postion, and Bulldawgs aren't great hooking baits to begin with. Secondly, it's often pretty windy on the great big Lake Mille Lacs and I think sensitivity is lost with all that line up off the water, high in the air. The low rod keep the most of the line on the water and less blowing around. The low rod position is a better starting point for a hook-set. I set to the side using my body, not my arms, and keep the rod low and to the side during the fight. A hookset powered by your hips and torso is waaaaaaaaaay stronger than an arm hookset. The low rod position helps keep the fish from jumping. While a musky leaping and shaking high in the air might look cool, it's not good for landing the highest percentage of hooked fish.

That was a great question Marc.

One more thing I forgot to add.

I use the same retrieve with the Big Joe and Mo Joe. The Mo Joe has put more in the boat this year than Bulldawgs, though that will probably change during the fall and late-fall periods. I also use the same retrieve for Suzy Suckers, Curly Sues, and the Shimmy Shads. Also the same retrieve for all the soft plastics from Dunright. Also the new plastic swim baits from Castaic. They all look and feel differently running through the water and each has it's time and place, depending on what you're doing - fast, slow, shallow, deep, more erratic, less erratic, etc. But, the motion I described in the previous post is the same or nearly the same for all these lures.