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.