Every Time This Happens, I Die a Thousand Deaths

Photo courtesy Charlie Bruggemann

I think we all can agree that watching a bass of any size do an acrobatic leap as demonstrated here is a beautiful sight indeed.

However, when this happens to me, as it did Saturday, I feel like my heart stops beating for those few endless seconds until the bass splashes back down, and I still can feel him on the end of my line. I'm pretty certain my partner, Rob, will attest to that statement, 'cause as I recall, I uttered something like, "Aw, my God, p-l-e-a-s-e stay buttoned," when I saw my three-and-a-half-pounder come out of the water, shaking his head, in that early-morning light.

Luckily, he stayed buttoned, and I ultimately won that battle, but not without some help, and I'll be the first to admit it. As I worked the bass closer to the boat, Rob realized I was losing more ground than I was gaining from my drag being set too light. When he asked, "Need a little help there, partner?" I quickly replied in the affirmative. And as soon as he took a turn on my star drag, the battle was over. I had wanted to reach up and turn the drag myself, but I figured I'd be toast if I did, so I just kept hanging on.

More times than I can count, though, I've lost similar battles, and I've often wondered why. Here's what I learned from some online research.

Water is much denser than air, so if a bass can shake its head back and forth underwater two times per second, it probably can double, if not triple, that same head-shaking ability above the water, making it that much harder to keep the fishing line tight and the hook buried in the jaw of the bass. Another factor is the weight of the bait--the heavier the bait, the easier a bass can use that added weight to its advantage and toss the heavier lure from its mouth when above the water.

One technique to keep the fish fastened is to hold the rod tip close to the water, even sometimes burying it in the water. Anytime you see your line coming up, that's the time you want to be burying your rod, which should slow down or prevent the bass from jumping. Your primary goal is to keep the line tight and control the fish.

Keeping the fish down and the line tight can work even better in your favor if there happens to be underwater weeds or submerged grass in the area you're fishing. Says one expert, "I have found that if I can get some underwater grass or weeds on the bass' face and blind it some, the bass seems to be tricked into believing it's safe and stops surging and shaking its head so much."

Of course, though, there are those times when you don't have a chance to ram your rod in the water. My Saturday event was an example of the fish going airborne immediately upon my setting the hook. And Charlie tells me the same thing was true of the fish in the photo accompanying this post. "I thought I had snapped his neck," he said. In those cases, about all you can do is hang on and pray.