Missing Too Many Fish on the Jackall Mikey Jr. - Solutions??

[smalljaws]

I've been fishing the Jackall Mikey Jr. wakebait attempting to catch some "smaller" quality bass. Especially smallmouths.

It is a super wakebait that calls up the fish but I am convinced the 90' downward bill interferes with the front hook. I've lost way way too many fish and most that I land have only one of the trebles in the fish's mouth. I think when the fish (especially smallmouth) target the head and clamp down ... the downward pointing plastic lip stops them from closing their mouth on the hook. Has anyone esle had this problem.


In defense of the lure - I've been fishing it with braid whereas in the "old days" I always used 17 pound plus mono for my big topwaters like Spooks. I am wondering if the braid is too sensitive and I am setting the hook too soon or the fish are feeling me too soon. Should I go back to mono for the stretch.'


Appreciate any advice!!!!!!!!

[smalljaws]

I should have said in the post above that the fish only have one tine of the front treble in the mouth. And the lure often falls out of the fish when you net it - so they're not getting good hold of it.

it is amazing how frequently it is the front (head) hook that is in the fish and how rare i hook them on the rear hook.

Again, appreciat any and all advice.

Thanks

[Rob Cummings]

Some days it's just how the fish are hitting the bait. Instinct on how and when to set the hook will set in after a while and you'll get 'em. Sometimes they will eat it well enough you don't even have to set the hook, other times they blow up big time but don't even touch it. I've seen some that come up on it on a deadstick or when it's stuck in a tree and hit it with their mouth shut just to see what the hell it is. When the BBZ first came out and DFG dumped all the trout at Castaic last year, we had over 20 swimbait bites that day. It doesn't mean there was something wrong with the bait and we could have thrown anything that resembled an 8 inch fish and still got bit, what was happening was the fish were smashing the bait trying to hurt it or kill it, not actually eat it. They're darn near impossible to catch when that's goin on and I'm not a fan of hooking them outside the mouth.

Another thing may be that with the braid, the rod you're throwing it on is too stiff and pulling the hooks out. Try it on some 20 lb Izorline Platinum, it will hold up and just check the line and retie often.


*I don't claim to know anything useful, just talkin about what I've observed*

[buddy brown]

I fish the Jackall Mikey (the bigger one) quite a bit. Great action, great night bait over weeds. The mikey jr. is a small bait, I have not used one but I have seen em around. I wouldn't be throwing it on heavy swimbait gear or that heavy of line. 12-14 lb is ok with a 7 ft crankstick med-hvy action or a little beefier action. The Big mikey has three hooks and the jr. only has two, with the "s" type of action that both have the fish are not going to find all the hooks every time, in fact I hook alot of fish on the back treble only about 30% of the time on the big one. Try scaling down your gear a little bit w/ lighter line and a slower action rod and I bet your hook up ratio goes up and you get better action. The jr. only weighs about 3/8's of an ounce. I know there are a couple guys sponsored by Jackall Bros on this board that might have some better insight.

[Brian D.]

AFBass and Buddy Brown made some excellent points. And that goes to show that sometimes it's the nature of the critter. Smallies in this case, have smaller mouths and tend to hit n' run surface baits (spooks, wake and buzz baits). They'll often hit the bait several times before getting hooked up -- even with 2 or 3 super sharp hooks, sometimes they don't.

A few more tips...

Wait till you feel the rod load up before swinging
Speed up the bait after a blow up
Replace the rear hook with a red hook or a feather (or both)