I went out to Kaweah again today and fished the 4" Storm in blue gill. Got bit once real good on a slow troll in my tube. When I felt the tap, tap, tap I kept paddling for a while to make sure it was a fish, I stopped and let her eat on it a while and fed her some line. Then I slowly started reeling in to see if she was serious about keeping hold of the bait and when it got real tight, I felt confident she really wanted it, so I reared back on the stick and pulled the dang bait right out of her mouth x( I could tell she was a solid fish after battling those monsters last week as she felt a lot like them. Later I caught a 2 pounder no problem, he set the hook himself.
My question for you regular trophy hunters is- how do you set the hook when you know you have a real hawg on? What's the difference between having a single hook and a treble on your bait? Does the stick have a lot to do with it? The one I was using tonight has a fairly soft tip for cranks and a good backbone but its only 6'6". I'm really sold on swimbaits now and want a regular swimbait stick, I'm thinking of getting either an Okuma heavy, a Crucial heavy, or a Rogue. Sorry for the long post, I have trouble keeping it short.