The senko bite has really heated up in the past few days. This is the first year I have really thrown them much. However, I am finding about half of my fish are being gut hooked. Last night, 3 of the 6 fish I caught on the 6 inch senko were gut hooked, and I am fairly sure that 2 of them didn't make it. One was a largemouth that was almost 2 pounds, which really pains me, seeing as our lakes are 25% largemouth (75% spotted), and the fish in this lake are generally on the very small size.
My setup is a 6 inch Yamamoto Senko on a 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook. When they get gut hooked, I have to really fight to get it out, and have to cut the line, and use pliers through the gills. They are leaving blood all over the boat deck, so I assume I am doing something wrong. Sometimes, they get gut hooked when I have a slack line, and never felt the bite, or when I am giving them just enough to grab is (so I think), or anywhere in between. I have tried rigging it both Texas rigged (hook imbedded completely) or Texpose (hook goes all the way through, and just the very tip is imbedded.
Is there anything I can do to decrease the number of gut hooked fish?
My setup is a 6 inch Yamamoto Senko on a 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook. When they get gut hooked, I have to really fight to get it out, and have to cut the line, and use pliers through the gills. They are leaving blood all over the boat deck, so I assume I am doing something wrong. Sometimes, they get gut hooked when I have a slack line, and never felt the bite, or when I am giving them just enough to grab is (so I think), or anywhere in between. I have tried rigging it both Texas rigged (hook imbedded completely) or Texpose (hook goes all the way through, and just the very tip is imbedded.
Is there anything I can do to decrease the number of gut hooked fish?