The Way Fish Hit A Lure....

[Seafever]

Mostly talking about salmon.

I believe they follow the lure for awhile of indeterminate length and then zip out in an arc and then hit the lure from the side or slightly to the front.....explaining why the hook on a hoochy will often be in the crook of the jaw.

But I notice on many fish that are caught on spoons, the spoon is right in the front center of the lower jaw.....as if they had come up behind it. I don't think they come up behind...but I'm no expert.

On a plug I'm not sure how they hit those. But the hook usually goes "upright" while the plug is towed (as witnessed by the hook back-and-forth "scrape" marks on the plug body). Which would make it harder for the salmon to get hooked because the hook is facing the wrong way......yet it works.

Your thoughts?

 

[bones]

Mostly talking about salmon.

I believe they follow the lure for awhile of indeterminate length and then zip out in an arc and then hit the lure from the side or slightly to the front.....explaining why the hook on a hoochy will often be in the crook of the jaw.

But I notice on many fish that are caught on spoons, the spoon is right in the front center of the lower jaw.....as if they had come up behind it. I don't think they come up behind...but I'm no expert.

On a plug I'm not sure how they hit those. But the hook usually goes "upright" while the plug is towed (as witnessed by the hook back-and-forth "scrape" marks on the plug body). Which would make it harder for the salmon to get hooked because the hook is facing the wrong way......yet it works.

Your thoughts?

From years of live bait mooching. Coho from behind. Chinook from below, we would always tell new fishers that if the line is floating reel reel reel and set the hook. Sometimes we would observe a big bump or the rod bounce once. The wait 30secs.... Fish on. The Chinook would tail wack the live herring and circle back for an easier meal. Lol..... Sometimes the hook was in the tail sometimes the upper sometimes the lower never the same spot consistently.

 

[Seafever]

Thanks for info.......I guess I should have clarified by saying I was talking about when trolling....

 

[bones]

lol....... i kinda figured that out from the words hoochies and spoons. i was just using another method of fishing as an example. it much easier to look/observe how salmon hit or strike when sitting still with nothing on the end of your line other than a herring. pretty hard to do that IMO when your constantly moving tethered to a downrigger. one could observe the hook placement you talk about is the opposite direction it turned when it found out he had plastic in his mouth...

 

[jim morrow]

My experience has been that spoons do a great job of finding the corner of their mouth, weather coho or springs. I have found hoochies in their front jaw just under their nose, so it seems to vary. Coho's seem hard to hook up to the bottom lip and land them. Some better results if hooked in the top lip or jaw corner.
The old Charlie White films seemed to show the fish following, and following, and then veer off and circle back towards the lure. You could tell, however that some footage, was Pinks.