Drive it home correctly and you’ll be heading to the barn with a box full.
Personally, I think setting the hook on a substantial fluke is one of the coolest moments in fishing for an inshore angler in the Northeast. The upward thrust of the rod is met with the feeling of significant weight, aided by the fluke’s efficient use of water pressure, in order to hug the bottom.
After the first few cranks of the reel, the headshakes begin and the angler becomes acutely aware of the fluke’s size. Shorts and keepers are talked about in inches, but hefty to huge fluke are spoken of in pounds. After a fish weighs 4 or 5 pounds, I honestly don’t think much about where it taped out at.
That fluke hookset, and the seconds that follow, just might be my favorite thing in all of fishing. The hookset itself, performed properly, is an efficient learned maneuver, not to be dismissed as an ordinary act. After all these years, there are still different viewpoints and rationale for each method an angler uses to drive the hook home.
The Drop Back
When fishing live bait such as minnows, mullet, baby bunker or spot, anglers are advised to include a brief pause before lifting the rod skyward with a hard snap of the wrist, forearm and elbow. Smaller offerings allow fishermen to swing earlier, but big fluke will “climb up” a larger live bait until they’ve completely engulfed it. They may hang on and swim with the bait in their mouth for many drift yards before making their move to fully consume. Anglers can gently lift the rod to detect weight that is different than seaweed or a crab.
Although our clawed friends and grass can feel like a fluke, they are easily lifted with the slightest raise of the rod. In contrast, the feeling of weight sucking tight to the bottom without budging indicates a fish has latched onto the bait. Anglers continually improve at their detection skills as they gain experience. The larger and more cumbersome the bait, the longer anglers may want to give a couple extra seconds for the fish to swallow their food.
Medium-sized mullet or live spot are sometimes mouthed versus inhaled necessitating the hesitation. I’ve used white perch and they require some inhalation time also. Other instances, fluke crush the presentation and it’s in their gut within a millisecond. It depends on how they are feeding that day because fluke certainly have the ability to feed on fish and organisms much larger than most people realize. I’ve checked their bellies and found whole weakfish, tautog and sea bass to name just a few.
What’s more, there are times on a slack tide and with oversized bait, that fishermen will actually drop the bait completely back in free spool mode, allowing the line to run through their fingers while giving the fish time to consume the bait. This is usually done when specifically pursuing doormats. When the current is ripping, some anglers will even bump the boat in reverse in order to avoid paying out too much line. Those with trolling motors and remotes in hand can quickly halt the drift giving the fish ample time to eat their bait.
When the eager fisherman slowly retrieves the slack and tests to see if the fish is still there, it’s time to set up on the fish. This drop-back strategy is a viable option in the muddy, sandy bays that exist on the East Coast. It’s not the standard, but plenty of fishermen use the technique, even if in a limited fashion. More commonly on the uniform bottom of the backwaters, anglers will hit the fish with a hookset far quicker whether it be a live bait or a Gulp option.
The decision is up to the individual fisherman – do they strike fast or allow the fish to eat? I’ve done it each and every way with tons of success, and of course, misses. I’d love to know the size of the some of the fluke I lost over the years. After setting the hook, feeling its weight and gaining full awareness of the fluke’s size, a lost monster always leaves me weak in the knees. These moments losing fish of doormat proportions always seem to occur in the same timeframe where I’d caught doormats over 10 pounds in same area and 72-hour stretch.
Be that as it may, a fisherman’s innate sense and experience will guide them through the hookset when using large, live baits. I’ve fished for flatfish from Florida to New England and I can tell you, there’s no ‘perfect’ way to do this, the right call comes with angler experience.
Devouring Dead Bait
Fishing with dead bait such as fluke or fish belly ribbons (where legal), whole squid, spearing or smelt also requires understanding the current and what environment in which the bait is presented. The longer bait requires the fluke to climb to either aggressively inhale the bait or methodically chew its way up to the front of the offering. When using long baits such as a whole squid, a stinger hook is a fantastic way to mitigate the potential for lost fish and allow the angler to set the hook more quickly thanks to the addition of a second hook at the back of the bait.
For example, a strip of meat properly drifted over a crusty wreck is more likely to provoke a fluke to dart out, inhale and try to return to cover. Wreck fish devour their presentation a lot faster than they do when hunkered down in the featureless sands of the bays, rivers and sounds. The fish on heavy wreckage perhaps recognize their opportunity is short-lived as opposed to the skinny water fish that follows the bait for long time, sometimes literally grasping and letting go several times before committing.
It’s also important that anglers are aware that wreck fishing for summer flounder lends itself to lost gear thus long hesitations can cause heartache if the fish scissors off on a high relief portion of a piece. I generally set the hook much quicker when fluking on a piece that is known for break-offs. In fact, I’ll set the hook within a second or two of getting the strike. In the event the structure is mild in hangs, I might give the fish a few more seconds. But I never drop back line to a fish when wreck or debris fishing. That’s only an option on friendly sand and mud bottoms with sparse structure.
Fishing synthetic and artificial baits are the current norm both inshore and offshore, but the hookset usually comes in similar fashion. Unlike natural baits, most anglers will set the hook much faster when using Gulp. Many experts like to hesitate for a brief second or two, then swiftly set; some will extend their arms outward over the water, dip the rod tip toward the sea, and then they violently lurch the rod to the clouds. When fish let go, the anglers should immediately start jigging again in the same way they received the bite in order to entice another take. This often works and fish will bite over and over again unless the tail is bitten off the Gulp.
Many fishermen think that a fluke of the grab-and-let-go variety is going to measure on the small side; however, there are times it’s quite the opposite and a very nice specimen comes to the boat after one of these cat-and-mouse events.
Proper Mechanics
Hooksets should be no-doubt-about-it swings in order for the hook to catch the inside of the fluke’s mouth, or at least some flesh around the mouth area. Once the rod is swung high (I prefer a three-quarters angle upward), the angler must reel and keep constant tension as they move toward fighting the fish at the appropriate angle. I like to fight the fish with the rod pointing almost straight out from my belt buckle and I avoid pumping and winding. There’s greater success when anglers reel steadily at moderate speeds in contrast to horsing the fish.
It’s essential that when the hook is set, the angler snaps both their wrists and elbows from a level position to one flexed upward. After the set, the wrists and elbows will move back toward their original, level position while the fisherman makes one hundred percent certain that there is no slack and works to maintain a tight line. Needless to say, any slack should be accounted for by reeling it fast enough that the line stays tight.
I want to reiterate that snapping the rod is essential for a quality set versus simply lifting the rod with the hands, arms and shoulders. I’ve observed hooksets done without a hard snapping motion included as the primary agent and the results have been abysmal. Moreover, setting the hook from a seated position is extremely difficult to do properly so it’s best to stand when seriously fishing. No kidding, I go to the orthopedic doctor every year for a cortisone shot to the elbow the day before the summer flounder opener to ensure I can perform my hooksetting duties properly.
Fishermen from the famed offshore grounds of New England are much faster with their hooksets, particularly on the ocean side as opposed to the sounds. Setting back line is not something that is very common in the region to my knowledge. Perhaps the colder waters that range from mid-50s to 60s are conducive to more vigorous bites by the larger keepers and doormats. Anyone who has ever ventured east of Montauk or towards the Nantucket Shoals area knows what I mean.
New Jersey is my home state and there are tons of short fish amongst the keepers and occasional mats that come up. There are so many short-strikes when masses of throwbacks converge on the grounds that fishermen have to sometimes work extra hard to jig the fish into committing. Setting back big live bait is a known method here; albeit, it’s surgically used when large fish are targeted.
| ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES |
| Have you ever taken a friend fluke fishing for the very first time, only to set up on your own personal best fish? And did you really expect that buddy of yours to know exactly how to tend the net without ever being instructed how? Rather than arguing about it later, explain the process to new anglers on the way out. The anglers themselves have as much responsibility in the landing process by sliding their fish into the hoop; the net-minder should not be left poking and prodding at the fluke on the surface, but should simply help calmly allow that fluke to slide into its final resting place. Don’t lose doormats and friends at the same time Ahab, a little simple pregame instruction should suffice. |
In addition to drift fishing, many anglers that fish summer flounder south of the Mason Dixon line will do so from an anchored vessel. They cast Carolina rigs that allow fluke to take line through an egg sinker without being detected. This is the equivalent to setting back the bait and the same premise of letting the fluke eat without knowing he’s about to be struck by an angler’s hook. As a UNC-Wilmington graduate who used their johnboat and tiller engine to the max once upon a time, I can tell you this strategy is an outstanding one to pursue fish in a small area.
This non-drift method is also used in northern waters, but in small regional pockets. The backwaters of Shark River in New Jersey come to mind as a place where anglers like to cast-and-let-fish-eat. After the line is made taut, the hookset should always be a jolting one regardless of where an angler is casting.
Whether you use one style of hookset or all of them at different times and places, success and fails are part of the game so it’s all about doing what suits your fishing preference and then getting good at the method.
