Lost fish is a problem that many anglers suffer with, and the answer lies within your set-up. Unlike carp, roach and skimmers don’t pull back much, and the onus is on you to maintain the tension while bringing the fish to the net. This may sound simple, but it requires you to be organised and have everything in place to help you resolve this annoying problem.
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Position your rollers
Hesitation at some point while shipping the fish in leads to a lot of losses.
A split-second of allowing the rig to go slack is all it takes, especially when you are using barbless hooks. The best way to stop this happening is to have your pole rollers in the optimum position. You don’t want to be struggling to get your pole on the rollers as you ship back, or stop at any point, and it all needs to be nice and smooth.
Get your rollers set up and ship in and out a few times before you put a rig in to see how seamless it is. It might take a couple of adjustments, but it’s vital that you get this right or you’ll pay the price once you start fishing.
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Elastic essentials
If your elastic is too heavy, you’ll run the risk of bumping the fish on the strike. It’ll also cause problems as you ship in, as none or very little of it will have been pulled out of the tip to act as a cushion, which is exactly what the elastic’s job is. If I am targeting fish from 1oz-8oz in the main I’d be looking to use something like yellow Daiwa Hydrolastic if you want a hollow elastic, or a single four or five solid.
Both are very soft so that when you are shipping back, even if it is done slowly, there will be some elastic out of the end of the pole.
I will add here that when you drop down to a light elastic you must also make sure you strike a little bit harder to ensure the hook is set. If you just lift with light elastic, there’s every chance that you won’t set the hook, and the fish will fall off. Don’t worry about striking too hard, either. Because the elastic is so soft, it will cushion the impact.
Once you are on the bank and fishing, you will soon get a feel for what’s right and what’s wrong in terms of pressure on the strike.
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Time your strike
The two issues mentioned above are the main causes of the problem, but if you are already doing both, there are other things that could be looked at. One of them is striking too early. This is something that I suffered from in the past when switching between silverfish and catching F1's.
When you are fishing for F1's it is important to lift at everything, but with silvers, the same approach can lead to bumped fish and missed bites.
When targeting silvers, it’s important to slow everything down. When you get a bite, wait an extra second for it to develop, particularly when skimmer fishing. By waiting for the bite to develop, not only will you miss fewer bites, but you’ll lose fewer fish too.
If you struggle to read bites, then try leaving a little bit more bristle on show so you can see exactly what’s happening. Dotting the float down can be great at times but, more often than not, leaving plenty of the bristle on show when targeting silvers makes things a lot easier.
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Check the hook
The final thing that could be causing the problem is a blunt hook. If you’re catching large numbers of small fish, then a hook will eventually lose its point and will need changing. If you don’t, then both bumped and lost fish will start to become a real problem.
The easiest way to tell if the hookpoint has gone is when you hook the bait on. If it’s hard to hook, or the bait starts to burst, the chances are it’s well overdue for changing.
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