Powersnap hook setting

Ever try to push a nail into a board with a hammer? It's a lot easier to swing the hammer, and let momentum do the work for you. Same with setting the hook into the jaw of a fish.

Unless you're using one of those confounded circle hooks, what sets a hook the easiest is hook point speed. So called "sweep sets" are, to put it bluntly, dumb. A slow hook set motion is the equivalent of trying to push a nail into a board. Hook point speed — directly equatable to rod tip speed — needs to have some power backing it up, but brute force, without the speed to 'snap' the hook through cartilage, doesn't get the job done nearly as reliably.

Here's my simple, effective 'powersnap' method for setting the hook with jigs, plastic worms, soft stickbaits, and any presentation that the fish usually hit on a slack line or while the lure is either sitting or falling.

1. Immediately upon sensing a hit, I drop the rod tip and extend my arms toward the fish, 'throwing' slack into the line.
2. As soon as my arms are extended, with no pause to wait for the line to move or sense some other sign that it's really a fish, I begin turning the reel handle to recover the slack I just threw into the line.
3. Just before the line comes taut, I do the following, in one fluid motion:
   • Snap my wrists upward.
   • Pull my arms toward my chest

The rod tip speed comes from the wrist snap. You can move your wrists a lot faster than your arms (or in the case of old-time, brute force style hook setters, your back). The power comes from pulling your arms into your chest. When executed properly, you should end up with your forearms against your chest and the rod fully loaded, extended upward above your 'off' shoulder (right shoulder if the rod's in your left hand, left shoulder if the rod's in your right hand)

I use basically the same motion with a flipping stick and 40 pound test Fireline as I do with a light spinning rod and 6 pound test. With anything less than 14 pound test line, I keep the drag set to grudgingly give a hair if I set into an imovable object. With heavier line, I keep it tight.

It should be noted that my drag settings are predicated on my use of back-reeling or freelining to allow a fish to take line when it needs to. See my tip on fighting a fish by keeping control in your hands for details.

With a soft stick bait (EG, Slug-Go® or Fin-S Fish®) I work the lure with the rod tip held down and off to the side, so I'm actually 'raising' it to get into the intermediate position (arms extended, rod tip pointed toward fish) rather than dropping it, but everything else is precisely the same.

With some modification, I use the same motion for setting a spinnerbait hook. The difference here, is that I usually fish a spinnerbait with the rod almost in that intermediate position, and I'm most often actually reeling when the fish hits the bait. So 'throwing slack into the line' before swinging on the fish, doesn't really come into play. It's just an almost immediate 'powersnap' move, as described in step 2, above. With a buzzbait or other single hook topwater like a Salad Spoon^TM, I'm generally fishing with the rod tip up, and when I get a hit, I keep reeling as I let the fish pull the rod-tip down and extend my arms into the 'intermediate' position, then "powersnap" 'em.