Hey folks, Glenn May here with BassResource.com. If you're fishing, and you're getting hung up, then you're bass fishing. Or to put it in another way, if you're not getting hung up, then you're not bass fishing. That's just the way it is. I've been fishing for over four decades now, and I get hung up pretty much every time I go out. That's just the nature of it, you got to throw your lure in some areas where you're going to get stuck. The thing is how you get the lure unstuck quickly, effectively and safely, so you can get back to fishing right away.
Let me walk you through three methods that I use. And note, first I'll tell you right away, I don't use plug knockers. Okay. Some people will use those a lot to get lures unstuck. These methods that I've been using, they're very, very fast and efficient. I've never had to use a plug knocker and I can get back to fishing faster than if I had used a plug knocker. All these get the lures free, I don't even have one in my boat. So let me show you how I do this.
First of all, the first thing I want to tell you, I've been fishing with a lot of different people, and I want to tell you one method not to do. And that is, I've seen people that get hooked, hung up, and the first thing they're doing is they're yanking on the rod and pulling back and they're trying to get the lure undone. It's just a mess, I just wrapped around my eyes by doing that. But, they're just yanking, and yanking and trying to pull it out. Don't do that. Please don't do that. Let me tell you why.
What you're doing is your loading up the rod. It's a spring, the rod is like that. And as soon as that lure comes uncorked, you know what's going to happen? That lure is going to come flying back at you at mach 80, and trust me, you're not going to have a chance to get out of the way. This is how a lot of people get hooked by lures. They get it in their forearm, because they have enough time to move their arm. Sometimes they get it in their leg, or in their face. You don't want to be that person. Oh you already are. Sorry, there's a few of you watching that have had that happen to you. Okay, well let's not do that anymore. Stop yanking on the rods to get your lure free. That's a real dangerous method. Let me tell you the three methods I use.
Okay, so the first tactic I want to talk about is called the "bow and arrow technique." And it's going to be a little bit counter-intuitive to what I just told you, because you're actually going to bend the rod to get the lure unstuck. But in this case, like I said, you have a spring in the rod. You're going to use that spring actually to help you pop the lure free, along with a little bit of pressure pulling backwards. So what you're going to do, is with the hand that's holding the rod - you see I'm stuck here in a rock, all right. So what you're going to do is with the hands holding the rod, pull back on - and we reel that a little bit more so we can see what's going on. Pull back on it, and then with your free hand, grab the line. Now this is for depths deeper than five feet. If you're shallower than five feet, or if the lure is up on shore, up on the dock or something, don't do this technique because again, it will come firing right back at you. Keep pulling back with the rod and you're going to let go of the line and snap it back while you're pulling back with the rod at steady pace, or steady pull. That rod tip's going to snap loose and it's going to basically send a snap right down the line and pop that lure loose out of the rock. Just like that, and there you go, it comes free. Just like that. It's really easy to do, and the lure's ready to go.
Now, just so you know, sometimes when you're doing this, it doesn't come free on the very first pop so you might have to pop it several times. So just hit it a couple of times and see if it'll come loose. If it doesn't, then you may have to re-position. If you're in a boat, move to a different angle. Or if you're on the shore, walk down the shore a little bit one side or the other, see if you can get another angle to pop it loose. If you have to do that a few times, always check your line and check your hook point just to make sure that you haven't dulled the hook or you haven't put any nicks in the line when you're doing that. But a quick pop like I just did, it's ready to go, we're back to fishing. Quick and easy way to get a lure unstuck.
All right, the second method that I employ. What I told you just now is what works from five feet and below, in deep water that's deeper than five feet. Now I want to talk about if the lure's stuck on water that's shallower than five feet or, say you got hooked on a log or maybe on a dock, something above shore, this is the method you want to use. This is really quick and easy too. What you'd going to do is simply . . . this is a good tactic to use if you want to get out on the boat, for example. If you're looking at the lure and say, "Okay, I got to get out to get this lure," do this instead if you can, if you can reach it from the boat. You're just going to reel down. Reel right down, snug to the bait, and then . . . So it's snug against the tip of your rod, and then just push backwards. You're just going to back the hook, back out the way that it came in. Most of the time, if not every time, that pops it free. That way you don't have to climb out the boat, you're not getting wet and it's really fast, you're done, you can get back to fishing right away.
The third method, and this is kind of the Hail Mary method, but it does work, believe it or not. More often than not, it does work. This works if the lure is really deep, or if it's again above water. There is a caveat though, and I'll get to that in just a second. What you're going to do on that one is you're going to point your rod right at the lure, directly at it, and reel up all the slack. Now you have a direct connection, a direct line, between your reel and your lure and the rod is taken out of the picture. It's not even in the equation. You don't want any flex at all in the rod, so it's just a straight shot, straight line. Then all you're going to do is pull straight back with the rod. Take your thumb, put it on the reel so it doesn't move or if you're using the spinning rod, grab a hold of the spool so it doesn't turn, real firmly and just straight back pointing all the time right at the lure. A lot of times, it will just pull it free, especially if it's in wood, it'll pop it free. If you're in rocks, sometimes it'll just get it out from being wedged. Sometimes it will bend the hook, so you got to be careful with that. Look at your hook once you're done, make sure it's not dull, make sure it's not bent.
But the one caveat I want to tell you is, say it's in a branch, like a tree branch or in a shrub. If you're pulling back and you see a branch, your arm start to bend towards you . . . remember what I told you about something being bent? Okay. It's a spring. If you're pulling back in a branch and you start to see a bend like that, don't do it because that lure will come flying back at you once the pop's loose. Even though you're straight at it, and you're pulling at it, it can fly back at you. So be aware, make sure nothing's causing another spring.
At any rate, that's a great method that works most of the time. However, keep in mind that strength of your line, you can break off. So if you're using light line, you can only pull so hard before the line will break. So be careful about that unless you want to lose it. I'd say this works about 65, 70% of the time. Sometimes I'm sure I'm going to break off, matter of fact I'm intentionally trying to break off, and then the lure pops free. So you'd be surprised how effective this method can be, but just understand, you can lose a lure every now and then.
So those are the three methods I use to get lures unstuck. Again, I don't have to buy a plug knocker. They're very effective. I get all my lures back except for the case where every now and then, I actually break off a lure but not too often. For more tips and tricks like this, visit BassResource.com.
