13th night, 14th am PLEASE HELP

[earlyretirement]

13th just at dark around 9pm i lost a upper 30 inch fish on a pacemaker at boatside just before i entered my oval/8, that fish i tried to quickly loosen the drag on, once the drag was loose the fish took out some line, i go to reel and goodbye fish.
14th am slept in, hey not going to breakfeast until 9am, wife says go ahead and fish, fished for about 45 minutes, big wake behind pacemaker again, just before oval/8 bam, mid 40's musky, this time i tried to release the rell and thumb the spool as i kept pressure on the fish, fish takes out 10 feet of line, i go to reel, goodbye fish. @!#% @!#$.

suggestions please!!!!

so its before my oval/8 so i can't set the hook backwards, all i am doing is setting the hook (holding on to my rod so its not being ripped out of my hands), any suggestions, as for now i am thinking i am just going to not give the fish any line and if my rod breaks so be it.

[Gary Brady]

Something I've learned over the years about fishing with surface baits is that you need to set the hook down and to the side. This does two things, it drives the hooks into the corner or bottom of the mouth where your hooks have a better chance of holding and it's safer because your bait won't come flying back at the boat. They generally overtake a surface bait from behind and if you set up you pull it right out the front of their mouth where there is not much for a hook to grab. That really has upped my percentages over the years.

[perchoreno]

I don't pay much attention to the direction that hook is set, often times that is dictated to you by the fish, but this deal with loosening the drag sounds like the fish is directing the fight, not you. That can be a problem. Set your drag, when fish hits set the hook and start moving the fish, around the boat, front or back or even in an oval if you have too, until you can get oriented and get the fish oriented in a more favorable position. WTH is the fish doing when it is shortlined, and you are in stasis trying to loosen the drag? Bad things I bet!

[earlyretirement]

thanks for the pointers, for me with the cheaper abu, I have the drag cranked because I had read they tend to slip on hook sets, but i am all for walking the fish around the boat and setting the hook down and to the side.

report 8-14 pm. lost another fish on a cowgirl, this one hit way out, had a good hookset (i thought), drag was going out (new toro winch reel), started to reel fish in and goodbye fish. Talked with a guy at the doc and they had a 39 tonight.
Yippee, my dad comes tomorrow and want to fish blue gills only. The most action I have had in over a month and I can't fish muskies.

[Mark Benson]

early:

When you say "loosen", how much are you "loosening"??? Quarter turn, more, etc... I guess my feeling is that if you need to give line, perhaps pulling line off the reel with your free hand is a better alternative than messing with the drag... Once you have enough line off the reel to feel comfy, then "perhaps" adjusting the drag is something to do... Are you keeping a good bend in the rod??? That can help you to continue to lodge the hooks in deeper.

Also, the more experience you have with each of the situations that any fish species puts you in, the more able you are to deal with it in the heat of battle... I have been lucky enough in my life that I could provide examples with several species, but overall it seems like just a little more patience to get that experience is more what you need to seal the deal.

And remember they are "Muskies"... more times than we care, they do come off... I have some friends who fish either the PMTT or WMT tournaments and you wouldn't believe the number of times their fish hits and comes off, so its just not you...

Mark

[earlyretirement]

thanks for the reply. ill take any help i can get. So in the name of more experience here is report from the 15th.
Woke up late fished for an hour and half in the am, nothing. That night managed to loose another fish boat side on a cow girl. Did not loosen drag or thumb the spool this time just tried to move the fish. Had my dads friend along with me. The above, resulted in the fish soaking him in the back of the boat. This was rather funny with the exception of not being able to get the net in time and the fish of coarse came off. Oh well.
Dad's friend had a fish miss a pacemaker twice in the same cast right at moonrise. No fish pictures, but atleast a good story. Will shoot for fish number 5 in a row lost tonight.

[gtaggart]

I would make sure your hooks are sharp and keep checking them through out the day. I know I have lost several fish because I had dull hooks. Good luck

[Ty Sennett]

Try to push your button as you go into the figure eight and thumb the fish out putting as much pressure as you want on the fish with your thumb. Then you can engage the reel whenever you regain control of the fish.