# bait hooking ?



## catfish4life (Aug 11, 2009)

I love using sucker for bait and I always hook them in the upper lip . And it seems to work good most of the time but it seems that I miss more fish when the suck is over 12inchs long. So my ? Is it better to hook big sucker in the back or tail any input would be great.


----------



## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Lip hooking is still best for suckers. The most likely reason you're missing fish is because they're undersized for the baits. I decent sized flathead could gulp a 12" sucker down with no effort. But a small flathead, or any channel cat is going to have to work one down. If you having real fast runs, it's likely channel cats.


----------



## catmanbennie (Jan 15, 2010)

I agree!!Channels,and smaller shovels will try to eat more than they can handle at times.


----------



## ducky152000 (Jul 20, 2005)

M.Magis said:


> Lip hooking is still best for suckers. The most likely reason you're missing fish is because they're undersized for the baits. I decent sized flathead could gulp a 12" sucker down with no effort. But a small flathead, or any channel cat is going to have to work one down. If you having real fast runs, it's likely channel cats.


Do you get many flatheads that swallow the hook this way? Flatheads take bait head first and if you would hook em in the lips the hook would most likely be in the flatheads throat. Never done it. Ive always hook all my bait in the tail. Last year we caught alot of flatheads and only two was hooked to deep to pull out. we just cut the line. Not saying your way is wrong just wondering if you have that proplem, because if you dont mybe i will start hooking my suckers in the lips, Im sure you hardly ever miss a fish this way. If you do then ill stay with my way, because i hated seeing the two last year with 8/0 gammas in their throat.


----------



## pendog66 (Mar 23, 2005)

ducky152000 said:


> Do you get many flatheads that swallow the hook this way? Flatheads take bait head first and if you would hook em in the lips the hook would most likely be in the flatheads throat. Never done it. Ive always hook all my bait in the tail. Last year we caught alot of flatheads and only two was hooked to deep to pull out. we just cut the line. Not saying your way is wrong just wondering if you have that proplem, because if you dont mybe i will start hooking my suckers in the lips, Im sure you hardly ever miss a fish this way. If you do then ill stay with my way, because i hated seeing the two last year with 8/0 gammas in their throat.



i mainly hook them in the lips also ducky, and very rarely have the flatheads swallow the hook


----------



## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

another point is by hooking through the lips, they seem to last longer and stay livelier vs being hooked in the back closer to vital organs and swimming muscles. Also when hooked through the lips, seldom if ever will you cast off a bait when casting. 

Salmonid


----------



## ducky152000 (Jul 20, 2005)

Salmonid said:


> another point is by hooking through the lips, they seem to last longer and stay livelier vs being hooked in the back closer to vital organs and swimming muscles. Also when hooked through the lips, seldom if ever will you cast off a bait when casting.
> 
> Salmonid


I rather have my sucker die than a flathead! PLUS my baits rarely die, inless the water is warm (75-80 degrees)the way i hook them, I do very little casting also. So i dont have to worry about bait falling off.


----------



## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

It&#8217;s been a long time since I&#8217;ve used a sucker to be honest. If I had more time to go after bait I would, but heck, I don&#8217;t have time fish these days, let alone go after bait.  To answer you question, I never saw a difference in the frequency of fish swallowing the baits. It occasionally happens no matter what the bait or where you hook it. A big flathead doesn&#8217;t play with its food. Sometimes it has it swallowed before the clicker ever goes off, nothing you can do to stop it. But, big flatheads are a lot tougher than people give them credit for. Don&#8217;t cut the line and leave he hook in there. With any flathead much over 15 lbs you can reach down the gullet and work the hook free with little or no damage. In fact, I can recall one particular fish I caught that had swallowed the bait being caught by Robby three weeks later in the same spot. 
With small fish I suppose lip hooking might increase the chances of swallowing the bait, but to be honest we didn&#8217;t catch many. Those that we did catch usually had to really work at getting the bait down, so they were pretty much always lip hooked.


----------



## catfish4life (Aug 11, 2009)

Thanks for all the input I guess ill keep hooking them in the lips sounds like that's the best way.


----------



## ufaquaoiler (Jan 14, 2010)

if you can get ahold of circle hooks i strongly recommend those for catfish if you are worried about them swallowing bait. although ive never caught a flathead before, the many, many channel catfish i catch every year quit swallowing my bait so much when i switched from J hooks to circle hooks although i still have bullheads swallow circle hooks just because theyre experts at swallowing hooks. id say 9 outta 10 fish have the hook right in the corner of the mouth no matter how long i let them run with the bait. although i use mostly dead fish and the nastiest things i can get my hands on for channels, i use chubs and smaller suckers for bass in my friends pond and lip hooking seems to have best results for keeping bait lively and ive never had a bass die off because it swallowed the hook. back hooking covers a lot of the hook up and tail hooking does work but after a while the fish wont swim as much anymore. mouth hooking seems to keep baitfish lively the longest and leaves plenty of hook exposed to catch your fish whatever you are after. that ponds also a place we also know the bigger fish literally by name so if anything would happen to those fish wed know within a week or so. you can easily find circle hooks at cabelas, bass pro, or id imagine gander mountain has them too. hope that helps!


----------

