The "Take!"

[BigFish]

When you are fishing......what is your favorite "TAKE"? Do you like a fish busting the surface on a pencil or spook, do you prefer the way the take feels on a metal lipped swimmer, or do you prefer when a striper runs with your live offering??? Just curious what type of "TAKE" situation gives you the biggest rush?

My favorite take I must say, as much as I enjoy fishing topwater plugs the best, is when I am fishing a swimmer!!! I am slowly working that metal lipped swimmer through a boulder field or below the surface of a sandy back Cape beach and all of a sudden there is a "BUMP"! The the line goes tight and the rod starts to bend.....and line starts to peel from the spool!!!!! Thats my favorite "TAKE"!

[fishbones]

During daylight hours, I love watching a big bass come up and tail-whack a pencil popper, then come back and inhale it. At night, I like the take on a swimmer because when it's dark, you don't see it happening. You can have your mind drifting and then, out of nowhere your rod gets jerked by a fish you can't see.

As for bait, I can't comment other than it looks like it would be fun to see a bunker panicked on the top trying to escape before being inhaled by a bass.

[vanstaal]

I must say mine is top water I always say I going to fish eels and I never do the biggest thrill is to see it all on the top ! weather it is a pencil or a popper or a darter it's the best

[Blitzseeker]

Topwater, no doubt. Not where I get my biggest bass, but it is definitely exciting. When they take a couple shots at it, miss, and then finally hook up, I'm usually yelling and cursing at them to hit it.....good times.

That's why I don't hate bluefish like lots of other folks...I can catch blues on top for hours and have a blast doing it. Big bass are my target, but fun is my goal.

[Diggin Jiggin]

I like the very soft subtle take when a large fish completely inhales a jig without really banging it hard. Everytime that happens I'm thinking, here's comes a fatty.

[The Iceman 6]

Can it be a tie: I love it when a big bass whacks a pencil popper or needlefish on top, sometimes it's more fun when they miss it all together (but not really). It's great to both see and feel the thunder. Also, I like it when the bass inhales that eel and you let it take out line before you set that hook then hold on for the ride. There's no other greater sound that the zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Ice

[Back Beach]

7" and 9'' tsunamis. Very subtle takes many times, but usually larger fish attached to the end. Saw some very exciting takes on top this year too. Pencils are a blast. Rigged eels take your arms off and are probably the most violent of them all.

[The Dad Fisherman]

let me see, its been so long let me see if I can remember...

I always like the swimmers when they get whacked....you slowly reel it in and then for a split second it just stops...then the rod bends and its show time.

I also like using a bait-runner...let a chunk just sit and then all of a sudden....bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz it starts to hum then you pick it up and cross their eyes....good stuff.

at least thats how i remember it

[eskimo]

top water is great, especially when your looking right at your plug watching..watching..then bam!

...but I'm going to go with a swimmer too, especially at night. As much as I like to see the TAKE I rather just feel it. I seem to put way more into my retrieve at night and I keep altering it, plus not being able to see anything seems keep me in tune with everything a lot more. only thing better is when/where I think the fish should hit and then it does. When that happens I feel like I really know something for a second but thats like the lottery, for every one hundred "I thinks" I get one winner.

I also talk to myself so much that I start talking to myself about how much I'm talking to myself.

[GattaFish]

My favorite is when your just about asleep cuz its 3am and your bored out of your mind and your fishing a needle,,,, When wham,,,, it creams the plug with commitment and just about rips your rod out of your hands because your barely holding it in your 1/2 asleep stooper.

Other than that seeing them hit top water.

[EarnedStripes44]

Top water during the day. However, like someone else mentioned, I am much more in tune at night with a swimmer on a slow retrieve and then out of nowhere - WHAM. Thats pretty nice too.

[Andy D]

Topwater is my #1 for Bass or Blues. But any Take is a good Take

[Swimmer]

but I get the biggest thrill of any hookup using topwater of any kind, popper, blitzseeker, needle, ..........The biggest topwater hit I ever had was on probably the smallest item in my arsenal, a chartreuse teaser (shameless self promotion) fishing Wasque early one sunrise. The splash looked like someone dropped a 50 # rock in the water. Line went tight, hook straightened out after about fifteen seconds and off the fish went. Oh to relive that moment and loosen the drag more quickly..............that memory still bites.

[Top Watta]

As far as the take, Top Water, of course... Flat arse calm at twighlight - see the boil, the pursuit, then, bam! I agree with the night time swimmer, too.

[numbskull]

I got raped one night by a major fish that exploded on a big skin plug in the moonlight when I was undergunned. When back next night with the heavy artillery. Same spot, same sweep, every muscle tensed in anticipation, had a take and hit it as hard as I could. A 3 lb bass came flying through the air and landed 1/2 way back to me. OK, maybe not 1/2 way, but a lot. That's the one I remember the most.

[Rockport24]

topwater is pretty cool, but I gotta say, after you lower the rod tip to the bass (a.k.a. bow to the cow ) on a take on an eel, then haul back and feel that weight and the drag starts singing.... man that is awesome

[bassballer]

i would have to with a swimming plug. When your slowly reeling, and feeling the wobble of your plug, then in an instant. BANG, rod keels over and line start peeling then the battle is on.


Crossing a stripers eyes with an eel is a pretty damn good feeling too.

[Paul/NH]

I might catch a ration of sh!t here as a newbie and also for my vote:

but for the actual take itself, I like the jarring hit of a 20+lb bass hitting a jig on wire line. Yea - in most "real" fishing circles jigging wire is reserved for comments about 'the other googans out there' but that instant when a big fish hammers a jig you are popping along with the rod in your hands and absolutely no stretch in the line.... I like it.


After that initial jolt - well, wire loses a lot of its attraction other than being effective.

Paul

[BigFish]

There is no right way/wrong way, good way/bad way here Paul....just your way! If thats how you like it its good enough for me!

[Paul/NH]

Maybe Im too sensitized from other boards...




My actual favorite striper fishing is light tackle spinning with sluggos or casting with plastics on jigheads, but I pretty much do the whole gamut from chunking and a little live-lining and tossing eels all the wayup to pulling the dreaded wire!!

[Squibby17]

Great thread Larry, it makes me remember how I used to catch fish.

As far as take, well there all good but my favorite would be on a fly. Because your actually pulling the line with your hands it gives you a true feeling of a fish hitting. After the initial hit feeling that line scream through your hands and laying into the fish is priceless.

The meat fisherman in me still loves a good bump on the eel. Open the bail and get ready to set the hook. As most of us know more often than not there is a good fish on the other end of the line.

[RIJIMMY]

live bunker for me. Its not a take - its a spectacle!

[nklinesider]

definetly agree with the live bunker.

[HESH2]

like the popper during day bass or blues.to see them miss it and keep coming after it is alot of fun especially if popper is riding wave in the surf.

[BassDawg]

for me it's a toss up between

a spook between the lights when they slam
yer offering and launch themselves to the sky, or

an eeeeeel take in the black of the New.
especially so if there's fog and dense darkness.
ditto on the 1/2 asleep stupor; then Fish AWWWN!!

add a ghost bump, like when she gives it a looksee
before deciding to commit,,,,,,,,,,,then that sweeeeet
shaking of the eel and zzzzzzzz as you bow ~just before you fine tune
the drag and roll the hook into her maw

the LONGEST three seconds in tha surfbidness, imho!!

swimmers are nice too, and i've yet to experience the jiggin' "jerk".
GOOD GOD!! i LOVE this thing that we DO!!! thanks be to God
for the splendor of His bounty.

excellent Thread, Big Larry

[Adam_777]

Either the first cast take that isn't expected or the last cast before going home to hit the bottle .I love watching bass and blues come out of the water dive bombing topwater plugs.Always gets my adrenaline rocking !

[Stewie]

I was fishing off some rocks in Maine. Decent bass were jumping out of the water and coming down on our dannys with their mouths wide open. I've never seen this before or since, but it was impressive.

[GonnaCatchABig1]

my personal favorite ever was in my ole river. (larry you know it) theres was a yatch club boat launch crane peir and then about 20-40ft of water and then a jetty. so it was tight quarters from the end of the jetty. nice stained water would prevent much of anything deeper than a 1ft or 2 from being visible. working a broken back slowly along the surface... only about 10 ft a way. all you would see it a small ripple which would grow into a large wake. then a fin would pop up out of the water as you started to make out the head of this. a seconds worth of trailing and catching up and then BAM!!!

it probably only last a 3 seconds TOPS. but every time it seemed like time slowed down and it all would happen in slow motion. i miss it. i havent been able to replicate it in a long time.

[Slipknot]

The favorite "take" for me has to be when the jig bouncing along nicely 40 feet down and 120 yards out, as you go to pump the next bounce the line just comes taught and does not budge an inch. For a moment you think you're hung up out there solid to the bottom, so you set hard again but in that split second of that thought you now feel it pull back and line comes off the spool slowly, then as the fish turns , line comes off even faster. Now you know you have a good one on. That is my favorite take. I have not had the pleasure of all that many of those but I sm ile and cherish each and every one of those because you know it's got to be a 30 pound or better fish.

I also love the topwater action when using a surf howdy or a pencil popper.
Also the take when reeling in a needlefish plug out on the beach at night, the take brings you right back to life and wakes me up.

[Tagger]

My favirote take is in close at night .. Just when your about to give up on a retrieve a fish blows up right in front of you .. You have to be in the water to fully appreciate this ,,, scares the bejesus out of you ..