Need some advice on setting hooks

[Kirelda]

Hey ya'll, it's Li here.

I got some new Berkley Gulp Crabby today and decided to try them out down at Drummoyne. Oh boy do they work. Bites non stop left and right. Had me wondering if I casted into a cyclone with the amount of bites I was getting. Unfortunately though, I couldn't seem to get a hookup. I tried to wait for the fish to take the lure and run and i also tried to jerk the second I felt a tap. However, nothing seemed to work and i ended up with 3 crabbys looking a lot worse for wear.

I was using a Shimano Stradic FL 2500hg spooled with 4lb Berkley X5 along with an 8lb leader. I'm not too sure what size jighead I'm using but I'd guess around 1/12 to 1/16 as it was really light. The lures I used all had their claws ripped clean off. There was also fish jumping out of the water so I assumed the culprit for my massacred lures were tailor. I would love any advice I can get on setting hooks because these buggers downed me 3 crabbys and I'd loved to get a little revenge. 

Any tips or tricks are appreciated!

[Green Hornet]

You’ll probably find they were small fish. Schools of leatherjackets, toads and small tailor go nuts over the taste of Gulp lures and can strip them down to the jig head in seconds.

Swap your lure over to a blade or small hardbody, but probably best just to move to a new spot.

Edited December 23, 2023 by Green Hornet

[noelm]

Toads and small Jackets always just “nip” the legs off those kind of lures…..that’s how they eat live crabs, they snip off one leg at a time until the crabs defenceless, then get into the body.

[Kirelda]

23 hours ago, Green Hornet said:

You’ll probably find they were small fish. Schools of leatherjackets, toads and small tailor go nuts over the taste of Gulp lures and can strip them down to the jig head in seconds.

Swap your lure over to a blade or small hardbody, but probably best just to move to a new spot.

I actually did change to a vibe and some topwaters. I switched to an ecogear breamer in 35mm and the smallest MMD splash prawn. Had a great hit on the splash prawn but unfortunately no hookups. I tried scent and everything too. I was planning on using a Shallow diver but I lost a pretty expensive diver there and got cold feet. 

[Kirelda]

18 hours ago, noelm said:

Toads and small Jackets always just “nip” the legs off those kind of lures…..that’s how they eat live crabs, they snip off one leg at a time until the crabs defenceless, then get into the body.

That makes sense. I saw a couple toads race for the crabby. I mean they usually dash for anything, but this time it seemed extra fast.

[Green Hornet]

36 minutes ago, Kirelda said:

I actually did change to a vibe and some topwaters. I switched to an ecogear breamer in 35mm and the smallest MMD splash prawn. Had a great hit on the splash prawn but unfortunately no hookups. I tried scent and everything too. I was planning on using a Shallow diver but I lost a pretty expensive diver there and got cold feet. 

Doesn’t sound like you’re doing anything wrong, just wasn’t your day. Lure fishing can be like that, especially missing a few hits when fishing the surface.