Short strikes 🤔🤔??

[bailout]

First the report. We fished alewives on planer boards and floats over the last couple days. Picked up a few. Size ranged from 23" to 29", mostly up in the creeks in 15-20 ft of water. Water temps 52 to 57 and did best in the 57 degree water. Also did better where the water was off-color.

And now the question. What are others doing to minimize short strikes? Getting hit but the fish is feeling the resistance and immediately spitting the bait. Often even get the live alewife back. I suppose I could put the reel on freespool with just clicker but not sure that will hold against a planer board. Thoughts?

[johnr]

It’s either stripers (probably small) trying to stun/kill your bait, or small bass trying to eat it - and failing.

This is why I prefer huge baits in spring - it weeds out all the “other” fish that reside along the shorelines.

[cmstower]

If you look back in previous posts I have seen where they set it to free spool and the fish will come back to eat the stunned bait right there while it’s not moving