I have a pretty cool experience yesterday but very frustrating at the same time.

I went out to Whiteshell to TRY to fish in between the T-storms. What I found was Trout running what I took to be glass minnows everywhere. They were pushing them up and down the edge of the grass in kind of a semi circle. So I start tieing on lures to throw at them. Started with a mirrormullet and got about 5 strikes two of which sounded like someone throwing an anchor overboard but no hook ups. I could tell these were not dink trout. There were some very big ones in the area one that I saw very well would have push 5 or 6 pounds. So I tied a spinner bait on, nothing. Then a suspending bait, nothing. Then a DOA shrimp, only one strike but while I was pulling it across the top of the water. Ok, I think "they want it on top no more subsurface stuff". I have very few topwater lures in my lures in my tackle box that I carry on my yak. I promise after this experience i'm gonna get more. My next plan was to tie the mirromullet on one pole and a small rapala jerk bait on the other. Between these two bait I proceeded to get about 10 more strike/blowups but no hook ups. Now im getting pretty frustrated my next step was going to be to tie the entire tackle box on by the handle and throw it in when I remembered I had some Fin-s jerk baits that were in my truck in the bag stuck in one of the back door compartments that i had stuck in my tackle box just before launching. I fished these on a wide gap hook just under the water and managed to finally catch three trout all about 16"-18". I gave them all to an older gentlemen who was fishing on the bank that looked ;ike he needed them more than I. I guess they wanted something that was really close to the glass minnow in size and shape. Overall a fun time.

Now for the question.

What can you do about short striking fish? Is there a secret to hooking up when they are doing this? Any one ever try some kind of stinger hook off the back??

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Malibu Stealth 14

I saw the same thing at cedar key this week. Something in the water was making little minnows scurry across the water. I eventually hooked up on it but the 40# fluro leader snapped. It took my gulp shrimp and jig head.... Heard of locals saying that there were nursing sharks trying to feed. but seeing how you caught trout I guess you need to try circle hooks? haha

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Tarpon 120 Mango
http://www.fishheadkayakcharters.com/

Short striking is usually caused by the fish coming up to take the bait/lure but deciding at the last moment it doesn't like what it sees. Usually means time to switch bait/color.

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Exactly. If a trout wants your bait, he will take it... There was something they didn't like about your baits.

I've been on schools of fish with this problem many many times in my life, and in my case, I usually just move on to the next spot... If I can't find fish anywhere else, I will come back to that spot and try try again... (kinda hard to force yourself to leave a school of feeding fish, I know...)

One thing you can TRY (but doesn't work for me that often...) is to add a trailing treble hook... Many times Trout don't even try to eat your bait, but will "slap" at it with their head/body. I've seen this behavior lots of times, usually in situations like the one you were in. I think they do it for the same basic reason (the bait looks suspicious to them, and they want to check it out) but with a trailing treble hook, you will occaisionally snag one on the side of the head... Obviously the added hook has the potential to make the bait look even MORE suspicious, and those "short strikes" may turn in to "no strikes"...

Nothing is more frustrating to me than a school of feeding fish that just won't eat my baits...

I haven't seen this mentioned yet but you can try a dab of scent. Use the appropriate flavor for the type of lure you are fishing. I was using Carolina Lunker Sauce but just bought the Pro Cure today. This has worked for me many times. There are several things that are important about your lure. The look, action and the scent. If it looks real, acts real and smells real.......

I like all the replies so far, something I allways try to consider when a school is playing hard to catch is adding as many elements to my bait as I can. Sometimes I catch myself tying on a redfish magic with small gulp bait. This produces four elements, flash, smell, sound and motion. Makes me want to dive in the water after it on the re-trieve. If that does'nt work I'll usaully drink a beer and think about it for a while.

serious as a massive coranairy, C.