Pro Tips Weekly: Brett Hite

When not to catch bass

When you’re practicing for a tournament on a lake or river not known for its quality fishing, sometimes making sure you don’t stick any fish is a good thing. The idea is to locate bass and try different baits to see what they want without sore-mouthing them any more than you have to.

Some guys like to mash down the point of a hook or cover it with something, but I’ve found a better way when I’m practicing with a soft-plastic bait. I’ll use an Owner TwistLock Center-Pin Spring. It just screws into the head of a soft-plastic, and there’s no hook. When you get bit, you just pull the bait away from the fish. If you need to switch baits quickly so you can try something else, you unscrew one bait and screw the TwistLock in the next one. The bait won’t pull off, and hopefully you can come back during the tournament and catch the bass you find.

— National Guard pro Brett Hite of Phoenix