Megabass Dark Sleeper: Tons of bites, challenging catch and release.
Just started fishing the Megabass Dark Sleeper for the first time and wow is it performing at my local pond. Fishing the 3 inch, 3/8 oz version in a small pond in 1-5 feet of water. First outing I caught a handful of bass in 45 minutes. Strong bites. Every hook deep in the mouth and into the roof of the mouth. On the smaller bass it was especially challenging even with pliers to get the hooks out due to how far back it was in the fish’s mouth and the dorsal fin weedguard getting in the way. I crushed down the barb on my second outing to make release a bit easier. Well I then proceeded to lose my first 3 fish right before shore even after good hooksets and pinning them reasonably well. The next two fish I hooked, I got to shore, but were quasi gut hooked. I am actually thankful I crushed the barb for those because I was actually able to release them. These gut hooked fish were not from lack of attention. These were immediate hook sets. Something about the dark sleeper, the compact nature with the weight, the aerodynamic profile, or lifelike feel, these fish are absolutely inhaling it. The keel weight seems to lend itself to a roof of the mouth hooking. But without the barb doesn’t seem like a good spot to be able to hang onto in the hard parts of the deep mouth. Anyone out there notice anything similar while fishing the dark sleeper?