There is nothing worse than losing your favorite lure so we have come up with some of the best approaches to unsnagging lures.

When novices hang their lures, they shake and jerk their rods, pull on the line, cuss at the snag and do just about everything wrong in an attempt to regain their lures.

All anglers periodically hook their lures in snags, but a skill that separates the novice from the seasoned pro is the ability to retrieve a snagged bait.

Pulling hard on their line is the biggest mistake anglers make when they attempt to free their lures.  Pulling hard on the line will occasionally free a lure, but pushing it away from the snag is a more successful method. So to free the lure you have to back it off the snag.

Unsnagging Lures: Rod Tip Push

The easiest way to free a lure is to push it loose with your rod tip.  You must reel in all your line and carefully guide the rod tip down to where it touches the bait and then just push the lure away from the snag.  Poking at a snagged lure with your rod tip can be hazardous so be careful to avoid breaking the tip or getting it hung in the snag.

Unsangging Lures: Rod Knocker

If you can see your lure jammed on the far side of a submerged limb but are obstructed from reaching it, you can turn your rod into a lure knocker.  The same principle of the rod tip pushing the lure applies for this tactic only at a longer distance.

If the snagged lure is about 6 to 8 feet away, grab your line with one hand, drop your rod and let it slide down the line into the water. When the tip reaches the snag, the rod’s weight pushes back on the lure and pops it free. This tactic works best with heavy tackle, such as a flipping stick and 20-pound line.

Unsnagging Lures: Line shooting

This tactic works great when you have a jig stuck in rocks or a spinnerbait hung on the back side of a limb.  Open your reel bail, grab the line at the top of your rod and pull the line down to the rod handle and make sure you are lined up straight with the snag. Pull the line tight like a bowstring for about an arm’s length and then release to shoot the line at the lure and back it off the snag.