Bass are outsmarting me; LOL

[aquaculture]

Okay I've been fishing a local creek where the max depth at this time of year is 3.5ft and the bass are at most 12 inches, so I've been practicing catch and release, and I am required by law to use barb-less hooks. My dilemma comes when the bass just sit and watch as pumpkinseed after pumpkinseed gets hooked, and they wait for when the pumpkins dislodge the bait from the hook.
Bait I use is the crayfish i catch from the creek and put pieces of their tail meat on a hook that has 1/4inch gap on it.

What should I do?

 

[fwprawn]

Use different bait or lures ?
Are you fishing during the day? Try dawn / dusk.

 

[Longshot]

Since you aren't allowed to use barbs, take a small rubber band to keep it on the hook.

 

[fisher12889]

Use bigger bait that the pumpkinseeds can't eat...

 

[aquaculture]

Will try all of them next time I go. Thanks guys.

 

[NCStateFisher]

why are you using the tail meat of the crays? a 12" bass can still pound down a 4-5" cray and it's their preferred food source. just hook em through the middle of the tail and as little weight/bobber/swivels as possible and you should be able to hook in to a lot of em

 

[crappiekeeper]

or buy a crayfish crankbait and replace the trebles with barbless trebles.