Shank, There were a lot of small specs out there Friday. It was good that you thought of doing the things that you did, smaller baits, changing colors but if they are the small ones there is not a whole lot you can do. A couple of other things you may want to do. Switch to a more limber rod if the one you are using is kinda stiff and some string with some stretch will help too. We had some light bites that were not small fish at all and this is what we ended up having to do to improve our hook ups. When we were bouncing our baits off bottom, the fish would hit it on the drop as usual. Instead of setting the hook right away we were dropping our rods slowly and letting the fish have it for about 2-3 more seconds before setting the hook. We were not yanking back, just leaning back with pressure when setting the hook. We lost numerous fish trying to lift them in the boat, so we started grabbing them with our hands. (no net) Some that we got in the boat were hooked on the outside of the mouth so far that all we would do is jerk a little and the skin would break. I had 3 or 4 nice fish that I set the hook on like I normally do. My rod would bend but then there mouth would just break so had to change the way I was doing things. Hope this helps.
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