Pop and drop syndrome

[catchinon]

I have had days while drifting on UL when I only hooked up maybe a third of all the fish that bent my pole. It's a weird feeling when your rod is just dancing and then when you start to lift it out of the holder you feel nothing but slack. I have no answers for you but you might want to try different hooks. Real circle hooks versus plain octopus style. Fligs? Bigger? Smaller? I suspect that they aren't really getting the bait in their mouths all the way but are lipping it. Smaller bait? Tandem hooks? Since your fishing time is so limited you might try making a few of these different setups on leaders ahead of time. Just my 2 cents. Oh, and I have had times when it seemed I couldn't hook fish up and then found out that my hook was dull or had a bent point.