Pop and drop syndrome

[TubeDude]

Bait size can be an issue.  I remember a day at the Knolls when I was soaking large chunks of carp meat...hoping for big cats.  And I was getting plenty of "inquiries".  However, the fish were doing what you hate...packing the bait around for a few seconds and then not getting hooked.  And I knew by the general feel of things that the fish were of decent size.  Just for grins I put a fairly small piece of bait on the hook and tossed it back out.  Every take after that resulted in a positive hookup.  The fish were able to get the entire bait (and hook) inside their mouths and that definitely increased the percentages in my favor.