X2 on the rod spank. After my first year of first mating, I would say of the fish lost, a super high percentage occurs between when the rods come out of the holder to getting the fish centered up. I watched customers take the rod from holder and quickly drop rod tip, after the spank off, 8nstantly drop rod tip. Any quick movements is bad......slow and steady. The biggest issue I saw with the spanking off was ppl being too soft it. It's not about how hard it's spanked as if is the speed generated by it. It seems to work best if as the rod come from holder, tip up tI'll at the back of the boat, slowly down with the tip....point the rod at the clip being released much like aiming a gun......I hold the rod with one hand in front of the reel, turn to I'm 90* to the rod, use my other hand to spank the rod handle while letting the rod pivot around the hand I'm holding it in...then quickly bring my pivot hand up to the rod to keep tension on the line as line come out of clip. If the rod doesn't pivot, the actions seems to become a hard pull. Like setting the hook while bass fishing.

Getting the line right in the clip really effects how it releases, to far back or deep makes it a lot harder to get off. When using rubber band in the clips seems if you stretch the band between your thumb and index finger as clipping thins the band out a little. Also for the outside clips, if they are in the water this also increases how hard it is to release. So take a few seconds and time your strike to when the clip is out of the water.

Another thing I see that causes lost fish is ppl turning the drags back up, especially on big fish. Seems ppl see they are cranking and not making much headway so the crank the drag and then pop the fish off.

Remember in the spring when speeds are much slowe than summer, the fish a lot of times won't really be hook up well, more like just riding on the hooks points. This is evidence when betting the fish, the moment the fish touches the net the hook is off. The exact same thing happens if any slack gets in the line.