I lost a bunch of big ones this year too, 4 over 10 including one that was around 13. It hurts! Three of them got off on the jump. There are two keys. One is to use heavy gear. 20lb test on a flipping stick for conventional, or if you are using spinning, use 14 to 20lb test with an oversize reel. The other is to texas rig your bait and don't peg the sinker. If you can stick the fish on a 5/0 round bend gammie worm hook with a texas rig, your odds go way way up of landing the fish. With sight fish, you can usually find something on a texas rig that the fish will bite. So use your regular stuff, and then when you think the fish is going to bite, switch to texas rig.