Obviously we have a lot of hard core sight fisherman telling it like it truly is. One thing that stands out is how familiar most of the guy's baits are. Sight fishing is my one true vices in life and like all of you, have lost plenty, including a 14 lber that shook under water and the bait came out. I prefer the texas rigged approach too. I don't seem to loose too many at all when using a 2/0 Owner riggin hook texas rigged with a 1/4 oz weight. But when I find a toad, I go to the big stuff which is a large bait (still gotta keep it a secret because the big girls absolutely hate it) It requires a 1/2 oz straight jig head with a long shank. The trick though that has helped is that I add a trailer hook just like on a spinnerbait. You've all seen some toad kind of "gum or lip" the bait, then never really enhale it. This is when the stinger hook comes in handy. Of course, when it comes to the fight, I use 30 and 50 pound test Power Pro braid on an 8-flippin stick with the reel drag locked down. Sometimes I even had to thumb the spool to boss the fish. A really good sight fishing friend of mine told me one time after I farmed a ten on the jump (with my rod tip in the water) that you know how we laugh at those back east guys on TV and how they raise the rod really high on the jump, guess what, it does work if you do like Rob said and leverage the fish against the flow of it's momentum. If she is heading one way and is coming up to shake, lock down and yank her head back the opposite direction (another benefit of a heavy stick with braided line). The 15 I caught a few months ago busted water at least four times but with the drag locked down and after some nervous bossing around she went for the deep run trick which wears them out even faster. The bottom line is that we all do things a little alike and a little different. What most of us do is because of what we have experienced and learned from...the hard way. One thing that immediately comes to mind that might help is to try and stiffle those nerves when you see her finally smack the bait. Seems like the fish I have farmed were the ones I set the hook the instant it disappeared. Now I try to wait another second to make sure she has it and set with boat rocking force not once, but twice sometimes to get that hook to cut through. Damn, now I want to sight fishing...lol.