I have almost always had tons of bites/ bumps on the bait with not all of them ending in hookups.

 

Guess some days they don't really want to EAT the bait.

 

Well, today I (accidentally) found a way to catch some of those non-eaters.

 

When I would feel a bump but no hookup, I kept cranking for a few reel turns as if nothing happened, and then stopped reeling and gave the bait a little slack. More often than not, the fish (still following I guess) hammered it on the fall.

 

 

P.S.

 

Here's a rather feisty bluegill that wanted to play with the bait a few days back.

 

 

 

Is that "slow" a reminder or something? Haha

Hookups seem to be a pretty constant problem with the spinbait. I haven't had an issue, but it seems lots of others have. The most popular solution seems to be similar to what you did, except they usually just keep cranking slowly until the fish loads on, kind of like a buzzbait bite. 

is there a striper sized version of spinbaits out there?  May want to try one out when the fish move back deep.