everything mentioned above and keep your rod positioned oppisite the direction the fish is traveling, if he is headed up, point you rod down, into the water even, to your left, rod to the right, vice versa, green fish are not nearly as bad as the brown ones, when you've got 100+ ft of line out and a smallie surfaces, its like watching the space shuttle take off, my biggest smallie ever (a little over 6), caught on a c-rig with a smoke colored fat albert grub, was just the story, i looked out to my left and the fish came out off the water higher than my head, seemed like it anyway, no line left in the water, i just knew the fish was gone, but i still landed him, another time on lake fork, i had a fish on and my line was going /pointing down and a fish about 25 yards out bust the water, my line had gone under a snag of some sorts, there was a camera boat there and all, the guy just says is that your fish over there[:@], that one got away[:@], went from 3rd place day one to 7th on day two[&o], oh well theres always next time