The Holy Cow wrote:
I'm not particularly experienced at fishing, and have just started fishing
texas-rigged plastic worms. I get lots of good bites this way, but never
manage to set the hook. I've switched to wide worm hooks to no avail.

I know the fish isn't spitting out the bait, because if I open the reel, the
fish will swim away with it until I try to set it (and proceed to yank it
out of the fish).

Any suggestions?

Using too light of a rod can cause this,, you did not state if the hook
came through the bait or not, I used to let them run twice and set the
hook on the 2nd run, but I ended up with a lot of gut hooked fish. Many
set the hook on the first twitch they see or feel in their line, and
they set it HARD.

Another problem I have run into is big bream grabbing the tail, or very
dink bass, they just never get the hook in their mouths

--
Rodney Long,
Inventor of the Long Shot "WIGGLE" rig, SpecTastic Thread
Boomerang Fishing Pro. ,Stand Out Hooks ,Stand Out Lures,
Mojo's Rock Hopper & Rig Saver weights, Decoy Activator
and the EZKnot http://www.ezknot.com