Holy cow...(no pun)...I've never heard of a chinese or any other race of people who back up with their rods to bring in a fish. lol !
A little more info from me:
I am surf fishing for stripers right now. (Somehow, it's more of a challenge for me at this point) I've already heard about and personally experienced the helicopter effect when casting fishfinder rigs. This is actually one of the reasons why I asked this question.
On one hand, I've been told stripers are generally line/weight/tension shy. Hence the fishfinders and/or fluro.
On the other, we have the "heli" effect reducing casting distance as well as never knowing if the fishfinder is actually working properly due to the position under water.
Well if I use a Hi-Lo, and I am holding my rod, wouldn't the fish have less leader to take before feeling the line tension and spit the hook? So is the proper technique to immediately set the hook on a hi-lo or hold the rod and have my bail/freespool open?
PS: Raven, I'm trying to focus on one thing at a time during the steepest part of my learning curve. I only started fishing last year, and I unfortunately have a "let's do everything asap" personality. So, I started looking into building rods, making my own lures (I do wrap my own bucktails now), fished from Pt. Pleasant NJ to Montauk for various species...etc, etc...
I need to take a deep breath now and just enjoy some quality fishing time. So when I'm ready, you can bet I'll be asking about pluggin'.
(The prices of plugs are also no joke and add up quick! Right now, I try to snag most of my bunker for bait to cut down on bait $$$)