That's very promising your getting followers that big that are tailing it, or shoulder to shoulder. The general rule for followers, and how close they are to biting, is simple, the closer they are, the more aggressive they are. Usually when I get one thats tailing it shoulder to shoulder, she ends up striking. Your SO close to having one of those fish engulf it. As far as figure 8's, it might be worth a short although, everytime I mess with the retrieve when they are following they seem to loose interest, although I haven't had that many times where I've seen a fish shoulder to shoulder to my bait. My only other thought on figure 8's, is how would you do that without spooking her? Overall, I think your best bet is to just keep making long casts. Eventually she's gonna engulf it. The only time varying the retrieve has worked for me is just speeding it up right when they get real close, everytime they seem to speed up and nip at it, thats only if they are real close. If they are following 6 feet away, those fish seem impossible. That would be interesting to see some big bass being caught on huddlestons in non-trout waters. Unless this texas place has trout? Either way, pretty sweet. And take my advice with a grain of salt, I'm no Rob Belloni :-)