One other thing to think about. When you hold your rod while working a jig, are you holding it close to your body or far out? You'll get more power on the hookset if you hold the rod closer in to your body. If you fish with the rod in your left hand, imagine that you are holding a rolled up newspaper under your left arm when you're working the jig. That's the right arm position. It's important to have a strong hookset, but the set should also be really quick. I like to set back over my right shoulder about 45 degrees. I'll only set straight up and down if the fish is very close to the boat or underneath me. I want the hook to penetrate the roof of the mouth, but slightly off center. If you can hook a bass half way between the top of the mouth and the corner of the mouth, that's a good spot to hook them. On big fish, if you hook them in the roof of the mouth, they can shake off sometimes because it's very hard to get the hook completely through their head. On fish under 5lbs, it's not too hard, but on 10lbers it is. If you set the hook every time like it's a 10lber, then you'll be less likely to screw up if you actually do get hit by a 10lber.