Swimbait Help

[JHolmes]

OK guys, I need a little help. I've fished very little with swimbaits, but last weekend, I thought conditions were just right. The fish wanted just a little different presentation than a fast moving crankbait, so I made the switch over to the swimbait. I began getting good strikes, but was not able to land a fish. The first couple of strikes, I understood missing because I was maybe a little quick on the draw, but the rest of them, I let the fish take the bait and begin to swim off before setting the hook, still no successful hook set. On the last one, I even showed my fishing partner that I had a fish on. I could tell it was a good one just by the way it was swimming off. I told the guy in the boat with me to watch me attempt to set the hook to see if there was something else I was doing wrong. Sure enough, when I pulled back to set the hook, the fish didn't really move a whole lot, which confirmed to me that he was a good one. About a second later, he spit it out. I was so frustrated, I don't know what else I could have done. I know that you sometimes just miss fish, but that was the fifth one with similar results.

I was fishing with the Berkley Hollow Belly Swimbait, rigged weedless. The fish were hitting it hard as they ripped both eyes out of the bait. The hook was getting pretty good exposure as the bait did slide up the hook like I would imagine it should. Any suggestions?