You're not going to miss fish like that because of your rod or line... time after time... trip after trip...change your bait and hook size and add an attractant like a nibble or one of the other power baits and catch a few of them so you know what you're dealing with. I use to really have to do this all the time when live bait fishing in the big rivers. You just have to change up until you can finally hook them. It's pretty popular for winter vertical fisherman in the rivers to add a stinger treble hook on a short line off the bait to catch light biting fish when its cold. Fish mouth around on the bait they jerk and catch them with the stinger.