Thanks for the tips, stlhdr1!

I went out last friday and tried the longer leader and a chrome/red headed spin-n-glow (one a local was using) and missed a good fish. It had to be a nice one-probably a salmon or a wild steelie anyway-because it hammered the rod about 5 good times, enough to throw the bell off a few feet back in the sand. I ran down to set the hook, but by the time I picked up the rod the fish was already gone . I would have got down to it a lot sooner had I not been up by my truck bull$hitting with some other dudes .

BTW I seen 6 fish beached and only 2 were hatcheries. Also, I seen different approaches on hooking the fish. Some guys would run down to their rods and pick them up slamming back on their hooksets like they were hooking into a 1,000 pound marlin or something. Others would grab the rod and run up the beach like they were sprinting in a marathon. Others would set the hook gentley, and yet others would reel like hell until they came up solid with the fish. Which is best in your opinion? One guy commented that most of the time the fish gets itself hooked and there is no reason to set the hook. This was not the case with the bite I had, unfortunately.