Lift, reel, repeat

The longer rods offer nice advantage when trying to pick up a lot of line in a hurry if you get bit towards the end of a longer drift. Depending on the action and power of the rod you are using, you may need to really exaggerate the hook set (soft/slow action rods) or you may need to just sweep your tip up to get tension on the line (fast, more stiff rods). Having your hand(s) in a position to quickly brake the spool while setting the hook tends to be the tricky part. I use both my fishing hand (hand on the rod) and my support hand to brake the spool while fishing and switch back and forth to try and save one or the other from excessive fatigue on a longer day of pinning.

Once the fish is on, I wind up with my fishing hand cradled between the rim of the reel/spool and the cork on the rod (see photo stolen from internet below), using tension between the two as drag. I think most pin reels have clickers, I typically click mine over if it is going to be a decent fight, this helps prevent a rat-[Bleeeeep!] in the event that you lose control of the drag and the reel free spools.



Having a bit of bank/shore accessible sure helps with the landing process. Getting fish close enough to the boat with a long rod and/or not having much in the way of bank to work with are pretty entertaining affairs.

I don't have many veteran pin spinning friends and am too curious at how the pro's do it.