I know the kind of bites you are talking about. That happened a lot to me at Margarita for whatever reason. I think it's probably smaller fish that are hitting at the tail instead of trying to eat the bait. It could also be fish that are trying to grab the bait by the throat and not getting hooked. I pretty much never rig a stinger hook on the 5" big hammer because like you said, it can mess up the action and it fouls in the weeds a lot, which is typically where you want to be fishing in the post spawn and summer time. All I can say is to try to gauge the bite and make the appropriate hook set. If the line goes slack or you get a good thump, those are the ones to just slam the hook on. If you get the tap tap tap bite, try to wind through it and wait until you feel the fish move off with the bait in either direction, then hit them. When you start hooking those tap tap tap bites, I'd bet any money they are 10 to 13" long fish. I'd also recommend putting megastrike on your bait. It stays on a long time and lubes it up nicely.