keep testing that theory since you seem to catch quite a few crankbait fish.

I would say start counting them and see what percentages do and don't. A lot will be relevant to where they are hooked.

I do see your point, because when you pull on the fish and they do throw it you actually pull it away from them. If they try and throw it with slack line and they do throw it, there is a great chance that they will hook themselves again because there is not pressure from a different angle.

Like tossing a ball from hand to hand, if there was a string attached and someone pulled on it as it was in flight it would change paths. There are other variabes to consider:

Angle in which the bait is thrown left or right
Hooked left or right
hooded top or bottom
size of hooks
size of crank bait

test your theory. There are more variables than I listed

Good luck and keep us posted

Interesting theory. My only concern is fish are really good at spitting out what doesn't feel right and I don't know if I can retrain myself to wait. . For myself, I think too many guys set the hook on a crank like they would on other lures. I keep a light drag unless I'm in heavy cover and I let the rod just load up with the fish and do a sweep set. After that, keeping slack out of the line is key.

Finally, a stretchy mono can really help-I use trilene XL on my crank rods.

I had a top water bait that was getting thrown 3 out of 5 times by big and small bass. I tried different techniques and you know what ended up getting ratio to 0 out of 5 was.... Better hooks. I went out and bought the angled treble hooks from Academy. I don't remember the brand right off, but these hooks allow it to dig in a little easier. That being said, worked great for top water since I wasn't bumping into trees, but it may help if you had some better quality hooks. I know it's helped me on other lures as well.

I do agree that too much pressure will pull out the hooks when they jump. I had a hard lesson in this not long ago with a fish of a life time for me. I have had varying levels of success in landing fish I catch on traps. I used to fish these on a MH graphite rod. I switched to graphite rods more technique specific which helped but I still lost fish. I had a buddy that told me to loosen up the drag and let the fish play out more.
I now let the fish run more. I don't let the line go completely slack but I keep enough pressure on them to tire them out. To keep them from jumping so much I found keeping my rod tip low to the water keeps them down. They still jump some but they have a softer rod tip and less drag which I guess means more "slack".
Since switching I have not lost any fish. I lost one where I got impatient and tried to horse it in. Sure enough it jumped and spit it out.