What to do??

So, I was flipping and pitching to a bunch of lay downs and gnarly trees. I came to this big mostly submerged tree and on the second or third pitch fed the craw tube down into the tree and POW, not a little tap or loading of the line, but POW. Set the hook and kept pressure on and he finally comes out and goes right, and I'm putting a lot of pressure on to turn him, and he finally turns and makes a big arc and I'm bringing him to the right side of the boat about a foot away and I'm thinking he's under control and the line goes limp. Don't know how big or what he was, maybe a catfish (cause of the way he hit) or huge bass I'll never know. Oh, well, continue fishing. A few hours later I make another pitch to a submerged lay down in front of the boat , pick up, feel weight and set and pull until he comes free. He goes right and I get a good look at him {prob 6#} as he goes down and arcs to the right side of the boat. And maybe just as he gets to the edge the LINE GOES LIMP. I figured I had him, even thinking how I was going to send a pic to my boy just to jostle him a little. So that's two really good fish lost in the same manner. So do I have to run to the back of the boat to keep tension? I'm a bit old for that.

What kind and size hook are you using with that craw tube?

Look at the distance between the barb and bottom of the hook. Big bass have big thick jaw bones. If the distance is shorter than the thickness of the jaw bone that could be your problem. If this is the case try a larger hook.

When I first started serious bass fishing I almost exclusively fished Texas rigged worms and craw worms. The lake I fished was full of grass. I found a hook by mister twister that used a straight barb to slide the soft plastic onto. Then you just buried the point in rhe body. It was a great hook for grass and with small plastics. I could make multiple casts without having to fix my worm where my buddies were having to fix theirs almost every cast because of the thick grass. This hook seemed to help me get more bites because my work stayed in place pulling it through the grass. But I found myself losing almost every big fish i hooked. I struggled with this until my mentor inspected the hooks I was using and showed me how there wasn't enough distance between the barb and shank to bury the barb on a large bass. I changed hooks and started getting them big girls in the boat finally.

3/0 EWG Jason Christie.

I no longer use EWG... Use an offset shank worm 5/0. If not that at least bump the EWG up a tad.

What gear ratio is your reel? I use a 7:1 and usually reel like a mad man and move backwards. If you're not that quick or mobile maybe a 8 or 8.5:1 would solve your problem

7:1 Tatula. 20# test Red Label. 7 ft Procyon rod. One of the stiffest I have. With the rod angle I had pressure would have brought him to the top or if I'd tried to reverse his direction I'd have pulled him toward the trolling motor. If I'd taken a few steps back I probably could have maintained pressure on him better. Just surprised me that I lost two good fish in the same manner. I thought I had them under control.

you didn't mention what size weight you were using but big bass will often clamp down on a bait and you never move the bait and hook on the hookset....they swim a few feet,open their mouth and the bait comes out and line goes limp.....this use to happen a lot when we were punching mats with 1 oz or larger lead weights....
my suggestion is to use a straight shank 4/0 hook or larger tied with a snell knot that kicks your hook sideways on the hookset and results in better hook up ratio.....river to sea has a new jack flipping hook with two eyelets that produce a snell knot effect when you set the hook....

Nothing is wrong with any of it. Just use heavy 25 lb. floro. and winch that fish to the top, then slide it across the surface and into the net. Problem solved. I never play a fish because I do not use light line. As soon as they come free they are sliding to the net.

Don't think anyone could've winched that first one to the top. If there'd have been a another guy in the boat I maybe could have done that with the second. I like the couple of steps back idea and might try the 8:1 reel thing. I definitely will try the snell knot on a different hook.