Greg,

Sometimes you can do everything right and still not get the metal in the fish. LMB have a lot of room in that mouth and the hook may not connect. I agree with Island Fly about the importance of adding a line pull to your strike and not using just the very flexible rod tip. I would also suggest a second strike with line pull and rod tip to make sure the hook gets seated well.

But that being said, I would guess that you lost the fish because you had too much slack in the line. I fish Gurgle Pops all the time and I find that a large number of my strikes come very quickly after the fly hits the water. I have lost a number of fish because I failed to get the slack out of the line immediately after the cast. You have to get that line under control as soon as the lure its the water. Also, for what it's worth, I get many more strikes on a Gurgle Pop when I fish it with a very slow crawl and twitch retreive. Good luck, I hope this helps. 8T