What colur tip were you using and what direction was the light coming from, and was there ripple?
Black bristle against a bright/ripple.
Try using a long coloured plastic tip on a body down float pattern and use a marker pen to make it banded so that you can see the dips of the tip or rises. If you were to completely black it out you might not see half the bites. Not all chop worm bites go straight down!
Only backshot when the conditions need it and then use the appropriate shot to match the conditions.