I've noticed a lot of people, while being chased by me, turn around and try to fishing rod me back. In doing so, they are now at a backwards walking pace, allowing me to run in for more hits. I don't understand why people do it. xD
That's what I was mentioning here:
pushing an enemy who is pursuing you in a chase away.
Hypothetical scenario: You are running away from someone who is higher in health than you are. You run until you run out of regen and need to eat. The enemy is around 7 blocks behind you (obviously not providing enough time for you to stop and eat). You quickly turn around and cast your fishing rod once and hit the pursuer. Now, at that instance, the pursuer has two choices: either continue chasing straight (and become an easy target for another rod hit) or strafe out of the way (and take a longer path to your enemy, also increasing the distance). From my experience, this is most effective when running around the corners of buildings, as the pursuer's movements are more predictable so the rod is easier to land.
As you can see, turning around and fishing rodding the enemy back is actually an effective tactic to gain distance from a pursuer. However, this tactic is also dangerous, as if the player were to miss his one or two chances to get a rod hit, the pursuer would close the distance and be able to hit the player.
Also, semi-related question: Do you play HiveSG? Because from my experiences, hive players seem to be very proficient in the art of rod accuracy and can use it effectively while being chased. I always get annoyed when playing Hive because those players are so good at running xD