Hesitate as I pick up fish, wrapped in bacon, say (4,1,4)

'hesitate' is the definition.

'i pick up fish wrapped in bacon say' is the wordplay.
'pick up' is a reversal indicator.
'fish' becomes 'bass' (bass is a kind of fish**).
'wrapped in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'bacon say' becomes 'meat' (bacon is an example).
'bass' in reverse letter order is 'ssab'.
'i'+'ssab'='issab'
'issab' going inside 'meat' is 'MISS A BEAT'.

'as' is the link.