I have been having some issues with the line on my Wishing Pole which I keep on the ocean’s bottom hoping to lure in a big fish. The line on my new reel was the 35-year-old line that I had on my old reel. It was getting fragile and I did not have enough of it left to fight a big fish if necessary, nor could I find any of the 80-pound test Tuf Line Braided Dacron line I wanted locally so I had to order it from Amazon and it took two weeks to get to me. Well it arrived yesterday so today I loaded up my Shakespeare ATS 350 reel with it, grabbed my Shimano Saguaro rod and went fishing which is rare for me on a Saturday. I had also added 10-feet of rope to my pier gaff. Nothing was going to get away today.
The action was slow at my home base, the Ventura Pier, but I did manage to catch 2 Mackerel, 1 Smelt and 1 six-inch Croaker. My now totally new Wishing Pole outfit only got a few small tugs on it, but I did catch one fish—the six-inch Croaker which swallowed a chunk of bait almost as big as it was.
I will be hitting the road for my next few outings. On Monday, I fish Santa Barbara.
Stay tuned.
