I fished 5 times since last catching a decent fish in February.  Shoreline whipping and kayak bottom fishing.  Bolo’d every time.  Heard from Thad that the kaku were hitting top water lures at one of his spots and I really wanted to catch a fish on the 13 Fishing Omen travel rod and Z bait casting reel I’ve been trying to test.  Since the Z reel cast light lures so well I replaced the mono with 20lb Sufix 832 Coastal Camo braid to see if I could cast the light lures further without backlashing.

The morning I picked was a peak box jellyfish day and there were stranded jellyfish drying out on the exposed reef flat and floating in the calm water. That kept me on dry land.

I started with my go to 3/8 oz top water “walk the dog” lure Thad turned me onto a couple of years ago.  Made a 3/4 effort cast and it went flying off my line.  Arrgghh… I had put on the new Sufix 832 too loosely and hadn’t wet the line before casting. It backlashed and broke at the FG knot connecting the Sufix to my fluoro leader.  I thought of wading out to retrieve the floating lure but with so many jellyfish in the water I bid it farewell. Hope the finder will catch lots of fish on it.

The Sufix backlash was much easier to pick out than previous PowerPro backlashes. That was an unplanned test with a positive result.

 

 

 

 

 

When I spun my Patagonia sling bag around to tie on another leader I realized my Promar floating landing net was missing.  It was connected to the bag with a Rapala Magnetic Release Clip and the net must’ve snagged something as I walked and pulled off.  I retraced my steps back to where I remember holding the net in my hand and found it tucked away in the bushes. Some Good Samaritan must’ve found it, and left it partially hidden in the hopes that the owner would know to look for it.  The two magnets on the clip are strong yet easy to pull off and reattach. I gotta be more aware next time I wade.

I was beginning to wonder what else was gonna go wrong. Trip and fall head first into a pile of box jellyfish?  I strung up the Sufix through the rod’s guides, tied another FG knot to the fluoro leader and put on the same type of top water lure in another color. No backlashes even with a side wind, but the line piled up on one side of the spool.  What the heck?  Doh, when I pulled off the backlash and stopped to find the net, the braid had slipped out of the level wind guide and I strung up the rod with the braid running on top of the reel. What a dufus!  I undid the FG knot, ran the the Sufix through the level wind guide and rod guides and just tied a simple Uni to Uni knot to join the braid to fluoro leader.

Back in business, I made a series of casts with a tail wind and a side wind and the Z reel was able to cast for distance without overruns. Even with heavier, thicker braid I get more backlashes on my other bait casters. I’m really impressed with this ball bearing less reel.  But I didn’t get a single boil on the lure and am still waiting to see how the setup will handle a fish.