A broken ajing rod on #0.4 ester line

Our usual strong-current spot. This time, however, ordinary methods were getting very little response.

Time for something outside the usual approach.

I used a 10.5 g sinker, a 2.5 g tungsten jighead, and a 2-inch kibinago-style baitfish lure.

Then I wound it straight along the bottom, fast to very fast.

That day, the fish showed no interest at all in the slow retrieves, little twitches or pauses so typical of ajing. Even my wife was finding it extremely difficult.

Ignoring the small fish

During the fast retrieve, I ignored the bites from tiny aji—about 10–12 cm that day—and did not strike.

Taps, knocks, little pulls, even sharp, sustained tugs. I let them pass.

When a larger fish came, the rod grew heavy. There was an interesting sensation of the lure being drawn in, and the rod bent.

The first was around shaku size, roughly 30 cm. I lifted it out easily.

Something much bigger

Then came another take: again, the feeling of the lure disappearing into a large mouth.

The rod bent more deeply than before. For a moment I wondered whether I had snagged the bottom. Surely not.

I pulled firmly, and gradually it began to come towards me.

Bringing it up from the bottom in that strong current took time. Even when it was directly below me, I still could not see the fish.

Perhaps it was not an aji. A flash down below made me wonder whether it was a chinu, a black sea bream.

I kept winding. It rose. Its body flashed sideways.

An aji!

A big one.

“Get the landing net!”

“I haven’t brought it.”

What…?

The lift—and the crack

I decided I would have to lift it out.

Just as I began, I caught sight of the angler beside us running over with a net. But I was already committed to the lift.

I pulled the fish up. There it was, right in front of me.

Huge! A “giga aji”?

As I reached to grab the line, there was a sharp crack.

The rod had broken. Yes. Broken.

This was the early 34 Advancement HSR-610. Perhaps its stiffness had something to do with it. It was strong, but I had discovered a brittle side too.

Then again, I had bought it used. How much the previous owner had used it was a mystery, so there were things I could not know. Well, it had happened.

By a curious coincidence, a used Version 2 was due to arrive that very day or the next. I had to laugh.

Next time, if an aji was well over 30 cm, I would let it down below the breakwater instead. There had been no cats there that day; I should have done that.

Back home, it weighed 427 g.

“Giga aji” is the author’s excited impression during the lift. The original photograph gives the measured length at home as 36 cm; the article gives the weight as 427 g. The cause of the rod’s failure is not established.

A later entry: the HSR-610 comes back from repair.