"Wayne B" wrote in message
...

On Thu, 25 Aug 2011 20:29:54 -0400, JustWait
wrote:

When I was a kid we were pretty poor.. and I mean literally. My dad and
I couldn't afford the 15-20 bucks for a proper fishing reel so we made
them. For the first couple years at the pond at the museum he was a
curator at, we used tomato stakes, string and brads (nails) to catch
bullheads, perch, and huge sunfish. As I got more into fishing and
started taking my bike with friends to local lakes and ponds, I used a
Michelob bottle (best shape for hand casting) and I bought a spool of
line once a year... I could cast that line as good as most of the other
kids with poles, however I didn't land fish as consistently. I really
didn't know much better, I just wanted to be fishing...

I can relate to some of that, used to spend a lot of time drooling
over fishing gear that I couldn't afford as a kid. The native guys
down in the islands fish with some amazingly primitive home made gear
and they do OK with it.


Reply:
Most of the Panguero's in Baja fish hand lines. land some large fish on
those lines. I fish a lot of different types if fish, living near the coast
of N. Calif. Trout in lakes and streams (flys in the stream), Trout from
both the boat and Kayak. Plus California Halibut in SF bay. Most in the
5-15# range, striped bass in the bay and delta, and I also fish out of San
Diego and SoCal ports. Last week of July I went on a 7 day long range trip
out of Pt. Loma in San Diego. Tuna and Yellowtail and some Dorado. We
fished Rocas ilijos which is 467 miles from SD and 150 miles off Baja. Need
good gear for these. Plus both bait fish and fish jigs. Tossing 5oz Sala's
and Tady jigs is both fun and takes decent rod and reel to handle the
casting. Biggest fish on the trip was 105# and my jackpot fish was 95.6.
http://www.pbase.com/q105/coastside_7_day photo of me on the left with the
large Ahi.