Last weekend I was fishing off Point Loma in 45’ of water near structure (kelp & reef). A fish chewed on my sardine swam a little and then took it. Using 25 lb conventional tackle with the drag as tight as I could possibly get it on a Penn 555 GS, I could not get the fish off the bottom and it continued to take line in short bursts. After 1 1/2 hours of playing tug-o-war and not gaining on it, the line snapped and came up frayed.
My question is what did I have and how could I have gotten it off the bottom? This happen one other time that day, but on light spinning tackle that never had a chance.