Well I've gotten some good suggestiong from here and TT. So lets give a little more info.

The Rod having the problems is the Okuma 7' 11" XH that I won from here matched with a Calcutta 400TE

I can concede that the line might have been old and needed replacing the first day. However in my mind there shouldn't have been problems after I respooled with fresh line from a different spool then the first.

The casts usually have 2-3 feet of line out. Retying fairly often. Kinda had to when the line keeps breaking. Once I started catching the stripers the drag went off lockdown and I loosened it up a bit.

I had chalked it up to just older line needing replacing but even with a fresh spool the very first fish broke the line...

Ok I feel like im just bagging on the line so let me give some examples of what happened when I caught 5 more on the other rod combo ( custom wrapped Rainshadow, calcutta 400b) Was throwing the Slammer X-2 and had a 12 lb striper eat the bait head first with the back half sticking out the mouth. This means that the line was being sawed between the teeth and the wood bait during the fight. Caught the fish no problem when I got the bait out and checked the line it was knicked and crimped but held up. Retied and the VERY NEXT cast caught a twin of the first but this time the fish managed to wrap the line around the body maybe 2 times and the line held then to. I went on to catch 3 more fish that day no problem.

________________________________

Pretending to be a swimbait fisherman since 2001.