The barnacles have come into play. Martens set the hook after only a minute or two of being here and came back with an empty line.
"It was moving," he said. "It felt solid."
But evidently it was too close to the piling. Those barnacles are as sharp as razors.
Yesterday Martens took special care to set the hook in a way that would take the fish away from the barnacles. He's doing that today, but every precaution can't take care of the overall mass of barnacles on these pilings.