rods

busumark · February 27, 2008, 09:01:21 CET

with a 30lbs rod what size of fish can you catch before it breaks?

skip · February 27, 2008, 14:23:31 CET

It's an interesting question and one that I dont think isn't as obvious as one would think. I'm going to take a total guess here and say, it could be similar to a reel in that it's rated for 30lbs line. However the rod's breaking point may not necessarily be 30lbs. I think that rods are measured based on a dead weight, hang a specific weight off the rod end and eventually it will break, but I think that dead weight measurement might be less than the actual rating, ie. it could break at 10kgs deadweight or 12 etc.

I'm still guessing here and think it could be due to the fact that a reel should be set up to only exert x amount of drag pressure. If you have 30lbs line your reel shouldnt do more than 15lbs at full, or 10lbs at strike. 15lbs equates to around 7kgs so potentially the dead weight of a 30lbs rod might be around 8-10kgs to allow for some tolerance.

Thinking some more about this, 30lbs line is designed to break at around 30lbs (usually a bit more) so a 30lbs should be able to handle 30lbs of pressure being exerted on it. To have 30lbs of pressure that means that your reel is set to exert a max drag above 30lbs as otherwise the drag would be letting line out and there wouldn't be 30lbs of pressure on the rod. 30lbs or drag pressure can only be exerted by top notch reels as most max out at 24 or so so in all honesty it's pretty hard to break a 30lb rod whilst fishing, unless you are trying to dead lift an object out the water with it and then you would have to make sure that object weighs less than 30lbs!

We will have to do some research as I'm guessing!

shanook · February 27, 2008, 19:04:35 CET

Busumark the question is rather vague. In theory I can reel a 100/200lb fish with a 30lb rob. Let me explain this, If I have a 60lb line on a 30lb rod, so my drag is approx 20Lb safe on the rod. I catch a fish that is 150lb, no problem as long as I have enough line to tire the fish dont forget the fish is running with a 20lb weight sort of. It will tire in the end if not hard luck. The question that can break a rod is using a line drag, as skip well explained, that surpasses the breaking strain of the rod. Example: if I load my reel with 150lb line then my drag would be approximately 50lb that can break the rod. Thats why we use a leader which is heavier to the main line, because if I have a 30lb line for Alungi and I catch a tuna or a swordfish the leader will not break with the abrasion of the tuna or with the hard boney head of the swordfish not for its strenght. hope i made myself clear...........mind you I stand to be corrected.......

skip · February 27, 2008, 19:58:49 CET

Just to clarify, if you load your reel with 150lbs line then your best practice max drag would be 50lbs (1/3 breaking strength of the line), however most trolling reels are not capable of exerting 50lbs of drag pressure without hot-rodded drags. The only exeption that I know of is the famous Avet T-RX Quad which can do 100lbs of drag at free spool and Avet's PRO Ex which can do 50lbs, but in general if you want big drags, choose Avet Reels!

Of course unless you go with braid/spectra if you spool a reel with 150lbs mono you're not going to get much line on it!

busumark · February 27, 2008, 20:23:41 CET

i didnt understand exactly what you said. when we meet you can explain better. i dont know a lot about drag i dont fish with rods

shanook · February 27, 2008, 21:02:03 CET

Once u fish with a rod busumark u will never go back to hand lines. Its so much safer to land fish. If you troll with hand lines its not the first time that u had a line snap on u and u say WOW must have been a big fish.....with a rod u would be showing it off on MFF. mind u I still keep a hand line when fishing for alungi I like to feel the fish pull the fish gives when hooked..

skip · February 27, 2008, 21:46:41 CET

No worries, will be happy to quiz you about bottom fishing.

But in a nushell. The ratings on reels are Line weight ratings, nothing else. Just because you have a 30lbs line weight rated reel doesnt mean you can't put 50lbs line on, you would just be able to put less of it.

A 30lbs class reel will be marked 30lbs/375yards for example.
If you put 50lbs line on then it would only handle say 250yards, 80lbs 150yards etc so as you put thicker line on the reel gets full quicker.

With spectra which is very thin, 80lbs line is equivalent in diameter to say 30lbs mono and so you can put stronger line on without sacrificing line capacity, but this wont change how much drag pressure the reel itself can exert.

busumark · February 28, 2008, 14:30:44 CET

yes shanook that first pull is all the buzz of catching an alunga. i think better than reeling one on a rod