What to spool up with?

[Dakaras]

As you may have seen else where on the forum, Im in Gozo in a few weeks time, Im leaving the wife to sort the rest of the packing and putting my energies into sorting out enough kit to fish

Im bringing 3 reels. 1 for fishing lures (hopefully Barracuda at night) 1 for bottom work and then a spare. What would you guys suggest I spool up with. All reels are fixed spool and are ones I use for pike fishing in uk so can hold a pretty decent amount of line if required. Ive usually have 15lb mono on them, or braid for touch ledgering rivers in UK for barbel.

[Simon G]

I prefer braids but 15lb mono is good too.  barracuda rarely cut the line but you might encounter blue runners or vadigos which will cut the line

[redbus9]

just bought a new penn 115L 9/0 senator.It holds 675yds 50lb mono thats 615m of 0.7 mm mono.What line would you recomend for trolling for albacore and bluefin tuna and maybe use the same line for lampuki? Perhaps Gottie the  albacore king can help.I would like to have the make of the line and breaking strain.Thanks guys.

[skip]

Keith,

For Albacore and Bluefin Tuna you could happily settle with the 50lbs mono putting around 600 yards of 50lbs mono and then finishing with 25 yards of 80lbs Flurocarbon.

Make of the line is very much dependant on what you can find in your area as I suggest you have the line spooled by a proper line winding machine. Good quality mono is important, so brands like Berkley Big Game or Hi Test, Momoi Diamond, Ande Premium etc. If you don't find these post what line can be offered.

For the flurocarbon don't buy cheap stuff as you will be disappointed with knot strength etc, and beware its not cheap. Seaguar fluro is excellent, so is Blackwater and Yozuri HD. You need to go to slightly heavier line on the fluoro as the breaking strength is not as tolerant as mono. 50lbs mono might break at 70lbs, whereas 50lbs fluoro will break close to that, so you need to go slightly heavier for a safety margin.

For lampuki that reel is an overkill so you are then better off choosing a 20-30lbs reel or else changing your line when the time comes. From personal experience I think lampuki are more fun to catch on hand lines or light weight tackle, and finding the big lampuki 5kgs plus isn't that common until the end of the season in Nov etc.

[shanook]

Cant compare albacore with tuna, the difference is tooooooooooo big. Albacore u can fish with 20/30lb line and u will land the biggest albacore there is on a small spool. TUNA thats a different story.... A small tuna 20kg u need a good amount of nylon on the spool as their run is down and hard.(tuna dont have to have water passing thru their gills to breath as albacore do) so it can pull forward all the time). if u encounter a larger tuna u need at least 60/80Lb again with a good amount of nylon on spool. The 115 should be ok, as long as u set the drag right (star drags grrrrrrrr).
Leader i agree with skip, for lampuki i would rather use a smaller reel as well as a lighter rod (more fun). this can be used to cast as well if u feel like trying that out.

[redbus9]

Thanks for the information guys.I,ve got a penn super mariner reel as well.I think I,ll spool that up with 30lbs line for lampuki and keep the penn 9/0 for albacore and tuna that should be ok.

[skip]

Post some pics of the reel if you can and it's arrived. I will create a new section in the Gallery

[gottie]

Although you dont need 80lb line for albacore one thing is sure : if you're lucky you can get a strike from a blue fin tuna while trolling for Albacore. And if that rare opportunity comes by, you certainly dont want to miss it.

A good way to get the most out of your reel is by using spectra line such as power pro. Its thinner so you can put more line in your reel. Then after the spectra you should use good quality mono.

If your reel is not big I would suggest 50 lb power pro and 50 lb berkley mono.

If you have a bigger reel I would go for 80 lb strength Power pro and the 0.70mm thick Berkley.

[skip]

Gottie, the 115L will hold 675 yards of 50lbs mono, so I reckon on that reel putting Spectra backing for the type of fishing Keith wants to go for is a bit of an overkill and a huge expense.

I ran Spectra backing on various reels and have come to the conclusion that it's good if you don't have a big reel and want to increase your line capacity but otherwise it's not needed. It's true Spectra will outlast mono by a long way, but you have to go fishing a hell of a lot to make it worthwhile.

Let's be honest, anything over 16kgs is pretty rare at the moment in Malta hence I reckon you don't need more than a 30lbs Wide reel or a 50.

In fact what I am thinking of doing it taking the Power Pro Spectra backing that I have on my crappy Lineaeffe and putting it on one of the 30lbs reels to increase the line capacity, but that's the only reason why I would do it.

If I find a fish that dumps 600 yards of line off my spool regardless of my drag setting, then I'll have to conclude that fish was too big for my set up!!

[gottie]

Yes you're right, but 2 summers ago, while trolling for albacore, something big bit my lure and immediately cut my line. And I still have nightmares about that day. At least I would have loved to enjoy a decent fight with the fish. So now I go heavy not to take any chances. Let the big fish take the challenge and see if they're up to it !!!

[redbus9]

hi skip,i would like to post some photos of the reel but i dont know how to post them on the forum,i know how to send them as an e-mail attatchment.perhaps you can give some advice how to do it?

[skip]

Click on the Gallery Button at the top of the page
Then click on the Gallery Name: Reels
Then click add a picture

Enter the Title (Name of the reel etc)
Make sure the Category is Reels
Put a short description of the reel etc or whatever you want people to see
Enter a keyword which would be used to search (eg. Penn, Senator, 115L)
Click Browse and locate the picture on your hard disk
Then Click Open
And finally Upload

Job Done

[twoutes]

Hi Keith. That's a good looking real you have purchased mate. I can highly recommend Momoi (Blue Mist) or Maxima (tournament silver) mono' fishing line. Don't forget to set the drag at 1/3 the breaking strain of the line, which in your case would be around 8kg. By using 24kg line on that reel you will handle those large blue fin tuna we came across no problems, and even much bigger fish. As Nick suggested, set up another outfit (much smaller) for Lumpuki. I always have a double line of about 6 metres long tied with a 'plait' or 'Bimini' knot for extra strengh for the last stages of the fight. You then attach your much hevier leader with the use of a swivel or 'wind on' System.
Good luck, and l hope you get a big one!

[redbus9]

Hi Joe,whats a ,plait, or ,bimini, knot? Where can I find a site that shows me how to tie it? Glad you like the reel mate.

[MartinB]

Hi redbus9,
Just follow this link it this link for the bimini twist knot :- http://www.worldseafishing.com/tackle/knots/knots_bimini.html
there's a bunch of other knots there to.