Game Outfit Setup, Braid Or Mono?

[vemanner]

Hello Raiders!

I'm doing a trip next year to the coral sea and researching the gear I should use, especially for trolling.

I really love to catch the biggest fish possible on the lightest gear possible, thats what gets me off ok. So designing a game outfit, thats the approach I'm going for. The last thing I want to do is 'skull drag' a fish in.

So what I've been thinking is, I want line capacity but at the same time a lighter rod and smaller reel. Chances are I'll be wrestling with biggish wahoo, dogies and maybe marlin etc. I've got a daiwa oceano game 15kg rod for a good price, and thats what I was after in terms of size. Correct me if I'm wrong, but testing this rod out it seams it can handle quite a bit of drag, and the 15kg thing is more an indication of what line the guides are designed to run? I mean, 5kg of drag barely puts a bend in it (going with the 30% rule). I've tested it with 15kg and 20kg of drag and it looks like it can handle that all day! I even pushed it a little more, and had some confidence it could manage.

Anyway, where I'm going with this is I'm thinking about running braid with a similar diameter to 30lb mono (something like 130lb) just to ensure it runs through the guides properly. I've checked out the Avet pro 30, and with that reel I'll be able to get 500m of braid and a small top shot on. I'll also be able to put 15 to 20 kg of drag on if I think I'm gonna get dusted by a big dogie.

I've been looking into it, and it looks like a lot of US marlin boats are all running braid now and the only thing they say it to use a little less drag when trolling so you dont pull the hooks. Mainly because you have less stretch on the strike.

At the end of the day though, I've got zero experience game fishing and would love some of you seasoned pro's to check over my thinking and let me know if you think I'm going wrong somewhere.

Thank you very much!

[whi7eindustries]

Hi Marty,

Sounds like a nice set-up your going to have, couple of things you might want to take in to consideration though. Firstly when trolling for Marlin, your strike does need to be quite high otherwise you won't set the hook, a Marlins beak is very tough to set the hook in. I don't know of any of the boys in my club SGFC that use braid to troll with. The other thing, if you use 130lb braid, there isn't much out there that you won't be able to skull drag in, we do alot of jigging with braid and have all downsized our braids from 80lb to 50lb and even lower for more capacity, its very tough stuff to break if get quality brands. Anyway, this is just in my humble opinion, I'm sure fellow Raiders will help you out some more. Goodluck and I hope you have an amazing trip.

Cheers, Tobe

[vemanner]

Hi Marty,

Sounds like a nice set-up your going to have, couple of things you might want to take in to consideration though. Firstly when trolling for Marlin, your strike does need to be quite high otherwise you won't set the hook, a Marlins beak is very tough to set the hook in. I don't know of any of the boys in my club SGFC that use braid to troll with. The other thing, if you use 130lb braid, there isn't much out there that you won't be able to skull drag in, we do alot of jigging with braid and have all downsized our braids from 80lb to 50lb and even lower for more capacity, its very tough stuff to break if get quality brands. Anyway, this is just in my humble opinion, I'm sure fellow Raiders will help you out some more. Goodluck and I hope you have an amazing trip.

Cheers, Tobe

Unreal Tobe,

Thanks for the reply. I've thrown out the whole 'traditional game outfits' in preference to heavy jigging gear.

So only jigging gear and popping outfits. I do a lot of jigging, so I'm glad that it will be something i'm familiar with.

I've talked to a bunch of people who just use jigging gear for all their marlin fishing now, and I'm keen to go down that path. Also, I'm gonna have a monster jigging outfit for the big doggies. I really would love to get one close to 100KG, so I'm gonna have an outfit capable of turning one of those suckers away from the reef!

Cheers

Marty

[Marlin01]

Marty,

Ive been using braid on my game gear for a few years now. I certainly found it too direct for my liking as in imparting far too much shock when a beakie or any large fish was headshaking so I now use a 80-100m nylon top shot and find this much better for fighting fish. But for versitility I would have to say my Torsa 40 loaded with 80lb braid and a 30m nylon top shot on a diawa monster mesh rod is pretty versatile and a fish killer. Comfortable to use and extremely light and effective.

Good luck on your trip.

Cheers Marlin

[Guest]

If you are going after big doggies and GTs and wahoo try one of the big stellas or daiwa saltiga expeditions as you can pop and jig with the same reel just change the rods and away you go.

Your traces will need to be heavy duty as well with 250 twisted wind on leaders and a short section of 3 or 400lb butt leader and you will have half a chance.

Gloves are mandatory as well and hold on tight with 20 or so kgs or drag as it will scare the crap out of you when the BIG BOYS HIT!!!!!

Doggies will test your tackle to the MAX and at 100kgs are virtually unstoppable in shallow reefs on any tackle and trust me you dont want to be down sizing any gear for the fish you are after in the Coral Sea...Elephant Guns for Elephants

Good luck on your trip

[whi7eindustries]

Marty, how'd you go dude? what did you end up getting? I'm currently on the first leg of a round the world fishing trip, I've brought with me two Saltist 6500, one with 50lb braid and the other with 80lb braid, both top shotted with 100lb double twist mono. A Hots One pitch slider 24kg jig rod and a shimano t-curve GT special 8ft popping rod, reckon this is the perfect travel combo, also looking for Doggies and GT's just like you. In Bali at them mo, shitty water but heading to the Gili's soon, fingers crossed for the pair of us, stay in touch and lets compare notes.

Tightlines dude

Tobe