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CaptainEd · 02-17-2005, 04:23 PM

I use Penn international VFW 50's Diawa 900H's and Penn 80's spooled with 80lb JinKi. I have one of my 80's set up & rigged for a mako with heavier line and leader. They are all performing great. I much prefer lever drag over the star drags though. I started out with smaller stuff and lighter line. I lost a lot of nice fish from using light gear and even worse I killed a lot of small one's from having to play them out so long. That 20lbs of drag is only a guide line not a rule. I use more drag than that succesfully more often than not. I see a small fish on the first haul up to the light and I tighten down on him, get him up to the boat try and recover as much of my gear as possible and make a quick release while the fish still has some game left in him. It's a bad feeling to have to let an overplayed fish in the 40's drift away from the boat dead from being played out too long and it's not good for the fishery. I think how you set up your rig, size of squids, types of hook(s) make a big difference of where your fish is hooked and how good he's hooked. Of course swords are sloppy eaters so you're going to get foul hooked fish...

I also want to be prepared for the 250-350lber. I know some of you think you can land a slob like that on a Zebco with 12lb test but in reality it aint happenin.

If you are trying to keep costs low the Diawa's are great low cost reels. If you have some of the extra cash to drop try the Penn VFW 50's and I would not go any lighter than 60lb test.

02-17-2005, 04:23 PM	#7 (permalink)
CaptainEd Hooked Up Join Date: May 2004 Location: Dania beach Occupation: USCG Master Captain Posts: 272	I use Penn international VFW 50's Diawa 900H's and Penn 80's spooled with 80lb JinKi. I have one of my 80's set up & rigged for a mako with heavier line and leader. They are all performing great. I much prefer lever drag over the star drags though. I started out with smaller stuff and lighter line. I lost a lot of nice fish from using light gear and even worse I killed a lot of small one's from having to play them out so long. That 20lbs of drag is only a guide line not a rule. I use more drag than that succesfully more often than not. I see a small fish on the first haul up to the light and I tighten down on him, get him up to the boat try and recover as much of my gear as possible and make a quick release while the fish still has some game left in him. It's a bad feeling to have to let an overplayed fish in the 40's drift away from the boat dead from being played out too long and it's not good for the fishery. I think how you set up your rig, size of squids, types of hook(s) make a big difference of where your fish is hooked and how good he's hooked. Of course swords are sloppy eaters so you're going to get foul hooked fish... I also want to be prepared for the 250-350lber. I know some of you think you can land a slob like that on a Zebco with 12lb test but in reality it aint happenin. If you are trying to keep costs low the Diawa's are great low cost reels. If you have some of the extra cash to drop try the Penn VFW 50's and I would not go any lighter than 60lb test.