Ideal Bottom Rod and Reel

[bajakian]

I am looking to get a high end quality rod and reel to fish the bottom from 100 to 250 feet for grouper and snapper such as muttons. I am considering the Daiwa Saltiga and Saltist reels, the Shimano Torium/Trinidad and the Avet LX 6.0/3. The Avet and Shimano reels have max drag about 20 lbs. The Diawa are about 24 but can be upgraded with different washers to much higher drags. The Avet is a lever drag, the others are not. Line capacity is about the same for a given size reel and all of them will hold a ton of 65 lb braid. They all are between 5 and 6 to 1 in high speed. Weights are also similar. I think the Avet is the only two speed reel. Anybody with any wisdom to share regarding these choices before I pull the trigger is invited to educate me. Thanks for your help.

Richard

[DIRTYFOOT2]

7' Cape fear 80lb blank, cut to fit your dimensions wrapped by your fav. rod guy ( andy @ extreme gets my vote). 50H Saltiga or Saltist w/ smoothdrags upgrade washers and bearings + cals grease. 80lb power pro w/ a 100' of 100lb pink yozuri flouro top shot. The alutec 12T gorilla is a superior reel for this application as well, but a bit more pricey. I believe the difference between the saltist, and saltigas is that the saltiga has titanuim spool and components making it lighter and more durable. I have been nothing but happy w/ my 50H saltist on a 30-50 star rod. For a relativley inexpensive light piece of tackle it has whooped some large bottom dwellers. Good luck

[quack quack]

[B767]

That IS a quality deep drop rig all right!!!!!

[cantdance]

Seen a few of the old bahamians use hand lines on tuna and make it look easy 50 pounders in the boat so fast sharks don't have a chance

[Another Grand]

I am a huge fan of Alutecnos, but there is only one rod/reel combo I would reccomend for bottom fishing.

Calstar 900H Chopped down a little, Accurate 665hxm. Chop a few inches of the top and you are good to go. Let me know if you are looking I have a friend that may still have access to one slightly used Accurate 665HXM and my buddy Chase could build you the rod for relatively cheap.

[justin ennis]

Get a zenaq monster buster and a trinidad 40 from anglers pro shop. Go down to mrbill1 3rd postSaltwater Fishing Discussion Board Including Inshore Fishing, Offshore Fishing, Saltwater Fly Fishing and Kayak Fishing

[Disco Lady]

CoÑo!!!!!!! QQ Thats A Cuban "Fin Nor" Bro!

[kyle]

My vote goes to the diawa saltist or saltiga like Butch said. The reels can't be beat. Only difference is I would go for the slower reel instead of the faster retrieve. That will give you a little more power.

For rods I prefer a graphite blank to glass. Feel a few out you'll find one that fits both you and the application.

[krisis7]

Check out the Penn TRQ 200

[Catch-All]

What Krisis7 said.

That Penn reel is a beefed up version of their Baja reel, with even more drag capability. The Baja alone has 27 lbs of drag spooled with 80# braided.

Richard, first, I try to keep everything simple and omit the bells & whistles. Here's how I break down my bottomfishing reel preferences. If I'm going to be holding the tackle and jigging it, then I like a star drag reel. You throw the lever and instantly begin cranking. It seems to me that the slight delay in throwing the lever drag to strike is enough that I have lost several very good fish due to the longer time it takes to throw the lever drag.

If I am bottomfishing with an electric reel, then I would prefer to use a lever drag reel with an attached motor, like the Dolphin or Lindgren-Pittman. The "give" of the lever drag means that you won't be replacing any gear teeth like I've had to do with my Senator's star drag when idiot crew members have thrown the reel in gear before the rig has touched bottom. You can imagine what the momentum of 12 lbs of lead will do to a star drag's teeth when that occurs. It's an expensive repair.

Here's another reason why to go with a reel/motor pack combo for an electric. Say a fisherman is on a fixed budget and can't afford to have both an electric setup and a manual deepdrop setup. If his motor pack shits the bed on him, he can at least take the motor off and use the reel manually the next day. That exact thing has happened to me twice with my ElectraMate.

Catch

[Boboe]

Penn 4/0 wide, or Penn 6/0 for bigger fish. Beat the star drag down and hang on

The gag to the left was caught in 250' on a 4/0 (regular width). That fish weighed 70# at the tournament scale, 24 hours later.

[Harry Klauber]

BoBoe,
Until this post from what I read from you I thought you had just about everything right. Penn 4/0 and 6/0 reels are the work horses of 25+ years ago and have been surpassed by so many reels it isn't even funny. What good is a reel doing you if all you are doing is hammering the drag down and hanging on. I would agree that a 70# gag is quite an impressive fish by anyone's measure but had you even tried to tangle with a fish like that close to structure and with less than 100 pound test the fish would have either cut you off or simply busted your line.

I'm quite familiar with the oil rig crew boat methods of hooking and dragging away from structure anything of size. I trolled behind a 1000 foot long steamship in the Indian Ocean and my line was 600# mono, my hooks 12/0 4X stainless, my rod of choice - the ship's railing, and my reels were universal - extra heavy elbow high leather welding gloves and as many hands as I could get on the line to help me. It took us miles to stop the ship so we just dragged whatever we hooked. That's about all you are doing with your "hammered down" drags. The reel makes little difference and could be Cono's Cuban Yo Yo!

[bajakian]

Originally Posted by Catch-All

What Krisis7 said.

That Penn reel is a beefed up version of their Baja reel, with even more drag capability. The Baja alone has 27 lbs of drag spooled with 80# braided.

Richard, first, I try to keep everything simple and omit the bells & whistles. Here's how I break down my bottomfishing reel preferences. If I'm going to be holding the tackle and jigging it, then I like a star drag reel. You throw the lever and instantly begin cranking. It seems to me that the slight delay in throwing the lever drag to strike is enough that I have lost several very good fish due to the longer time it takes to throw the lever drag.

If I am bottomfishing with an electric reel, then I would prefer to use a lever drag reel with an attached motor, like the Dolphin or Lindgren-Pittman. The "give" of the lever drag means that you won't be replacing any gear teeth like I've had to do with my Senator's star drag when idiot crew members have thrown the reel in gear before the rig has touched bottom. You can imagine what the momentum of 12 lbs of lead will do to a star drag's teeth when that occurs. It's an expensive repair.

Here's another reason why to go with a reel/motor pack combo for an electric. Say a fisherman is on a fixed budget and can't afford to have both an electric setup and a manual deepdrop setup. If his motor pack shits the bed on him, he can at least take the motor off and use the reel manually the next day. That exact thing has happened to me twice with my ElectraMate.

Catch

Mark -We need to go bottom fishing and electric reel fishing together.

[Catch-All]

Richard - okay!

Gaitor told me you have really nice electric reels on your ride. Since he has a Kristal 651 that tells me your stuff is really nice.

Catch

[Harry Klauber]

Catch All,
Richard is "up" on everything and has the best there is. He is totally prepared for whatever you are fishing for and then some! Any trip with him is going to be great.

[Catch-All]

Harry - yup, that's what I was saying.

But does he carry along hand grenades?

Catch

[Boboe]

Harry: 4/0's and 6/0's are good for charter fishing, because they're mainly idiot-proof, easy to fix, and don't cost a ton when the aforementioned idiot tosses it overboard. No doubt there are better new reels than these. My experience comes mostly from charter fishing, not oilfield service vessel screwing-off time.

Drag is only hammered-down when you're after the big boy and have to win the fight in the first 5 seconds. After he's off the bottom, the drag is backed off. I don't think I've ever fished beat-down drag for snappers, and incredibly rarely for jacks. That's mainly a grouper tactic.

The fish in the photo was caught on a highspeed 4/0 with 100# mainline, and (I believe...it's been 5 years now) 125# leader. It ate an entire bonita slab that weighed about 4#. We knew he lived there, as we'd had our asses whooped on that same spot by a big fish earlier that season. And with the drag beaten down, he still pulled drag at the beginning and got into the bottom. When we landed him, the leader was chewed to hell, and may have had 60# breaking strength remaining.