Reels

[Duke]

Looking to make my first sword trips and looking at reels. Have several TLD 25's and 6/0s as well as access to 9/0s. Which are the ones to go with. Looking at braid 50 on the 25's and 6/0 or 80 on the 9/0?

[ronfishing]

duke i have had same ? look at some of the topics these guys will share lots of info for you i have found out a lot good luck

[hannaman]

Duke, Save your TLDs for the reef. If you can get your hands on at least one 50 wide it will be worth it. I got dumped a few weeks back on a TLD 50 were we had to start the boat as fast as possible to get cranks back on the reel. You need to fish these guys like every fish is going to be a slob. Sure you might catch 100 pounders or you can get lucky like the guy who went out with only 2 rods and boated a 200 plus fish. Don't go out there prepared for small fish only, you'll get very depressed when that nice fish dumps that TLD 25 in about 15 seconds flat.

[kai akua]

the tld 25 are plenty beffy with braid. most people dont use more than 20lbs of drag (so why use 80lb line?). spool those bad boys with 40lb spectra, and you will have a but load of line on that real. if you need more drag palm it.

but a tld 25 is fine for swording here in florida.

good luck!

R

[kai akua]

however hannaman, does have a valid point. but i think if you spool a tld 25 with 40 lb braid, you might get about 1200yds on it. if you want more line than that go with 30lb braid, i am sure you can get a whole 1500yd spool on thier. but make sure your max drag is set to about 16-18lbs

R

[FinalPoint]

I'm gonna be out there with this (braided line of course)
http://www.avetreels.com/flash/main.html
I'm pretty sure you can max it out at 16 lbs of drag.

That didn't work...it is the SX 5.1

[CaptainEd]

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.

[Duke]

Great input! Any experience with the Titus gold or silvers. Also are the Diawa 900 lever drag?

[CaptainEd]

No experience with the Titus gold or silvers. The Diawa 900's are star drag. The reels are very smoothe and hold up well under pressure. For around 150.00 they're a great value. The Penn International 50VSW 2 speed is a better reel, hands down. It also sells for 599.00 plus tax so 636.00 out the door at Bass Pro Shops. Spool it with 80lb JinKi add 100.00 more. Now you're at 736.00 plus whatever stick you buy. :idea: I would try a year with the Diawa's and if you still haven't kicked this glow fever break the bank and burn some $$$ on the Penn's. One more thing worth mention. I use only straight butt poles and stand up fight the fish. A lot of people don't like the bigger reels 90's and 130's because they are heavy and cumbersome for some compared to a 50VSW for stand up.

[kai akua]

Hey FP... you serious about that SX? i have one sitting in my hand right now. just picked it up a few days ago. cool little real. smaller than i remember the old style SX's. but i maxed it out warmed up at about 22lbs (pulling at the spool).

i am gona rig the bad boy with some 30lb spectra (about 1000yds), no top shot and 15ft leaders.

i also have the MX and i really like it. very smooth and well built. probaly more suited to swording with 40lb spectra i think.



light tackle dosent kill fish, unless they get tail wrapped. dragging a 40inch fish through the ocean on a dead in the water boat kills it. want more drag... put your palm on the spool.

[FinalPoint]

I agree Robbie! It's a sweet reel huh? I just got it shipped to my house (the blue one). Nothing wrong with 800 yards of line...that is plenty (usually).

[TotalMarine]

I like the Avet SX. An Avet rep. gave Vinnie and his brothers one to try out about a year ago and told them to try and break it. I fished with them a bunch of times and we locked it up on some Swords, pulled real hard on a couple AJ's and Corey took it to the Bahamas for a week. They didn't have one complaint about them. Great reel, fast retrieve, holds allot of line, and extremely smooth drag.
Around that time they also tested out a Tica 50W Team Series concept reel, lets just say that one was given back early.

[swordfish123]

Duke:

I have experience with the regular Titus 50w reels. we bought 4 of them on ebay for about 90 a piece. I have not hooked on sword on them but have caught a marlin on one, and i gotta say it performed flawlessly and that thing took 400 yards of line out a couple times over. i dont konw the max drag on it, but its pretty high i think. Certainly high enough for swords. Its a very light reel which is good, but im not sure what happens when you strap up to a harness and apply 30lbs of drag..im sure it doesnt hold up as well as a gold reel but like i said you get what you pay for.

anyway thats just my input

[Anonymous]

We boated a (74inch) 200 pound Swordfish with a Titus 50w as well as quite a few other Swordfish and the reels work fine. I have one and a friend of mine has a couple, I like them. They are light and with the braided line you have capacity. I also have a Titus Gold 50w II, it is new and I haven't caught anything with it yet. It is a cheap ($$) reel seems to be built well, just checking it out see what happens.

I have 2 TLD 50w 2 speeds, like them. We boated a 215 pounder on the same reel the night before Christmas. I also have (2) 9/0, (1) 6/0 and a international 50. they all have caught a chit load of fish from Tuna/Marlin/Mako thru Swords and did the job fine, never been spooled yet. I am going to be selling off some of my gear and switch over to Tiagra 50w's and 80w's not because my gear is no good. I think at this point I want to have gear that is all the same and not a hodgepodge.

If you are starting off from scratch, listen to what Cary said and try and buy good gear from the get go, so you don't lose a good fish because your gear was inadequate. Always be prepared for the unexpected, those guys got one heck of a huge Mako a few weeks back, they had the right gear. You always want to have the right tools to get the job done.

[swordfish123]

Originally Posted by SwordSlasher

a friend of mine has a couple,

i bet your talkin about mark aka sabiking...havent seen him around in a while..he taught me all the basics through instant messanger :lol:

Duke, if you are tight for cash like i was i'd seroiusly consider em. if you are needing rods too i found some for a good price with all aftco rollers and slick aluminum butts and reel seats for like $100 a piece. they are 30/80 which seems to be a perfect match for swords, light enough tip with a heavy butt section. the only problem is the rollers are not wind-on or heavy duty, but i can get a 300lb wind on through with no problems, large 50lb bimini knots will only sometimes stick if not tied cleanly

4 of these combos cost me $800... i think you can get one Tiagra 80 for around there :shock:

[CaptainEd]

light tackle dosent kill fish, unless they get tail wrapped. dragging a 40inch fish through the ocean on a dead in the water boat kills it. want more drag... put your palm on the spool.

Over playing kills fish too. I've seen it too many times for you to tell me different.

[CAPTINMITCH]

I'm surprised my name hasn't been dragged into this already.

Simply put, if you can afford 50s or 80s by all means use them. There are some slobs cruising around out there. Conversely, if you have 25's, they will work fine on a good standup rod. Don't let anyone fool you, you can land quality fish with smaller gear With the lighter gear however, it is imperative to have a good angler and throttle jockey as you will wind up chasing bigger fish.

[tunaman81]

The key here is a smooth drag and good line capacity. Smaller reels with these characteristics will work fine, as long as the fish can't spool you by going straight down. Also, like Mitch said, it helps to have a good man on the throttles to chase down a big fish.

[JahMussa]

You can get almost 1500 yards of 50# spectra on a TLD25 if line capacity is what you want.

I have a special about to start on the Okuma Titus Gold 50WII reels for $300 each. Anyone wanting to try an inexpensive 50W 2 speed reel... now's your chance. Contact me at Tek@ReelProShop.com.

[INSPECTOR]

I use an Okuma Titus Silver 50WII when swordin. Don't have any complaints with it to date and actually prefer it over some of the more expensive heavier reels due to the weight. To date, the reel's been tested up to 100 LB fish - will let you know how it performs when challenged with that 200 LBer soon to be caught.