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Big Fish, Big Tackle At Moderate Cost

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By Frank Sargeant, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 7, 2007

Late summer along the Gulf coast offers a final shot at blue-water fish for most anglers. With the waters of the Gulf Loop current at their warmest and the eddies of the ocean river sometimes pushing to within reasonable running distance of our shoreline, anglers with a desire for marlin, sailfish, wahoo and tuna have an opportunity that won't come back during the winter months, when many of these tropical species head south. Tarpon add one more possibility to the big game mix, and the silver kings are found much closer to shore through October.

But having the right gear to take on these ocean giants puts most of us on an unfamiliar playing field. It takes big, tough and often expensive tackle to have any hopes of landing a 300-pound blue marlin, should you ever be so lucky as to get a bite. And yellowfin tuna, typically around 150 pounds, are so powerful that most anglers don't want anything to do with them on wimpy tackle.

Even tarpon, found inshore at this time of year, require heavier gear than most of us use most of the time.

Saving Some Cash

Until recently, the right tackle for fish weighing more than 100 pounds was the classic revolving-spool reel, with icons such as Fin-Nor and Penn International getting the majority of the business. A reel set up to handle 80-pound test typically cost from $700 to more than $1,000, with another $500 or more needed to purchase a matching roller-guide rod.

For those of us not on a Bertram budget, the tackle cost alone was enough to prevent chasing really big fish.

But with the advent of dependable microfiber lines in the past decade or so, that has changed dramatically. Many anglers now depend on this ultra-thin line, which has one-third to one-fifth the diameter of the classic monofilament lines at a given strength. This means a lot more of the line can be put on a smaller spool and that you can use heavier line on a smaller reel.

As a result, many anglers who used to fish nothing but revolving-spool reels along the beaches for tarpon have switched entirely to spinning tackle, citing easier casting, fewer backlashes and better fish fighting with the no-stretch fiber line. Many east coast anglers also prefer spinning gear and braid to chase sailfish. And king mackerel, always a medium-tackle species, are now easy to whip on spinning gear.

There is a big difference in price. Heavy saltwater spinning reels typically go for around $150, with another $100 or so for a matching 7-foot rod with a powerful butt section; the whole rig, including microfiber line testing 50 to 80 pounds, can be had for around one-fourth the cost of traditional offshore tackle.

The inroads in blue water, more than 100 miles out in our area, have been slower to come, but these days most anglers carry at least a couple of heavy spinners loaded with microfiber in addition to their traditional revolving-spool reels. The spinning gear comes in handy when a pod of dolphin pops up along a weedline, or when a school of tuna shows on top, or if a cobia slips up along a buoy, requiring quick delivery of a bait to a location that would be tough to reach with a trolled offering.

Braided Gets Better

PowerPro and Stren Superbraid are the best lines I'm familiar with, but there are dozens more available. The relatively high price of these lines, two to three times the cost of mono, puts some first-time buyers off, but the stuff lasts almost indefinitely; there's no stretching or going brittle, as is the case with mono that gets worked hard on several big fish.

In the long run, it costs less to use braided because you rarely have to change lines.

There were several big issues with braided early on. It was so slippery it sometimes pulled right out of traditional fishing knots; it was so small in diameter that it sometimes cut right through mono leader tied on to reduce visibility close to the lure; and it formed wind loops when coming off the spool, much more frequently than mono. Changes in texture and stiffness of the lines more recently have made the slippage and the wind loops go away, and anglers have learned to double the braid before tying their knots to avoid cut-throughs on mono.

To be sure, there's still a certain elan about loading up a rocket-launcher with a $2,000-a-pop gold-finish Fin-Nor. But for tough tackle that does the job at a moderate price, offshore spinning gear now claims a place at the angler's table.

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