9/0 setup questions

Started by scharebear, August 21, 2018, 10:44:36 PM

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biggiesmalls

A lot of things in shark fishing that come down to numbers are based on where and how you're fishing.

Spooling will have to do with the beach you're fishing. I'm not familiar with the Jacksonville area, so this will be up to you to decide. If you can get away with short drops, a short topshot is fine - but if you need longer drops, you'll want a longer topshot. You'll also want to go heavier or lighter based on what's on the bottom where you're fishing, if you've got lots of shells you'll want much heavier mono. If it's straight sand, you'll be fine going a bit lighter.
For a topshot - you generally want it to be as long as you imagine you'll be dropping. 50 yards, 100 yards, 150 yards, 200+, whatever.

Personally - I would spool with 300 yards of 130 lb hollow core (buy from Lee on here, screenname Keta), and top it off with 100 lb mono - if I recall correctly you can get about 300 yards on there. If it gets cut off near the top, you've still got a topshot long enough that you don't need to replace it. And, when you do eventually need to replace it, 300 yards isn't bad. The braid won't need replacing for years provided you take care of it.
It's about $45 shipped for 300 yards of the 130 lb braid from Lee, and it'll be about $15 worth of mono on top.

If you want straight mono - you'll have to replace it all whenever you need to replace it, instead of having the braid backing. And, capacity will go way down. Sharks to about 8 or 9 feet shouldn't be a problem with 500-600 yards of line. The only things that will take more are the big hammerheads, tigers, and exceptionally large bulls.

Rods - I had originally gone with a rod for my 9/0 that was about 5'7" or 5'8" from John (screenname Thorhammer). It's a nice rod, cut down an old Shakespeare blank. Looking back, I wish there was a bit more bend in the rod - it takes some serious force to bend it, I like rods with a bit more action, I think they wear down the fish better.
It will depend on how you plan to fight the fish, the rod length. Do you have a bucket harness and a plate, and you'll be doing stand-up? Or, will you just be throwing on a shoulder harness, or a bucket harness, strapping in, and sitting on the sand, south Florida style?
If you're standing up, you won't want over 6'6", personally I'd go under 6', maybe even closer to 5'6". A longer rod will wear you out too quickly.
If you're sitting, you'll want the line off the sand. Here I'd go with a 7' rod, again one that bends well to wear down the fish.
Ring guides are fine, I'd go something higher quality if you're using braid, but if you're just using mono, pretty much anything should work. There don't seem to be very many "bad" guides out there nowadays.

As for a handle, I ended up with two - one from Dawn at Smooth Drag, and one that Alan generously sent to me. The one from Dawn is good, but I much prefer how Alan's feels in the hand. If I were you, I'd send him a PM or email and order a replacement handle from him.
Any kind of upgrade you can do over the stock handle though - is well worth it.

Oh and I think someone touched on roller guides not handling sand well - I haven't seen many people that recommend them after using them. Sand and rollers don't seem to mix well.

For rigging - I'm going to respectfully disagree with Rudy's rig. An 8/0 circle is not big at all, I started out using that for casted shark baits and on 3-4' sharks, it looks tiny in their mouth. A 5-6' shark would have a good chance of swallowing that hook, and on a bigger fish, the hook almost definitely wouldn't penetrate, maybe until it was in the gut.
A 20/0 is not that big of a hook when you see it in a fish - it looks big in the hand, but trust me they're not that big. Mustad 20/0 are cheap and pretty great, you can still cut them with bolt cutters which is good too.
I'd go heavy Rosco swivels, heavy (at least 500 lb, preferably much heavier) mono, twisted/doubled up for 18-24" on either side and crimped. This will give you more thickness and will help when leadering the fish.
Single strand vs cable, personal preference - but I'd go #19 single strand. Look at shark's teeth - they're like saws, not razors. To me, it makes no sense to put braided cable in between those teeth - it will shred at some point or another. Single strand won't - it can kink, but most of what I've seen is people worried about it, not people having actually experienced it.

That's my 2c on the subject. Personally - I don't have much of a desire to kayak baits out anymore. It's much simpler to catch the 5-7' sharks on casted baits, far less equipment needed, mainly the kayak. I'll take 6 footers all day over one 10 footer - they still fight plenty hard :)

Tight lines,
Drew

scharebear

Thanks for the very detailed response.

I went with braid backing and 100lb mono top, 200yds.

Will let you all know when I catch one.

biggiesmalls

Great choice for spooling.

Tight lines
Drew