Kick #### Gulf and East Coast bottom fishing reel

[Whit]

Friends:

For Red Snapper and Grouper bottom fishing off Florida East and West Coasts I'm thinking that a PERFECT project reel might be the good ole black 114 6/0 with the slow gear ratio, and 80 lb line.

Question: what would YOU do to fix it up?  Before you answer, please know this:  NO drag is acceptable.  We tighten the drags down with pliers!

This is all about winning the first ten yards before we get the fish in open water.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Whit

[Keta]

If you want zero drag I could cut you a set of metal washers that are keyed AND eared.

[fIsHsTiiCkS]

Just depends on how much money you want to spend. 114h is an awesome reel or a daiwa 600h. Both have drag upgrades from Adam, that will give you crazy lock down drag numbers. The 114h upgrades are limitless.

[PE Pete]

Hey whit how much drag are we talking & how big are these fish??
I'm from NZ so not familiar with the fish your referring to.
We just fished the King bank over here & landed Bass (wreck fish) in 200m upto 60kg I was using a Dogfight with about 12-15kg of drag but know what you mean about winning that first few yards.
Pete

[Whit]

Well I am using 80 lb mono, which has a good elastic effect to yank the fish away from their hiding places, but am thinking of going with some 130 braid.

Best so far this year has been an 18 lb red snapper, which did manage to make it back into its hole before we plucked the tight string like a guitar and then threw the line into slack - and it swam right out and - with assistance -  then upward to our gaff!

Blu_Cs

[thorhammer]

Now, you may ask why he needs 130 braid and lockdown on a 18 lb snappa.....those ledges are full of rocks and coral plus you might well get bit by goliath or warsaws, and I once had snapper bait eaten by a nurse shark big enough that she torqued a solid glass magnaflex about 10 degrees out of true (not to mention my back). That was on a 114HLW. We fish the same way in NC and I would say you def want to get a SS sleeve and improve drag stack. With the lower gear ratio of the 114 and zero stretch of braid, plus added torque of the power handle you'll likely get,  I'd say rounding off the brass sleeve might be your biggest worry with that combination. Your next weak point might be stripping brass gears but I'm not aware if there are SS gears for the 114....if there are this site will know.

tightlines!

[handi2]

We fish for Red Snapper and Grouper all the time here in the Panhandle of Florida. For the big Snapper we chum and catch them on top with spinning reels. No need to go to the bottom. The larger ones stay above the bottom anyway.

Most of the time the Snapper come up when they here us stopping. It's amazing they are on the endangered list up here..!!

For Grouper we fish natural bottom, natural coral and such. We do fish on the bottom with a minimum of 80lb mono because they are so tough to get up the first few feet.  Usually a Knocker Rig with a big live bait.

[nelz]

YO-YO 

[conchydong]

YO-YO 

If your talking a Cuban YoYo, not many people on this forum may know what your talking about but I have caught more "meat fish" handlining than with rods and reels. On a reel repair forum not much you can do to hot rod a YoYo.

[nelz]

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Just kidding, but technically, it is a reel in its most basic form. And I've seen your basic Walmart cheapy plastic version, to some very fancy hot-roddish looking heavy duty wooden ones.