What # braid do you have on your 501?

[coastal_dan]

55 lb Daiwa Depth Counter on my Accurate Conversion 501, I have 450 yds on it.  I use it for Sea Bass, Tilefish, Cod (3 weeks from now), and as a back up Tog reel (too big for this style fish, but again is a back-up).  I don't use a leader except for my rig, normally 3' - 7' of 40 - 80 lb fluorocarbon. 

Water depths vary from 50' - 400', over 400' I switch to my ST30 with 650 yds of 55 lb.

Hope this helps!

[BryanC]

55 lb Daiwa Depth Counter on my Accurate Conversion 501, I have 450 yds on it.  I use it for Sea Bass, Tilefish, Cod (3 weeks from now), and as a back up Tog reel (too big for this style fish, but again is a back-up).  I don't use a leader except for my rig, normally 3' - 7' of 40 - 80 lb fluorocarbon. 

Water depths vary from 50' - 400', over 400' I switch to my ST30 with 650 yds of 55 lb.

Hope this helps!

Are you dropping jigs for those species, or are you dropping lead & baited hooks?  If the latter, how much lead do you need?  I am hoping to do some deep dropping in the Keys this summer, and have been working on putting together a couple electric combos.  It would be cool to hand crank at least once though.  I will most likely fish in 400-600'.

[RUSTY OLD COLT]

      I have been running 30 lb braid and 20 lb mono on mine

[coastal_dan]

BryanC-

I'm new to the dedicated bottom bouncing and deep-dropping scene but I've been researching the heck out of it...and after a few times out I've really started to love it, so I plan on doing a few trips a year.  Plus that much time on the water is downright pleasant.

Thats all been bait so far, I bought some Cod jigs (Viking as well as Hammered) to give a shot on our 18 Hr in March.  I plan on using bait first, then switching.  I'm not much of a jigger but I hope to learn.

The 250' - 350' isn't bad at all with 24 oz to 32 oz, but the 600' with 36oz - 42oz on was brutal hand cranking, haha.  No pain no gain!  I've heard some tile guys mention the 'bring up to 64 oz of lead' but that would really suck.  I plan on doing a 24 hr tilefish in the fall so I can report back in a few months on that.  The Cod trip I plan on bringing 10 - 20 oz lead and 8 - 12 oz jigs.

I actually found some work out information for large fish for long periods of time that I plan on adding to my nightly routine.

The electric would be nice! Do you have plugs on the boat? Or plan on using dedicated batteries per rig?

[BryanC]

I was thinking I would try to run two reels off of one battery.  Figuring I would put a car (or boat) battery in a Playmate cooler.  I have run a single reel this way a couple times before, and it worked fine.  I think two would probably be manageable, but no more than that.