what reel for tuna in the 200-500lb range

[mak1]

hi we may get the chance to have a go for them here in the uk what reels would you go for and why. how would you spool it and what with as we have never had a go for them before. we will be on a charter boat so hopefully be able to follow it but if we could not would that change what reel and line you would look at
so
1. what reel if we can chase it down and how would you fill it

2. what reel if we can NOT  chase it down and how would you fill it

any other tips for us across the pond on tuna are welcome

we have a penn international V 50-100 rod would this be ok or would you recommend anything else

what we have so far for porbeagle sharks  will any of the below be useful
we have shimano tallus   tlc-60hsb-br    with a makaira 15sea with 600m of 80lb braid
conoflex IGFA 30lb and makaira 20 with 40lb momoi diamond on

thanks everyone

[bill19803]

please take my opinion  with a grain of  salt  or two  as my experience is   with   yellowfins.  for the   200 lb   fish   a     50 w   with  full load of   spectra braid  will  work mighty  fine.   But  for  the  500  i think i  would bump up  to  an   80w   again  with full load  of   spectra.  Toppers of  100  ft or  so.  both  2 speeds.  But   make sure the   rod has  the  backbone  to pry them  big boys off the bottom.
If you are  fishing  using   rod holder or  chair then  rod can be shorter  If stand up or rail  then the trend has been  to longer   6-6  or  7-0  to give   you  some tip leverage  to take up  runs  and  to pry  said critter up.
just my 2 cents  worth

[alantani]

Way beyond my pay grade. Check with the guy that fish iut of Prince Edward Island for granders.

[thorhammer]

Depends on if you will stand up.  If I wanted option to, I'd go 80 stw or vsx with 200 power pro and topshot of 200 yds 130.  You can stand up an 80 if you eat a big breakfast but if you get on a 500lb you'll be wanting a chair or rod holder and you'll have the balls to crank it. Based on what I see at OBX with the pros; I personally dont want a 500 bluefin on stand up.  I have a job I have to go back to. 

[Dominick]

My biggest fish was a blue marlin at 300 lbs.  I brought it in with a Penn 114hlw with 85lb mono and using a fighting chair.  It was not a difficult fight.  Tuna on the other hand pull much harder than marlin.  I would not hesitate to fish for those large Tuna with a Penn International 50 VSX if strapped into a harness or fighting chair.  Fishing with a 80 size reel without a chair and harness would be almost impossible to hold the weight of the rod and reel and the pull of the fish.  Just my 2 pence.  Dominick

[thorhammer]

Yup. My 80's stay on bent butts in the gunwhales. You have to factor a bouncing boat and attached to 35 lbs of drag is a good way to a swim in your workout

[Aiala]

There's a qualitative difference between a 200-pounder and a tuna that weighs a quarter of a ton. The former are frequently caught aboard the long-range boats. The 500-pounder is a whole other proposition. Your best bet is probably to get two outfits, one a strong stand-up rig, the second a massive International or Everol with a bent-butt unlimited class rod... and a fighting chair attached to a serious sportfisher. 

~A~

[Reinaard van der Vossen]

I use a makaira 50 wide, spooled with 135 lb Izorline hollow, about 900m and a 80 m Topshot of 100lb mono spliced in. again a leader of 130 lb fluorcarbon of 12m connected with a double splice to the Topshot with 300lb hollow Jerry Brown.

caught a 250lb standup recently and up to  400 lb couple of years ago. I would not hesitate to take on a 500lb fish on this gear but would look to upgrade when they get larger.

do you intend to fish stand up?

I thought the fish were not showing up last couple of years.. are they back?

[boon]

Down here in NZ when they fish for giant Bluefin Tuna it's done almost exclusively on 130-class gear. You may be able to land them on a 50 or 80 but you might be fighting the fish for 4 hours+ whereas on 130 sets they can be brought boatside usually in less than 2 hours unless they're really, really big.
All that said, the fish down this way start at about 400lb.

Your Makaira 15 and 20, while very nice reels, might be useful for catching the bait with. The 80 and 130 would be suitable for what you're planning.

My 2c anyway.

[FatTuna]

Here in New England we typically only get larger bluefin. A small fish ranges in size from 150lbs to 200lbs. An average fish ranges from 300lbs to 400lbs. A large fish is anything over 600. Most years professionals bring in fish over 800lbs. You never know what is going to bite your line, you can only hedge your bet.

You have two types of tuna fisherman. Rec and commercial. Rec guys want to make it sporting. They deliberately try to target smaller fish as they can only keep the smaller fish. Commercial guys only target giants and have to throw back anything under 73".

Most of the rec guys are fishing 50Ws and 80Ws. Both filled with hollowcore. The 50s get 130lb JB with 100lb topshots. The 80s get 200lb JB with 150lb topshots. You can fish an 80 stand-up but it's heavy and awkward. A 50 on the other hand is a small reel to be fighting a 500lb fish. Not saying that it's not possible to land big fish but it's going to be a battle. Could take you 5+ hours to get it near the boat.

Commercial guys typically only fish 130s. Some load them with braid but most load them with dacron backing. I loaded mine up with 160lb Tuf-line dacron in yellow. I choose yellow because it's easier to see the line in low light conditions.  The benefit of dacron is it's cheaper but it's also so you can also grip onto the line. Anything smaller than 200lb hollowcore is going to be difficult to grip. It's easier to splice and filling a whole 130 with hollowcore is a waste.

50 vs 80 vs 130:

A 50 is light and not too "expensive". They are versatile for many species and ideal for stand up fishing.

An 80 is big and holds a lot of braid. They are expensive but much cheaper than a 130. You could pretty much land anything in the ocean with this reel but you are going to have to play your hand right on big fish. It's possible to do stand-up but not recommend unless you know you will be getting into monster fish.

A 130 is the ultimate workhorse reel. Beefier frame, larger drag washers, beefier bearings, more screws, larger spool etc. The downside is weight and cost. Even used 130s cost a small fortune. They are too big for stand-up. It won't feel very sporting on 100lb-150lb fish.

If you are only going to target them a few times a season and want to fish stand up, I'd go with either a full framed 50W or a Penn 70.

If you are going to be fishing on a charter with a chair or swivel rod holders, I'd go with an 80W.

No matter what reel you choose, you are going to want to chase the fish.

[akfish]

Only slightly off topic: I've heard that, pound for pound, YFT fight more than BFT. Is that true? I can't imagine taking on a 500 pound YFT (if they existed) on a 50 and even an 80 would be a stretch for me. My personal best YFT weighed 234# and was absolutely all I could handle on an Accurate 50T loaded with 130# JB Hollow.

[Reinaard van der Vossen]

I think Fat tuna is spot on with usefull information.

If you're not a charter yourself and go out just a couple of times a year I think it's not usefull to fish a 130 class reel but if the fish get big and you have a fighting chair a good 80 class real might.

If you want to fight stand up than a good strong 50 wide might be the way to go. May be the reel should be blueprinted in case you need it (and depending on the brand of the reel). I've put hurth on a fish that I could not easily turn and have been on 50 lb drag and over, stand up, for short times during the fight. It is not doable for a long time (at least for me) but if you got your technique figured out and are in shape its possible. I use a black magic belt and harness (XL version) and you will need something like that.

With respect to the rod: when stand up than go for a short stroker - short bent but type. While everybody has his own preferences a short bent butt short stroker rod will give you the most leverage and if you get hooked you might need that (badly) Although I do not have one, the Penn international V has a good reputation but I think they come with a straight butt section.

@fattuna
I think in the UK where Mak1 is talking about you cannot get a quota to take tuna as a recreational guy, it's all catch and release unless the charterboat has obtained a commercial quota. As far as I'm aware we do not have the distinction in Europe as the one you have in the US.

Luckily, after years of overfishing, the rules are much better enforced and it seems that we might be looking at a modest recovery. Still a lot to be done on overfishing though. There used to be large stocks of BFT in the Northsea between the UK and the Netherlands but none has been seen since the 1960's

@akfish.
I've never caught a serious yellowfin so I can't say it from own experience but looking at the mechanism why BFT is such a strong fish I can't imagine that YFT is stronger pound for pound.


 

[boon]

If you are  fishing  using   rod holder or  chair then  rod can be shorter  If stand up or rail  then the trend has been  to longer   6-6  or  7-0  to give   you  some tip leverage  to take up  runs  and  to pry  said critter up.

Chair you may need the length to clear the transom, these fish often end up straight up and down and if you touch anything the line is gonna pop.
Standup on these big suckers from what I have seen people use very short, fairly parabolic bent butt rods, you might only gain 6 inches of line on a stroke.
With a roughly 7ft rod in a gimbal, with some quick and dirty maths... if the fish is putting on 20kg of pull (44lb, plausible amount of drag) and the pull is 2m from the gimbal they're generating 400Nm of torque on the pivot, in order to hold that up, assuming you're holding the rod 2ft from the butt, you're doing the equivalent of lifting a 150lb load. I reckon I could sustain that for less than a minute, probably less than 30 seconds.

If you go down to a 5'6" standup stick this comes down to more like 110lb, it's still an enormous strain on the angler but at least a little bit sustainable.

[bill19803]

all i  can   say to that  the most prevalent   blank on   san  diego long range boats is probably  calstar 7465h  or   xh  boat rods   for kite   tend heavier   7470 xxh or 770 xxxh   al   6-6  or   7-0  Ive landed    3  cows   to  232   2 on  7465 xh and one   7470xxxh    and  had  enough backbone  to pry them up fishing on  rail.  Ya  need  the  extra length   to   give  some   length  on outside of  rail.  For   standup pump  and  wind  yes  shorter  may   do it    but rail make life  bearable  after landing  fish instead of heading  for bunk  for  half a day.
when  using rail  the  dynamics  of the physics changes  considerably.  Im looking  atbseeker  ssr3x4  right now    when i measure  it  rear  grip.  seat,  foregrip  measures   42 inches  the rest  of  the rod  from  grip  to   tip measures   46 inches . This  rod  was specifically designed   for  stand up rail   wok on big yellows really big  yellows. Ya  gotta  use a  bigger hook or  you   will get hook pulls   a lot more  with  these  stiff   muthas  4/0  super mutu aint gonna  cut it on   sardine

[sundaytrucka]

**I didn't even answer the OP's question...in regard to Okuma Makairas for 200-500# bluefin, I would use a 30W and/or 50W. With the capabilities of both reels and the quarry you are going after, I do not see the need for anything above a 50W...Fish at the upper end of the drag if you need the stopping power, the Makairas can handle it.

I have worked on Makairas for two different charter operations out of Prince Edward Island, one of the operations is sponsored by Okuma, and both use the 50W and 80W Makairas as primary setups when going for the "granders", both also have and use the 130 size Makairas, but they get far less use compared to the 50W an 80W size reels (based on condition when servicing).

One thing I see and can appreciate about the Makairas used in PEI is that I only see them once a year for end of season service, and they rarely need any parts changed out...I did see a bent handle arm on two reels from the PEI guys, but that was on the early model Makairas, newer version of the Makaira have a thicker handle arm on 50 and up sizes. These guys fish hard and put a lot of pressure on these fish.

From freespool to full drag, I have absolute trust in the capabilites of the Makaira line, if it were my chance to hook a 1000 lb bluefin, I would not even have a second thought about which reels I would use.

I am a service tech at Okuma, so take that for what it is worth to you.

-Scott