Blackfin Tuna best reel ?

[Redfish King]

I have never fished for Blackfin before.The trip will be on a commercial party boat where you must flip heavy metal from the side of the boat there is not a lot of room for overhead casting.The guy im going with said to be successful you must make long cast by flipping 4 to 6 oz. diamond jigs.Im building a rod for this trip a jig stick blank #axjs80m.The question is should I build spinning or casting? What would be the best reel for this situation?Line Test?

[bluefish69]

In the N E 4-6 oz is every day thing. We fish them for Blue Fish & Striped Bass [Rock Fish] from April till Nov. Don't get down on yourself if you can't get any distance at first, flipping jigs under hand takes practice. You will get better with time. #1 RULE ----- KEEP YOUR THUMB ON THE SPOOL. I have lost it with a few passengers after 6-7 birds nest in less then an hour.

Fishing out of N.H. I have flipped SS Jigs to 500gr - 17 oz & fished 400' water pounding bottom.

PS:  make sure you have Hammered Jigs. They have more flash.

[SoCalAngler]

The rod your looking to build is a 20-30 lb test rod. For me, because I'm on the west coast and live bait is fished most often, I go with a conventional reel even on a jig stick. I picked up a Penn Fathom 25N just for that type of application, though we mostly cast over head. I use it for surface iron mostly and bait sometimes matched to a 8' stick also, with 25 to 30 lb test long topshots and spectra backed. I have flipped bait with it but cast overhead with the iron. My application may not fit yours but I feel learning to cast a conventional reel correctly leaves you many more options when using a 8' rod.

[Westii]

If it were for me, I'd go with a spinning reel.  It just comes down to what you are most comfortable with.