Flylining...for tarpon?

Tim McNeely · January 23, 2013, 07:16:10 AM

Folks, I have a conundrum. One of my goals this year is to catch a big tarpon, and my annual Cold Weather Tackle Collection Drive is going to be carried out with this in mind. However: most all live baiting for 'poons is done with spinning gear. 30-pound mono is pretty standard. If necessary, I'll use spinners, but they're clunky, and they break down at the dagnabbedest times, and I don't have $600 lying around to spend on a spinner I consider "good"...so I strongly prefer conventional. Most East Coast guys don't even consider a 30# class conventional to be castable, period. However, from what I've heard, West Coast tuna fishermen cast small, weightless baits on good-sized conventionals all the time. My question is this: How far do you guys generally cast, with how light a bait? How feasible would it be to cast a palm-sized or smaller pinfish/what have you to a cruising tarpon, using, say, a Squall 30? And is there an accepted technique to achieve good distance?

alantani · January 23, 2013, 07:50:38 AM

okuma has a new line of spinners that are pretty nice. load them with spectra and you will have plenty of line capacity.

Tim McNeely · January 23, 2013, 07:55:21 AM

Eh, there are plenty of spinners out there that I know will work just fine. As I say, that's the main thing most guys use, unless they're drifting baits through a pass, around a bridge, etc. I just prefer conventional tackle.

Ron Jones · January 23, 2013, 09:09:48 AM

A palm sized pin fish is what, 1.5oz? It would help if we knew the casting distance necessary, I'd guess 30-50 yards. If all that is the case then I would say you are possibly in business. The rod counts a lot for this work. If you can swing it the Graphfiters are about as good as it gets. I literally add 10-15 yards switching to those Cal Stars. Use as long a rod as possible and practice every day until you think your arm will fall off. I said you are possibly in business, the rest depends on you. I've been fly lining conventional reels for 30 years and what I'm describing isn't necessarily easy for me.

Ron

Tim McNeely · January 23, 2013, 05:20:21 PM

From what I've seen, 50 yards would be a pretty long cast, most of the time.The spinning guys tend to use a backhanded lob a lot $:-\$ These fish are commonly taken on the fly, so 30 yards would be typical. I would think a pinfish that size would weigh 2 oz. or thereabouts, maybe a bit more. They're wind resistant, though. The other thing I'd be doing would be throwing a hunk of cutbait under a biiig float, and that doesn't worry me.

My main problem with spinning gear is that you can get good, expensive spinning gear that will last, good, cheap spinning gear that is made with inferior parts, or outdated spinning gear that will last, but can't be used with spectra and that doesn't have good drags. I just hate mentally making a part list to buy for when the reel inevitably goes south.

Ron Jones · January 23, 2013, 06:05:15 PM

30 yards with a 2oz. plate should not be an issue. Just start practicing and you will be fine.

Ron

saltydog · January 23, 2013, 08:18:50 PM

When I used to guide in Floridia we used 112H(3/0) and 113H(4/0) for Tarpon alot and with practice you should be able to toss a pinfish 30 to 40 yards easy and have plenty of reel even for giants.We always fill them with 65 to 80 pound braid with a 3 to 5 foot piece of 80 to 100 pound mono for the leader and a 8/0 to 14/0 circle hook stuck in lightly right behind the head.For the rod any good heavy live bait rod will do as long as you can cast with it,I prefer an 8 to 10 foot heavy action surf rod with a really good backbone in the surf or a 6 foot 50 to 80 pound boat rod for bridge fishing.I know that doesn't sound sporting but hook one of those 150 to 200+ on a dinky pole and you will see what I mean.Those fish can get into thing you never knew was there,and some of them fight like they were Marlin on speed.Each to his own.Good luck.
William

Bunnlevel Sharker · January 24, 2013, 02:23:55 AM

Yeah, id say a 3/0 or 4/0, having problems casting then mag it.

Tim McNeely · January 24, 2013, 05:31:48 AM

Thanks for the input, guys. I was thinking either a 4/0 or a Squall 30 LD. Leaning toward the squall. According to reelspeed's rebuild video thread, a belleville rearrangement will get you an easy 15# of drag, which puts it in the same class as the 4/0, if I need it, and it should be waaay more castable. I figure I can either run straight 30# mono, or back it with 300 yards of spectra and use a long topshot of 50 or so, depending on how much crap is around.

Saltydog, I hear you on the sporting thing. My goal in this endeavor is not to have a long, drawn out fight to brag about. I want to pull on a tarpon for 10 or 20 minutes and let him go green and angry.

saltydog · January 25, 2013, 03:43:15 PM

Thats why I always used the heaviest tackle I could with my charter customers,the greener he is when released the better his chance of survival.I have seen a tarpon on a 4/0 and 80 pound braid 100# mono leader with 15# drag setting in the boat pic taken and in the water swimming off in less than 5 minutes and he was around 130 pounds,but then again you get some that think they weigh a thousand pounds and will fight for over an hour,all depends on his mood.

SoCalAngler · January 26, 2013, 07:53:58 AM

Here is some info on how we do it here on the left coast.

http://www.bdoutdoors.com/article/ekstrom-cast/

There was a great video too many years back from a Long Range Capt. showing the methods and a few styles like overhead, underhand lob and such but for the life of me I can't remember who the capt. was or which boat he ran.

IMO the Squall 30LD would be fine but I picked up a Fathon 25N for casting surface iron and sometimes live bait here in So Cal and Baja waters. I fish 25-30 topshots on this reel and like using a narrower reel for this. Both reels would serve you well but if your thinking about fishing heavier line like 40 lb topshots and going over around 10 lbs of drag a reel with a 6:1 gear may be a bit fast and not offer the cranking power to fish the heavier line.

EDIT: I just remembered the DVD, Inside Sportfishing: Advanced Casting. The DVD features Frank LoPreste and Randy Toussaint, owner-operators of the Royal Polaris and Royal Star.

Tim McNeely · February 02, 2013, 06:56:45 AM

Quote from: SoCalAngler on January 26, 2013, 07:53:58 AM
Here is some info on how we do it here on the left coast.

http://www.bdoutdoors.com/article/ekstrom-cast/

There was a great video too many years back from a Long Range Capt. showing the methods and a few styles like overhead, underhand lob and such but for the life of me I can't remember who the capt. was or which boat he ran.

IMO the Squall 30LD would be fine but I picked up a Fathon 25N for casting surface iron and sometimes live bait here in So Cal and Baja waters. I fish 25-30 topshots on this reel and like using a narrower reel for this. Both reels would serve you well but if your thinking about fishing heavier line like 40 lb topshots and going over around 10 lbs of drag a reel with a 6:1 gear may be a bit fast and not offer the cranking power to fish the heavier line.

EDIT: I just remembered the DVD, Inside Sportfishing: Advanced Casting. The DVD features Frank LoPreste and Randy Toussaint, owner-operators of the Royal Polaris and Royal Star.

Thanks--that's very helpful! I'm not too concerned about torque--I'm a religious short stroker, and the standard setups for this kind of thing are big eggbeaters. The big advantage of the wider 30LD would be precise, measurable drag ranges, plus the option to use straight 30# mono. Neither here nor there, but the 40LD is actually a bit narrower than the 30. It's a nice piece of kit...