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
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
Way beyond my pay grade. Check with the guy that fish iut of Prince Edward Island for granders.
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.
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
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
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. 8)
~A~
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Quote from: bill19803 on August 05, 2016, 01:53:34 PM
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.
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
**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
Quote from: bill19803 on August 08, 2016, 01:21:57 AM
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
Bill, many East coast and European boats are designed differently (lower freeboard aft) than the San Diego boats and using the rail or gunwale is not an option. As Boon stated before me, a long rod is used in the chair and/or when rod holder fishing (wicked tuna "commercial"style) to clear the gunwales. When stand up fishing, most prefer a shorter rod when using a quality belt and harness system. The shorter rod gives more leverage. It's physics. Many, many different ways to catch fish and depending on the boat, sea conditions and a persons physical limitations, things may have to be adjusted to fit the scenario.
this......
Quote from: FatTuna on August 07, 2016, 04:02:29 AM
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......
No matter what reel you choose, you are going to want to chase the fish.
and this......
Quote from: sundaytrucka on August 08, 2016, 02:21:54 AM
..... 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).