baja or 6/o for grouper diging

[coonhound]

If I hook a goliath, I pray my line breaks early so i can move on to another spot and save my back.  And you usually know after 30 minutes of a locked down drag that the school bus parked 100' below isn't coming up.

I've seen guys target them, but I want no part of that until they open them up for legal harvest.

[dobrobill]

If I hook a goliath, I pray my line breaks early so i can move on to another spot and save my back.  And you usually know after 30 minutes of a locked down drag that the school bus parked 100' below isn't coming up.

I'm with you on that.....

[Alto Mare]

I would love to give it a shot with one of my custom 9/0's....maybe one day .

[saltydog]

Well I used to run a charter boat on the west coast of Floridia and most grouper there can be had with a miriade of reels.We mostly used penn squidders with 50# mono.Most of the grouper on a daily basis were between 5 and 20 pounds.Now for some of our longer trips we broke out the stock 4/0 with 80 to 100 pound mono locked down drags and some heavy sticks.Not putting the fish down or anything they don't really fight to hard after you break the bottom with them.If you don't get there head up after the initial strike they rock up and break you off,the first minute of the fight is it because that is when they put out most of there energy.Braided line is not used by most captains because most of the fisherman they get on there boats are novice and a hundred dollars worth of line can go away in a day of fishing with some of the people you get.Now Jewfish are another story all together,they are beasts.Most of them we caught were on 4/0 to 9/0 stock with heavy mono.To get the really big fish you have to get ready with the boat be harnessed up and drive the boat away to try to get the fish away from his home.But then again some of the really big ones are almost impossible on rod and reel.Alot of the offshore wrecks are full of the giants the size of VW bugs.The TANK would be a good reel for the larger grouper and maybe some medium Jewfish.Heck I caught a 500 pounder on a stock 6/0 and 50 pond mono,granted it took three hours and he was in a spot where there was nothing but a missle nosecone on the bottom and just bulldogged for two hours before he decided to come see what had him.

[George4741]

Salty, on the 500 pounder, would a Penn 349 have been sufficient, or did you need the line capacity of the 6/0?  After all, in many ways the 349 is just a narrowed 6/0.

[saltydog]

Line capacity is not that important with grouper,strength is.A 349 with 100# mono would be good for any grouper in shallow water alot of guys used 4/0 and 6/0 penns full of weedeater line for years when they were chasing Jewfish for money.Just remember if you want to get a jewfish to the top use a 20/0 circle hook a 6-12 OZ. slip lead and 12- 20 feet of 1000 pound aircraft cable to keep them from cutting you off,they are not hook or leader shy heck we used to use 1/2 inch rope and chain with a hook made from old ice tongs off the piers and bridges to get them.A strong rod is also a must,I would use a solid rod for them because I have seen lots of hollow rods blow up on a stubborn fish,they are one fish that will bring you to your knees if you are not ready.Use a big bait,3 to 12 pounds is pretty good alive is best but they are not picky.I caught one on a pair of shoes one time as a gag for a customer on our boat,they smelled like fish so they got eaten.

[Alto Mare]

I'm checking some gears from a 113HN, can anyone tell me what the pinion is made of? I'm amazed of its size and that it could acyually handle a 200+lb fish. Has anyone had any problems with it? Your input is appreciated.

Thanks! Sal.

[SoCalAngler]

Sal, Per Penn "Stainless steel main and pinion gear"

http://www.pennreels.com/products/reels/conventional-reels/star-drag-reels/baja-special

I have not used mine for any 200 lb fish. I use my 113HN for 40 and 50 lb test line.

[Alto Mare]

I did read about it before, the color of the pinion looks different and I wasn't sure I had the right one.
I do have the gears in hand, I'm doing a little comparison for myself.
I was surprised to see how tiny that pinion is, the ID is similar to my Surfmaster pinion .
The designers must have been very smart on this one, or some are just getting lucky catching fish over 200# with it.
I'm still wondering if some have had any issues with that pinion .
Thanks SoCalAngler!
Sal

[Keta]

The 113H wasn't as popular as other Penn reels for SE Alaska halibut but a few people I knew used them for halibut in the 5'-7' range, around 150lbs-250lbs, without gear problems.  Warped spools from mono was the #1 problem.

[George4741]

I'm checking some gears from a 113HN, can anyone tell me what the pinion is made of? I'm amazed of its size and that it could acyually handle a 200+lb fish. Has anyone had any problems with it? Your input is appreciated.

Thanks! Sal.

The pinion gear in my Baja Special doesn't look at all like stainless.  It has the color of a bronze alloy, or similar. 

George 

[SoCalAngler]

I don't have my Baja Special open now but I did see the color difference in the pinoin. I did read somewhere that the pinion was heat treated, maybe that's why the color difference? Call Penn I'm sure they will give you the low down. Or go over to BD's and ask on their board.

[SoCalAngler]

Just got off the phone with Sterling over at Penn and he said that the pinion is stainless and the color difference has due to the heat treating of the pinion.

[Alto Mare]

Just got off the phone with Sterling over at Penn and he said that the pinion is stainless and the color difference has due to the heat treating of the pinion.

Thanks SoCalAngler for checking and to everyone else also. I still say that there has to be a few of those pinions that went bad, to me they just look too undersized...but then again, what do I know .

[Tunanorth]

Great discussion, not much for me to add except perhaps to reiterate there is a big difference between Baja Grouper and Florida grouper, with Florida Goliath Grouper being something else again [most like CA black seabass before the moratorium].
For Florida grouper, the Baja Special is definitely the way to go.
For Baja grouper at "the Ridge" aboard an LR boat, or at "the Midriff Islands" aboard a panga, the "old school" way to go was 100-pound mono with a 6/0, but 80-90 percent [often 100!] of those were losing battles.
The old black-sideplate Senators with their very low IPT rate still could not compensate for a [relative] lack of drag.
With modern 2-speed reels and 130-pound line, the "losing" percentage is still above 50-percent, but at least you've got a fighting chance.