SportFishing and Charters Forum - Opinions on new rods and reels

I just talked with Bryan Connley and decided on three new rods for my boat. The rods are 30-50class with roller guides. The rods will be used off the coast of Maryland mostly for tuna, mahi, kings, etc. I have been looking at reels for these rods and my question is what do you all feel about pairing them with TLD 30's 2speed reels. Bryan recommended avet 30 wides but there is about a $225 price difference between these two reels. Do any of you use this size TLD's and how do they work on these types and sizes of fish. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, TODD

Unless his rods are under rated, a 30 wide is not a good match. The are better matched to 50-80. Also don't understand why going all roller with light gear. I have one roller rod for cable. And my 50's are roller tip only on acid wrapped rods.

With the solid guides available today roller adds one more maintenance point IMO, especially in light gear (which is no longer light because a bunch of steel roller guides were added. Heavy gear fishing heavy drags, maybe.

Sorry to get off topic, but I would go with the TLD's and pocket the extra. You will never get the drag benefit of the avet on those rods IMO.

The TLD 30's are great reels. I agree with the above that roller guides are not realy needed for this line class. I would put the TLD 30 on his 30-60 frigate seires rod with turbo guides.

We have a pair of 30-60 frigates matched with Avet HXW's spooled with 50lb braid that we use in the bahamas for dolphin and school yellowfin tuna.

Agreed with the above. You don't need rollers on anything short of GBFT in MD. And the TLD30 will suit you fine.

Here's what a popular reel guru has to say about mid-duty lever drag reels.
http://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/world-penn/438418-so-steve-about-squall.html

Either reel will work fine for what you are doing. The Avet reels will last longer and yes, the reels and the rods are a bit heavier. We make a rod with no rollers that we pair with the TLD 30 and that same rod with all rollers that we pair with the gold style reels. Both will work fine so it is a money issue to some extent. You dont NEED rollers at all that is for sure but the roller guides are far more durable and you will never have to worry about replacing any broken ceramic inserts. The Stuart roller guides are as maintenance free as you can get. Most do bot take any real maintenance at all and they will roll for years. We recently went on a week long Bahama trip and one of the guys on the boat had a beautiful custom rod he just had made from some local company and he was super excited to finally put it to the test! As we were rigging up baits and dropping in lines we noticed the rod already had a busted ceramic guide on it that must have been banged up in transit somehow. Needless to say, that rod never saw any action all week! For the durability I tend to like the roller guides but if you dont mind spending the extra $$ I also suggest trying the Fuji Silicon Carbide guides. They are about the same cost as the roller guides but super hardened and very durable plus they look very cool!
Bottom line is, rollers, Turbo Guides, Carbide Guides......... Avet 30 gold reel, TLD 30..... there are plenty of ways to do the same thing and they are all correct! Just get whatever style you prefer and set up that you can afford and you will be just fine! At the end of the day they all catch fish!!
Good Luck,
Bryan

My 30-50 rods are under rated too. You can fish the heavy drags on them with no problem. Therefore, fishing an Avet 30 with 30-40# test is a breeze.

What line are you fishing - that would help a lot.
I have 30VSW's, which are fished with 100 lb braid under 60 lb mono and 18-20 lbs of strike drag on (50-100) customs rods built on Calstar 655XH blanks, with all roller (Aftco Wind-On size) guides and Aftco unibutts. Unless it is a jigging rod, I always prefer all roller guides, which are bulletproof.
It sounds like your rods are closer to my 40 lb class stuff - Penn 16VSX's spooled with 80 lb braid under 40 lb mono on Calstar 655H blanks with Aftco HD guides and unibutts. Those are fished with 13 lbs of strike drag and used.

Appreciate all the opinions. I am new at this and all help and support is greatly appreciated.

Shimano TLDs are very proven reels.. I used these for Years offshore fishing..