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penn 9500 broke on a 150#er for us last year...first and last fish have now swtiched to saragosssas...spend the extra money and get a shimano spheros 180000 on a heaviest tallus spinning rod
2 penn 9500 broke this season (handles). Guys that brought their own set ups. Dont go cheap in the reel dept!! Buy a used good 1, or borrow 1, otherwise, I think your tossing out your money. I use Stella SW HG's, & Daiwa DogFites, both proven and durable after many fish. I have also seen the VanStall 275 hold up very well over several fish this season!
Your not fighting the fish right if your handles are breaking, the rod and drag pressure should be doing the work and the handle just to reel up the slack.
Read a lot of posts on all kinds of forums this season about fish being lost and a lot of times because people were not using the right gear. This goes both for the bigger small fish, the 65-70 inchers, but also much bigger fish that were often mixed in with the bunches of fish in that smaller range. In a lot of the posts people talk about losing fish after epic battles and also losing fish with tons of line still attached to them. Given what is being posted online, I would hate to think about how many fish are lost because people are not using the right gear. Many of those fish are not going to live very long and so its important that people are going out with gear that is suitable for the fish that may be hooked.
Point is, while it sucks that suitable gear costs a lot more than some want to spend, these fish are a whole different level of fish than stripers and stuff like that and so striper rods should not be used if you are targeting tuna. Many of the rods and reels people talk about using are, in my opinion, striper rods. So as much as it stinks having to spend more money to get the right gear, that is what you need to do if you dont want to be snapping fish off left and right. Keep in mind that its really only with spinning gear that you have to fork over big bucks to get the right reels and you can get strong conventional gear for decent prices.
It was one thing when there were only 40 inch fish around- you could get away with undersized gear then. But in the last few years the fish have been bigger and bigger and that culminated this year with loads of 65-70 inchers and plenty of 70-80 inch fish mixed in. And on top of that we had a lot of giants around, too. In my opinion, pick gear that will have a very high chance of landing the fish you hook, not what is the cheapest. Its not just something that will benefit the fish but you will be much happier if when you hook a fish you can get it in. You dont want to go through all the effort of hooking fish only to lose them.
Read a lot of posts on all kinds of forums this season about fish being lost and a lot of times because people were not using the right gear. This goes both for the bigger small fish, the 65-70 inchers, but also much bigger fish that were often mixed in with the bunches of fish in that smaller range. In a lot of the posts people talk about losing fish after epic battles and also losing fish with tons of line still attached to them. Given what is being posted online, I would hate to think about how many fish are lost because people are not using the right gear. Many of those fish are not going to live very long and so its important that people are going out with gear that is suitable for the fish that may be hooked.
Point is, while it sucks that suitable gear costs a lot more than some want to spend, these fish are a whole different level of fish than stripers and stuff like that and so striper rods should not be used if you are targeting tuna. Many of the rods and reels people talk about using are, in my opinion, striper rods. So as much as it stinks having to spend more money to get the right gear, that is what you need to do if you dont want to be snapping fish off left and right. Keep in mind that its really only with spinning gear that you have to fork over big bucks to get the right reels and you can get strong conventional gear for decent prices.
It was one thing when there were only 40 inch fish around- you could get away with undersized gear then. But in the last few years the fish have been bigger and bigger and that culminated this year with loads of 65-70 inchers and plenty of 70-80 inch fish mixed in. And on top of that we had a lot of giants around, too. In my opinion, pick gear that will have a very high chance of landing the fish you hook, not what is the cheapest. Its not just something that will benefit the fish but you will be much happier if when you hook a fish you can get it in. You dont want to go through all the effort of hooking fish only to lose them.
Twofin is absolutely right ,but I don't see what's wrong with researching gear that WILL land a 60 some inch fish, for less than a stella,dogfight etc. I don't think those that don't want to be taken by the rediculous price levels that some tackle has reached,should be excluded.
That said, Put a Fin-nor 9500 on a hopper 500g or 600g rod with 100lb braid and at least 80 lb fluoro leader. Now you've got a reasonably priced rig that Can land a 60 some odd inch fish.If you get the reel on ebay or used, The rod at Capt harrys,you should be under 300 bucks.
Penn 950s get the job done, while not as nice as the stella, about 15% of the cost. drag is decent, while you cant set it to 30lbs, it is decent at 18 lbs of drag which I think is sufficient. I have mine loaded with 80 lb braid this season. I havent had any major problems with them yet and landed 2 180 lber this year on them both in reasonable fighting time! the first one I had 65 lb braid. I have witnessed and heard of several drag issues with Shimanos, both saragosa and stellas, main problem is drags melting during fight. the saragosas had a big problem with this last year and shimano acknowledged it and fixed free of charge, not sure how the fix has been on this years models. I had a friend on a charter this year and they had a stella breakdown also!
All the tackle for this game is gonna have failures at some point if you put it through the abuses these fish put out at every meeting! It doesnt matter if its a $1000.00 reel or an old cheapie, & everything inbetween!! I had a Braid GimbalPlate break in half 2 weeks ago while fiting a fish?? Ive landed 125lb fish with 4000 size reels, and Ive ruind 2 small Stellas trying to land tuna with tackle not intended to handle these fish ! All you want is what gonna give you the best chance, at what you can afford, to play in this sandbox !! If you catch a couple fisha season on a 950 Penn, Im sure it may hold up fine? The Van Staals are the bomb for tuna. Id go with what you want, and see how it holds up!
I have a Penn 950 with an ugly stick....It works and about as cheap as you can get I would imagine. I also have a Shimano Spheros 18000 with a St Croix rod...Never got anything on that but I was told it is a decent set up but more expensive than the other I have.
Cheap spinning setups for tuna
