Advice on Spinning Outfit for tuna

[wheresthefish]

Looking for suggestions on a good mid-priced spinnging outfit for offshore tuna fishing.

I like to cast poppers and small metals into school of small bluefin tuna 50-100 lb class. After 100 I don't expect to land them.

i was looking at either Shimano Thunnus 12000 or Spheros 14000. i would rig with 40-50 lb power pro braid.

what is a good rod to match up with these reels. i like shimano generally but their Tallus spinning rod only has a 5" foregrip which is too small in my opinion. you usually have to hang on for 20-30 minutes to the rod before the fish even begins to slow.

i saw a guy do this on a $70 ugly stik tiger , so i don't want something too fancy but am willing to spend up to $250 on a rod.

Any and all advice appreciated. thanks in advance.

[John_Madison CT]

Many will tell you the Shimano Saragosa, but even cheaper is the Spheros. They have the same drag system and gears. You can do the very simple Carbontex drag washer upgrade for under $20.

Check out 360Tuna.com for details.


John

[ubettcha13]

The boat I work on had a tuna in the 350# range on for 2 hrs the reel was a quantum boca set at 15#s with 470 yds of 65 spiderwire ultracast. That reel was as smooth with 3/4 of the spool gone as it was full. It never heated badly I know the rod was passed between the charter half a dozen times at least Lost the fish to the prop near the end.
I've landed several fish on a 14000 spheros in the 40-50# range and the drag is like new still. I also have an older 8500 penn. This reel has hundreds of fish on it I have replaced the drag once between the 2 spools it didn't need it but I was anticipating using it more. The thing is many reels will catch a single fish or a couple with few problems. If your going to dedicate yourself to launching poppers get a popper rod small metals get a different rod
I will also suggest that you go no smaller than 50# the 40 and under braid doesn't stand up well to tuna. Mostly because they have larger schools and the other fish abraid the line making it weaker before long it breaks

[bluefinblues]

I recently battled a large bluefin for over three hours with a penn 9500 and 65lbs powerpro...the powerpro ended up looking like someone had used sandpaper on it! We eventually lost the fish as the line was down to about 10lbs test. I've respooled with suffix braid which seems smoother and may not heat up as much...65 lbs braid casts fine.

[Fla4life]

Buy yourself a shimano stradic with a shimano trevala jigging rod. Game over

[BreezyDog]

Originally Posted by Fla4life

Buy yourself a shimano stradic with a shimano trevala jigging rod. Game over

I just put a Shimano Stradic 4000 on an Ugly Stick Lite with 10 lb braid. Casts like a dream and works great with metal and poppers. I've been tearing up breaking rock and blues the past 2 weeks. Its my 2nd Stradic and I love them. Yea I know its not tuna but just my .02...

[Paul Barnard]

Those 14,000 and 18,000 series Shimano reels get heavy pretty quick when casting and popping aggressively. I have an 8000 Sustain and an 18000 Spheros. I'd MUCH rather use the Stradic. It has the drag and capacity to do the job. I have it on a Trevala rod. I have an Okuma Cedros combo that I like quite a bit. If it holds up over the long haul, I'll add more to my arsenal. It feels and performs great, but I have to put a few seasons on it before I can endorse it.

[85diver]

I have a rod reel combo that I will sell you for 275.00 plus whatever the shipping would be.

The rod is a 50-100lb okuma cedros speed jig rod and it was about 120 when I bought it. Rod is 6 months old and I have the warranty card still.

The reel is a Quantum cabo 70 with brans new (never been wet) 65lb suffix metered braid. Reel is 4 months old and I have all the paperwork and the box still. The reel and line were about 275 out the door.

I have only used this rod a hand full of times but it did really well on big amberjacks and blackfin tuna. I bought it for jigging but it worked just as well when I casted poppers to the blackfin.

I haven't used this setup since I tried out my buddies stella 20000/OTI rod. I went out and spent a fortune on the same setup about 3 days after I tried his. That is the only reason I don't use the quantum70/okuma combo anymore. PM me if you are interested. I will trake some pics in a bit and post em up later.

cheers

Dave

[tmoutinho]

Do a search on this site for "intro to jigging" someone sent it out a few weeks ago-great stuff. Reviewed lots of gear

If you cannot find it, PM me with an email address and I will send it to you