Post
by ncr1 » Sat May 13, 2017 4:27 pm
Firstly, congratulations on the recent 7.6m purchase! Bloody exciting time for you I would imagine?!
I’m currently writing up a detailed post about game rod selection in my Portland tuna thread, but it will probably take a week or so to finish it (writing can be very slow when I go into a lot of detail).
But in the meantime, I can offer a few thoughts to begin with. When you think about it, the fundamental ‘tasks’ that you want your game outfit to achieve are a) to present a bait or lure as naturally as possible (e.g. a rod that flexes too much might have to much ‘flick’ in its action to properly troll big lures), b) to provide enough backbone to properly set the hook when a fish strikes (again, a rod that is too flexible may not be the best for setting a hook into a hard marlin bill), c) once the fish is hooked, the outfit needs to be reliable enough to use sunset drag over long-periods (see my latest Portland thread post) and retrieve line as quick as possible when needed, and d) the outfit needs to be as comfortable to use so that you, the angler, can genuinely lean back against the pull of maximum sunset drag without having to see a chiropractor the next day. Someone let me know if I have missed anything here…..
The trouble with these ‘tasks’ is that there isn’t a single outfit that comes out on top with each and every requirement. Everything about outfit selection is a compromise. For example, a soft, flexible rod is likely to be poor at trolling big lures and may struggle to hook up if it does get a strike. Yet, if you choose a stiffer, less flexible rod to improve your hook up rate, you might be spending the next hour or two bent over the gunnel and unable to comfortably ‘lean back’ while you’re fighting a big fish. Finding the correct balance can be a very hard thing to do.
The difficulty with I find with your situation Dave, is that you’re covering a few different scenarios, marlin, swords and tuna. I don’t believe that the most suitable outfit for barrel tuna would be the most suitable outfit for marlin. Chasing swords is another style of fishing altogether. As an example (and I might ruffle a few feathers here), but the Tiagra T-curve rods are a terrible choice for big tuna (just my opinion that I will try and justify my thoughts in my next Portland thread post). T-curves were designed for Shimano by Ian Miller, with mainly the east-coast marlin fishery in mind. Ian used a much stiffer design to differentiate them from many of the other standup rods that were popular at the time (Sabre rods for example). The stiffness allows them to better troll big pusher lures and also improve hook up rates on hard-billed marlin. The stiffer design also helps when retrieving line in a hurry when a feisty marlin is scooting across the surface. The ‘T’ actually stands for Trolling-curve. Unfortunately, the compromise when using T-curves is when a big fish decides to slog it out down deep (as with most barrel tuna), your back will be yelling out for a softer rod.
Like I said, I’ll go into more detail in my next post and talk about the relative advantages and disadvantages of rod stiffness, length, and componentry. I hope that can give you some more guidance in your search.
As for the question about the 80W, I assume that you won’t have a game-chair and will be planning to fish standup? If so, then I would suggest staying away from the 80W unless you really need to be fishing >20-25kg (or more) of drag (which can be achieved on standup with the right gear and methods). Otherwise they’re a massive, heavy, awkward and generally uncomfortable piece of metal to be connected to.
