Spooling TLD 25's?

[SeaBiscuit]

My trolling outfits are the last to go braid.
It all started with bottom fishing where braid is without a doubt a blessing. Lighter weight to hold bottom, hook setting power and no stretch to let the rascals rock you.

I resisted it on lighter bottom stuff (flounder and jigging outfits) for a while. I kept pulling the bait away from them, I thought. Since switching, I loose a lot less terminal tackle and a lot less fish.

Light stuff came next. How about that mono memory on cold winter speck fishing. Instead of 6 or 8 lb mono straight to the jig or mirrorlure, now its 15 lb braid to 16 lb fluoro leader. I only need a new mirrolure now when the color is totally gone from all the bites!

Live baiting and light trolling, a lot of the pros kept downsizing the line and up sizing the reels, only to withstand the long runs of a king with hardly any drag. There's been many a tuna and wahoo lost on light tackle because of line capacity. I can get 200 yards of 30 lb pp on small spinning reels, 500 on small conventionals. Has worked like a charm and affords me a chance to fight that "exceptional" fish w/o being under gunned too much.

The jury is out on trolling. I am a recent convert, but intend to give it my best shot and see how it goes.

One thing that I must admit to is that reels not designed with the guts to handle braid have been wearing out faster with braid than they would with mono. We tend to like exerting "heat" when we can (it's loads of fun!). Smaller, all metal reels are making a very strong showing lately. Standing up to big fish on small tackle is finally possible and, in my opinion, the way to go.

Cheers,
SeaBiscuit

[gottaflylee]

Here is my 2 cents on this. As a lot of you know I fish a lot of nearshore Sails, Kings and Dolphin on some very light tackle. I use Penn 975 reels for this. I have 300 yds of 30 pound braid and a 200yd top shot of 20 pound Dimond or what ever you like and then 20' or so of 40 pond floro. Have had the best luck with this setup. One of the reasons I like this is I can use a little heaver rod with the mono and that gives me more lifting power. When useing mostly braid I need a softer rod tip to help take the shock. If I'm on the rod I can handle it but I'm not on the rod, my clients are and 95% of them don't have a clue how to fight a Sail or Dolphin and when the fish is boat side, I'm their target.
With that being said... on the Predator boat the tld's are spooled with 30 pound Hivis and a 30 to 50' shot of clear 50 pound. We use them mostly as a pitch bait rod.

[wbfish]

SeaBiscuit knows what he's doin. I had 80lb powerpro on my TLD 25 with probably 20yd 80lb clear mono on top. Has worked for everything for me.

[TROPHY SPORTFISHING]

MONO AIN'T FAILED ME IN 16 YEARS IF IT AIN'T BROKE WELL YOU KNOW THE REST.

[BTH284]

From talking to some experienced Capts and some very experienced non capt. I went with 450 yds suffix superior high vis. 40 lb. I have had zero problems with this set up.

When after tuna which is a bear but loads of fun on the tld 25's for this year from a discussion I had yesterday(thank you a bunch for your time and advice Capt )the TLD 25's are on the short and flats 30-40 foot of 100 lb clear mono wind ons. Wire will be added here if needed for toothy critters.

I plan on going 60 lb suffix superior clear on the TLD 50's 2 speeds. Then 80 or 90 lb flouro wind on's for them in the long lines position.

When after sails and maybe a bigger or whiter bill I use the same main lines on the 25's and 50's then tie into 30-40' 60 lb clear shot to a small 50-60 lb coastlock then clip that on to a 10-12' 60 lb clear dink hook leader.

Wahoo in the fall same thing except clip to the 15' wire rig instead of the mono rig.

[dolphinfrenzi]

JJ
I asked the SAME exact question about 3 yrs ago on the boards. After being so confused I did not know whether to scratch my watch or wind my butt, I went with 30lb blue momoi diamond, but then I relaized I could not see it my self, so I decided I did not like it, I pulled it off, and went with 30lb Suffuix Superior HI VIS yellow. And I can see it better just run longer leaders. As a very well known and great friend once told me, in a CC you can chase a fish easier so line capacity is important but not as important. And that made sense to me. So I went with that set up on my 4-tld 20s and all of my 6-tld 25s. Now my kingfish gear, my TLD 15s and soon to me brand new 6-Toriums 20s for tournaments I plan on using a line I fell in love with last year, well reason why is because if I fished my 20s and my 15s the 20s having the yellow and my 15s using Hi-Seas RED DEVIL, I swear I had 90% more bites with the Red Devil line, I can not tell u why maybe coinsidence but what ever it was I have ordered a 1lb and 2lb spool of it to spool all new Torium for tournament fishing and all of my 15s for fun fishing. So the rule of thumb here I am getting at if it don;t work respool it and try something else.
Go to http://****************************/ and get one of their line spoolers so u can do it yourself. It works great. Just try it if u do not like it or it does not work repool it, cause line is CHEAP in this money pit we love so much LOL

[jayjysmth]

Thank you all for your input, i got a little confused at first, but i have decided since i am not experienced w/ braid that i will be best off using 30lb suffix on all the tlds, thanks again, this board is awesome!