Spooling 50’s for Bluefin Tuna and the Oh Sh*t Mark
I spent some time on the linewinder at the shop the other day getting ready for tuna season, so I thought I would share how I spooled up.
My caveat as always with these things – this is how I do it, there are lots of right ways, this is just what I’ve found to work well on the Laura-Jay.
First I spooled 2 Fin-Nor Santiago 50’s – these are the 50 standards, not the wides. Each reel took 450 yards of 130lb Jerry Brown Hollow core, this is connected via 7ft of chinese finger cuff spice to 100 yard top shots of Momoi Daimond 80lb line (Brillinat Blue). 130 JB is cheaper and easier to spice than the 80 and capacity isn’t an issue.
Next I spooled 2 Fin-Nor 50 Wides – I also spooled each of these with 450 yards of JB 130, but I put a significantly longer top-shot (approx 300 yds) of the 80 lb Diamond (Daimond significantly overtests, so I think of this as essentially 100lb mono). With the extra capacity, these are generally my long rigger rods – the standards have Plenty of capacity, but I like to put each rod in the same position in the spread each day.
Finally, I rigged my Kite Rod – this isn’t this line that controls the kite, rather a separate 50W combo used just for fishing the live bait. Braid flies much easier than mono (less wind resistance) – so I set up 1 50 Wide just for this.
I backed the reel with approx 400 yds of 80 lb Cortland Dacron, and then top-shoted the reel with 300 yards of JB 130lb braid (connected via loop to loop – with slices on each end). The terminal end of the line has a spliced loop where I can change short wind on leaders (30′) and then crimp on my hook for the bait.
I’ve got a couple more to do, but that was enough for 1 day.
Finally the picture is what I call the O Sh*t mark – I constantly hear stories of people “getting spooled” – but in reality it just doesn’t happen very often. Many anglers, (myself included) start getting nervous when they see the spool getting thin with a hot fish running off – but we normally have a heck of alot more capacity than we think.
So the Oh- Sh*t mark is simply a 6 foot section on line colored in with black sharpie – marked off 100 yards from the end of the spool. If you see this, time for some evasive maneuvers – but you still have room to save the day.
Hope that helped somebody getting ready for the season.
