Q: When fishing 50-pound stand-up tackle for marlin, would you use Dacron with a short top shot — say, 150 yards — or would you run mono straight through? Most of my friends use mono straight through, but I'm considering buying a Tiagra 30WLRS and running Dacron with a mono top shot to get the line capacity I think I'll need. (I'm looking for something nice and light but still want to fish IGFA rules, so the superbraids are out of the question.) I think I'll get around 700-plus yards on the smaller reel this way.
-BJ Tompkins of Mooloolaba, Australia
A: You can go lighter by using all three types of line. Use superbraids like Spectra or Dyneema as backing only. As you suggested, you have to use a superbraid tested (and labeled) well under the line class you want to use. When fishing 80-pound gear, I use line labeled 50-pound that actually tests about 65. On 130-pound gear, I use Spectra backing labeled 80-pound that tests between 90 and 110. It is well under the 130 mark, but is way down on the reel and rarely ever comes off.
Even in the odd emergency with loads of line out, I never use more than half the breaking strain as drag — usually less since the frictional drag of the line in the water would cause the line to break at the fish's end! The lighter Spectra gives me heaps of line, even in situations like having a double-header stretched out in opposite directions, and is plenty strong enough.
I sometimes go as short as 50 feet of good mono — just to get some of the stretch and shock absorption of mono nylon. The rest is all Dacron in the line class I am using.
I once caught six bluefin tuna one after the other in less than an hour. All of them were in the 200-pound range and caught on a 130 spooled with 50 feet of good mono, 200 yards of 130-pound Dacron, and over 400 yards of 110-pound (tested) Spectra on a Penn 30 International that Cal Sheets set up to give me 60 pounds of drag in the corner. (And I still had free spool!) You can contact Cal Sheets at 626-357-4441 or www.cals2speed.com.
