Boatless Fishing Forum, Reports, Info

I'm a FL sharkin noob and have a couple questions for the forum experts. 1st off I got a Penn international 30TW and a heavy boat rod I'd like to use for sharking this up coming black tip run. The reel will hold 900 yds of 150 lb braid with 30 lbs at max drag. Is this reel ok for medium sharks? I know I'll get spooled if I hook a 15' hammer, but I'll take the chance I guess. Do I really need top shot or can I just tie the braid to the leader I plan on using (12' of 500 lb mono with 3' wire to hook)? Just askin cause I know that 900 yards isn't much compared to some of the reels I see people using. I appreciate any feed back. Thanks

You definitely want a topshot. That setup is more then capable of handling blacktips, but they are acrobatic sharks that jump, and will cut that braid in a second. I would put about 20-30 yards of 100 - 130 lb mono leader on there, or use a 10-15 ft wind-on leader of ~200 lb mono. Also if you are fishing from the beach you don't want your braid to touch the sandbar, the shells will cut it up quickly. I like using lighter tackle for blacktips, much more fun to fight them. I use a Saragosa 18k spinning reel on a 12 ft surf rod, spooled with 65 lb braid and then a 20 foot shock leader of 100 lb mono, with a 2-3 foot wire leader. You can cast this setup no problem, and get a nice fight out of them.

Poseidon10/31 wrote:I'm a FL sharkin noob and have a couple questions for the forum experts. 1st off I got a Penn international 30TW and a heavy boat rod I'd like to use for sharking this up coming black tip run. The reel will hold 900 yds of 150 lb braid with 30 lbs at max drag. Is this reel ok for medium sharks? I know I'll get spooled if I hook a 15' hammer, but I'll take the chance I guess. Do I really need top shot or can I just tie the braid to the leader I plan on using (12' of 500 lb mono with 3' wire to hook)? Just askin cause I know that 900 yards isn't much compared to some of the reels I see people using. I appreciate any feed back. Thanks

wait a minute. you stated 900 yards of 150lb braid on the 30w. is that really so? it just doesn't seem like it can be loaded with that much line capacity with that pound test. if so interesting! my 50w shimano can only take 1000 yards of 100lb. 150 i probably have 900 yards or slightly less. but anyway if i were you and only targeting blacktips just put 80lb braid on and have have like a 100 yard topshot or more of 100lb test. topshot will save your braid alot and it can last for some years. you can even bring big bulls in too and smaller hammers. remember the average shark isn't going to be over 10 foot these days. too many been killed so most likely encountered are less then 10'.

the international 30 will only hold 700 yards of 100 lb braid...if you put 150 on there you wont have that much line... i agree with fixed... stick 80 pound on there and use 100 yards of 100 lb mono for a top shot... make sure you have a good line to line not..... but with the 30 you an catch any blacktip.... you can catch lemons.. you can catch a variety of diff sharks on it man...and when a big hammer grabs that thing ull know allll about it lol ...

Its a Penn International 30TW. All the websites say capacity is 900 yards of 30lb mono. From everything I saw 30lb mono has the same diameter as 150lb power pro. Thats why I said 900 yards 150lb braid (minus whatever for top shot). That's besides the point tho. Seems like the consensus is to use the top-shot. I dunno why I didn't consider the abrasion resistance of the mono top-shot, but it makes sense. Thanks for the input guys.

yeah your right dude, the 30 TW will hold 900 yards... that thing will land a variety of sharks

PhishingPhanatic wrote:You definitely want a topshot. That setup is more then capable of handling blacktips, but they are acrobatic sharks that jump, and will cut that braid in a second. I would put about 20-30 yards of 100 - 130 lb mono leader on there, or use a 10-15 ft wind-on leader of ~200 lb mono. Also if you are fishing from the beach you don't want your braid to touch the sandbar, the shells will cut it up quickly. I like using lighter tackle for blacktips, much more fun to fight them. I use a Saragosa 18k spinning reel on a 12 ft surf rod, spooled with 65 lb braid and then a 20 foot shock leader of 100 lb mono, with a 2-3 foot wire leader. You can cast this setup no problem, and get a nice fight out of them.

Finally an answer that I was looking for. The 100 lb mono is thick enough to handle the abrasive body and tail of the shark? What would you say the upper limit is in terms of shark size... I'd like to know what kind of bait size to pair with this tackle so that I'm not going in over my head...

when I first started fishing I used a 6/0 with 500 yards of 50# mono never had a problem.

gdm phil wrote:when I first started fishing I used a 6/0 with 500 yards of 50# mono never had a problem.

Did you use a wire that was longer than the shark?

My 40lb mono didn't hold up for more than a second... I only had a short 1 or 1 1/2 foot of wire though.

if a 30 holds 900 yeads of 150 power i have no clue why my tiagra 50 didnt take the whole spool i might have a thousand yard at most on it

MichaelAngelo wrote:

gdm phil wrote:when I first started fishing I used a 6/0 with 500 yards of 50# mono never had a problem.

Did you use a wire that was longer than the shark?

My 40lb mono didn't hold up for more than a second... I only had a short 1 or 1 1/2 foot of wire though.

Yes we wou,ld use about 5 -8 feet of wire with 100# mono leader. dont forget your super light test for rocks as your sinker

PhishingPhanatic wrote:65 lb braid and then a 20 foot shock leader of 100 lb mono, with a 2-3 foot wire leader. You can cast this setup no problem, and get a nice fight out of them.

Do you ever have abrasion problems after letting the braid soak in the water?