Whats everybody using on their tuna setups? Rods, reels, line? I saw them everywhere last year but I was undergunned with my current gear.

depends what undergunned means?
4/0's and 6/0's will work.

I can tell you what I'm using, but I don't think you'll want to copy me. I have 6 penn 2260 ARAs (tuna sticks) with 80Ws on them, spooled with 100Lb. berkley big game. 2 Custom 50 pound rods with 50Ws on them spooled with 50 pound big game, 3 2260ARAs with 70Vs on them spooled with 130Lb Jerry brown hollow core spectra with a top shot of 150 pound Jinkai, and 1 2260ARA with a 50VSW on it spooled with the 130lb Jerry brown and a Jinkai top shot.

My fishing partner caught a 40 lber with a VS100 on a 7ft st. croix tidemaster and 10lb line. 1/2 oz castmaster. On purpose. Took 3hrs or chasing that thing around. supprisingly still tasted fantastic!

I don't think you can be under or overgunned. It is really about what you are all about.

If you want to get them to the boat fast, use 50lb class gear.

A lot of spinning guys were using penn 9500ss.

I troll with penn 330gti spooled with...um...i can't remember. But I will probably re-spool with 20 lb. big game.

I throw plugs at them with 706 z spooled with 30 lb powerpro, but I think I am going to change out to a different braid, still 30 lb.

Having fished alongside Fishingfreak and his partner I can say what he says holds. I think a lot of people overpower the fish they are after. Of all the tripes we made east of Chatham and into CCBay we only had one giant come up and try to take down a Daisy of pink/purple shell squid in amongst all the SBFT's we had crash the baits.

We use some cost effective ( read:cheap) Ande Rods, 6 ft long, rated 20-50 lb with Penn 113HS reels spooled with 400 yds of 40 mono. Also we have two 6 ft. Ande rods rated 40-60lb with rollers and Shimano TLD 25's with 400 yds of 50lb mono. We started the season with a Penn Slammer rod and an old 6/0 Senator which was a veteran of years of cod jiggin abuse and it never failed and caught tuna just as well as the other more "geared too" the sport tackle.

The rods Ande makes are composite Graphite/fiberglass spun in the old Howald spiral process where the last third if the rod ( the tip) is solid. 59.00 bucks, 79.00 for the heavier roller version. You can't kill them and for the dough they are surprisingly well made.

Most of the sbft's caught run 20 to 50 pounds, with the majority in the 30lb class. If you hook a bigger fish it takes more time is all. We had 'em to sixty plus and never had any trouble.

Now if they run up to 100-150 then we better have our doodoo together and the rods could still handle it but the boat handling becomes the greater factor for success.

They are tough fish, no doubt about that but like anything, you can overpower them and if you are like us, we want to enjoy the fight and try to keep the balance even between the chances of both man and fish.:)

Oh yeah, and like Capt. Eric Stewart says, " it's all about the bite". The hit is the best part while trolling!

Oh and I forgot, had two in CCBAY on a 9'-6" Loomis one piece surf rod, Shimano Stradic 6000 and 20 lb. Fireline with a 30 poung Fluoro leader and a 2100 series Creek Chub popper. Now that was exciting!:rotf2:

I'll be trolling from my sailboat so I was looking for something in the 50-80#, conventional reel, not sure on the lever/star drag. I want to go heavy to compensate for the poor handling of the boat.

The first vital piece of equipment you need for tuna fishing is a new Boat! :usd:

I know, but Its better than swimming! And my 13' whaler isn't too good in open water. Sailboats are actually good for trolling too because they are so quiet, its also relaxing.

Sail
sail:smash:

4 50vsw with 80 lb momoi
4 80 vsw with 130 momoi

the fish east of chatham can be big real big. We caught a few in the 100-200lb range last year. Some of the fish out there are well over 200 pounds.

MakoMike, what is that Jerry Brown line like? I have not heard of it.

Catching a small tuna on heavy gear takes a lot of fun out of it. But...if you do hook up to a giant you will regret not having the gear. Further, it always happens that the big fish will hit the lighest rod in the spread. You need a wide range of gear (this is what I tell my wife when the UPS man comes with another box for me)

Sandy,
The Jerry Brown hollow core is like a small diameter dacron. You can splice using the finger method, just like you would with dacron and its easy to back splice to form a loop.

I am overgunned for the 30 pound BFT or Albies, but I handle to 300lb bigeye just fine. :) Biggest yellow so far was 220.

I rather have enough and not need it than not have enough and need it. Fishing with light gear is good but it also scorches the hell out of the meat of the tuna. If you are going to eat the fish getting it into the boat quickly makes a huge difference in quality of the steaks.
BUT... There IS nothing like watching a smaller sized reel just spooled almost instantly.

I rather have enough and not need it than not have enough and need it. Fishing with light gear is good but it also scorches the hell out of the meat of the tuna. If you are going to eat the fish getting it into the boat quickly makes a huge difference in quality of the steaks.
BUT... There IS nothing like watching a smaller sized reel just spooled almost instantly.

If that floats your boat, you should see a 130 get almost spooled faster than you can say "fish on"!

standard for us from the get-go is 4-50 wides. and 2-70 wides till we get the first one in the boat. then we'll downsize the setups to make it fun. don't like to play with my food so the first one usually gets overpowered. then we'll switch to 30 class fun rods.

Mikey, I'm thinkin' Black/pearl and Rainbow. Is it July yet? Sigh.........:usd:

Mikey, I'm thinkin' Black/pearl and Rainbow. Is it July yet? Sigh.........

Just can't get it off the brain yet eh? Now after that conversation we had thats all I am thinking about as well. :thanks:

[QUOTE=TheSpecialist]Just can't get it off the brain yet eh? Now after that conversation we had thats all I am thinking about as well. :thanks


Tuna fishing, it's like Heroin!!!!!!!!!

I know,now I am going to have to buy a couple of spinning outfits to have on just in case. What were those rods again? :soon:

MM,
I agree that you don't play around until the first is cut and on ice. After that its play time. I've seen 130's go ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ POP! Can't really describe the sound and feeling until you witness it first hand.