Thread: your opinion please

came down last week of march for another spring break. fishing was insane from the surf on east beach. whiting slot reds trout and pomps. i am an early riser like 3am so went strait down to the brine. it was a good southeast blow just about everyday. most days were 3-4 oz pyramids with one day needing 6oz. i was maxed out with my rods and reels. i also got my but kicked 4 times on fish with whiting heads before sun up hoping for bull reds. i believe i hooked 2 reds and no question a shark in which evidence indicated tail whipping on the braid i am upgrading my gear for an october trip back down to GS. looking at st croix mojo 11' MH paired with a 6500 penn spingisher v. my question is this: what size braid would you spool up with? i was thinking 30lb but want to make sure it would hold an incidental toothy critter hookup for long runs and have enough line without getting spooled and be able to land? i do run pre rigged leaders purchased from J&M. the 11' will give capabilites to 8oz with decent casting distance. your thoughts are appreciated on the rod reel and braid size. blessing all. gooseboy

Long steel leaders are for tail whipping, but, of course, you get fewer bites.

Like everything else in life, there are trade-offs.

It's not so much a matter of lb test, but just steel vs mono.

If you try to make long 7-strand leaders beware of hand crimps. Best to just tie a figure-8 and maybe finish with a light crimp (IMO).

Can't help you with the leader because I'd rather a shark break off so I can get back to pomp fishing, but you can open up some rod selection flexibility by using sputnik or spider weights as opposed to pyramids. They let you get away with much less weight. I have found that a 3-oz spider or 3.5-oz (100 gram) sputnik will keep my triple drop pompano rigs on the bottom in just about any seas worth fishing (fished Sunday and Tuesday with no problems). IMHO, I can't imagine chunking an 8-oz weight with braid and a spinning reel (ouch).

By the way, I use a pair of 10' rods with penn 704's (300 yards of 17-lb mono) for everything from whiting to large black/red drum. I also have a pair of 706's (300 yards of 20-lb mono) mated to 15 foot rods for the occasional days when I really need to get my baits out there.

What are you fishing for? If bull reds and sharks, then an 11' rod with 30# braid and big weights is probably ok.
If you don't want to fight the sharks, use a heavy mono leader.