New Trends for Long Range Gear

It’s September and a lot of us are getting ready for 5 day and longer fishing trips from San Diego to destinations like Guadalupe Isl., Cedros and points further south. So what are the new trends for these trips? Well for some who have a of rods and reels its not hard to bring a setup for each line class 30, 40, 50, 60, 80 and even 100lb. But what do you do when your tackle is limited. The new trend is to fill the reel with braided line and use a topshot of mono that could be as long as100 ft. to as short as a leader of 18 inches. This way it would be quick and easy to change the your one rod and reel to different mono test lines. This way one rod and reel can handle at least 2 different line test if not more. One thing to remember be sure that the reel’s drag can handle the pound test of line you use. By this I mean; drags should be set at 25% of the test of the line, 40lb line would set at 10lb. of drag’ 60lb. line at 15lb. of drag. and so on. This way your tackle will be balanced properly and you will be able to land the fish with very little problems.
Another new trend with braided line is to use smaller 2-speed reels for larger fish. Braided line has a smaller diameter then mono and thus you can have the same or more yardage of line on a small reel as you would have on a larger reel. Also using a smaller reel you can make a longer cast then with a large reel. Finally braded line has less drag in the waters so it is easier for your bait to swim away from the boat.
Then there is fluorocarbon line. Invisible in water and with high abrasion resistance fluorocarbon line has uses in certain situations. It works well when fishing in kelp or around rocky structures or when the fish are on a finicky bite but because fluorocarbon is stiffer then mono it can hamper your bait from swimming naturally.
And finally with all this new technology it will come of no use if your rods and reels aren’t properly serviced before your trip.
Checkout the New Penn International Torque and the International VSX reels. All have superor drags to handle braided lines. http://www.pennreels.com/01_products/reels/reels.htm
Also Shakespear's Ugly Barid line. http://www.shakespeare-fishing.com/products/mono/ugly_braid.shtml