For me most of my bait cast reels are spooled with either 10 pound big game or 10 pound suffix advance monofilament. As far as my smaller spinning reels I’m all over the map with one of my favorite monofilament being 4 pound Kast King monofilament because I can find it pretty cheap on Amazon and my wife usually finds some extra % off coupons before purchasing. In the past I pretty much only used McCoy mean green monofilament and enjoyed that also.

On 12/11/2024 at 4:25 PM, A-Jay said:

This fish was hooked outside the mouth, top of her face actually.

After that I took my time, relied on years of experience fighting & landing Pelagic fish much bigger than this from the Gulf Stream, AND I got supremely lucky.

Got the whole thing on video.

First part of the clip is "the story".

Second part is the actual landing of the fish.

 

btw - I landed a pretty beefy musky this past Sept on a chatterbait fishing 15 lb Tatsu and she had totally choked the bait.

Again I got lucky.

Is it spring yet ?

A-Jay

 

Just finished watching the videos. Late congrats on those monsters! I think 15lb Tatsu does have a fair chance of winning the battle with them, even if it's hooked inside the mouth.

You see my top 5 FLMB under my avatar all were caught using mono 10 or 12 lb line. The 18.6 lb bass was Trilene 12# XT, the other 4 on 10# Big Game.

The 10# line strength isn’t an issue controlling the bass, it’s the line contacting rocks or wood that damages it.

For example the 19.3 lb bass was hooked about 100’ away from me and ran towards me under the boat and out the other side another 75’ or more before fighting that bass back to my boat to land it. If that bass managed to wrap the line around any wood or over rocks it’s gone and 20 lb line wouldn’t make a difference damaged it would break.

I can’t cast 20 lb line far enough to get close to these giant bass.

Tom

 

Trilene XL, XT, and McCoy MeanGreen.

I really liked Sunline Shooter Defier, but alas, ‘tis no more. 15 lb. at the same diameter as most 12 lb. line was nice. 
 

I'm back to Big Game and/or Yo Zuri Hybrid. 

41 minutes ago, BrianMDTX said:

I really liked Sunline Shooter Defier, but alas, ‘tis no more. 15 lb. at the same diameter as most 12 lb. line was nice. 
 

I'm back to Big Game and/or Yo Zuri Hybrid. 

Guess who stocked up while the Sunline website was dumping it all at half price with free shipping ? 

This guy.

I use it as mainline for cranking, A-Rigs, and some topwater.  Does double duty as leader material as well.

A-Jay

 

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

Guess who stocked up while the Sunline website was dumping it all at half price with free shipping ? 

This guy.

I use it as mainline for cranking, A-Rigs, and some topwater.  Does double duty as leader material as well.

A-Jay

 

I missed out on a golden opportunity lol. 

Okay.  After reading this and other threads here, I am going to trial Berkley 10lb BG on my small fleet of Shimano Curados of various vintages.