Line recommendation for Doggies

[Dmitrii Novgorodtcev]

If it does turn out to be that deep I guess this is one of those examples that justifies the new Stella 30000 coming out. Monsterous capacity and monsterous drag.

My friend is on the fishing show in Osaka now and by his words the specialist on the Shimano booth said the drag on 30000 spool will be "something about 20kg".

The 30000 size reel has the same body as 18000/20000, but the rotor, handle and the spool are different. The rotor is wider to fit the bigger 30000 spool.

[Michael Sammut]

I appreciate all your comments and thankyou for putting in the time to write a detailed post Dmitrii. 

I also like casting for Gt's more but it is something that i would like to try.  I believe i am going for the PE6 Varivas Tuna line and see how i go with that. 

[Brandon Khoo]

Dimitrii, I think most of the guys who have commented are well-aware of matching a rod to a line class. The Nirai, if fished with sensible angles, is appropriate for PE8. Few anglers can fish the heavier jigs rods like a Spinoza 5120 effectively.

I have tested the sink rate of PE8 versus PE6 for depths of 80 to 120m quite a bit when fishing for samsons in Perth and there really isn't the difference you may think. I appreciate it might be more noticeable if using small jigs like say 120-150g but when you're using 300 - 400g jigs, the difference is minimal.

I dare to disagree that PE8 is the minimum choice for doggies. Of course, there are situations, when it is good to use such a thick line, but in general situations one has to be aware of its disadvantages:
- In depth more than 80-90m it would be very hard work. You have to use heavier jigs and can not use a fast jerk technics ("from the hand") so liked by doggies sometimes during any long period of time because of your fatigue.
- With such a thick line you will be limited in your tactics. You will have to make less retreives during one drift, because the line angle. And you won't be able to fish next-to-bottom layer for long.

The main idea is that the line selection should be appropriate to the used rod, not the fish. It is the rod that makes a pressure to the fish, and line is just a link. Many anglers have their line broken just because they use rods stiffer than it is appropriate for given line. Or vice a versa, some use thicker line than reasonable for given rod, which makes it difficult to work the jig, though give you no advantage in fighting the fish. There are rods which provide you less fighting time with PE5 than other rods with PE8. So, I think it is not correct to say that "dogtooth must be fished with PE8 or PE6" or any. The line should correlate to the rod and the fishing conditions.

It was mentioned that the rod meant to be used is Smith Nirai. I see no reason to use PE8 with Smith Nirai which is a relatively soft rod with relatively low lifting power. I used such set up and I think it won't give you considerable gain in stopping and lifting the fish in comparison with the case it is equipped with, for example, PE6. If you use Nirai, and especially in the big depth, I would recommend you to use PE5 or PE6 set up and make a shock leader longer. Long shock leader will be a good compensation to the high drag and make it possible to use high drag settings with thinner PE like PE6. Fortunately, this is not casting where we can not use 7-10m shock leaders.

As for the impossibility of successfull release, I think most of doggies bigger than 50kg lifted from 100m depth are hard to be safely released, unfortunately. This is one of the the reasons I tend to like GT casting more recently.

[Dan Konig]

Brandon I think his point is that if you are not using PE8 you may not need to use the 300-400gr jigs.

I'm a Perth local and fish sambos most weekends when the season is on and I notice a marked difference as between fishing PE5 and PE8 (I should caveat that by saying that I've not done the same comparison with PE6 though the same principal obviously applies).

With one I can get away fishing 270gr quite easily in 100m, with the other I cannot. On my deeper sambo marks in around 140-160m the effect is significantly more pronounced.

Dan

[Brandon Khoo]

Dan, I accept what you are saying with PE5 and light jigs but my primary objective here is to try to discourage people from using PE5 for dogtooth. I find it extremely unfortunate that people go with approaches that guarantee they kill the fish they land.

[Dmitrii Novgorodtcev]

Dimitrii, I think most of the guys who have commented are well-aware of matching a rod to a line class. The Nirai, if fished with sensible angles, is appropriate for PE8. Few anglers can fish the heavier jigs rods like a Spinoza 5120 effectively.

I have tested the sink rate of PE8 versus PE6 for depths of 80 to 120m quite a bit when fishing for samsons in Perth and there really isn't the difference you may think. I appreciate it might be more noticeable if using small jigs like say 120-150g but when you're using 300 - 400g jigs, the difference is minimal.

Brandon,
I think my poor English made you misunderstand me. I do not doubt that most of the guys reading this forum well-aware of matching a rod to a line class. And, of course, Smith Nirai is appropriate for PE8 (as I said, I used this rod with PE8. And tried different angles with it with very high drag rate). My point was that rods are very different within the same line class specification. And by my opinion, saying that the fact of using PE5 (or any) on dogtooth itself guarantees it will kill the fish is not correct unless you specify the certain rod model.

For example, compare two cases: Sevenseas Northern Mariana Extra Dogtooth 100 with PE5 (or better PE6) and Smith Nirai with PE8. I bet one will land 50kg dogtooth faster with the first set up than with the second.

As for the jig weight difference, I have the the same practice with Dan. I noticed that PE6 can be fished with 250g or sometimes even 220g at 100m while PE8 can not.