Quote from Andre van Wyk:
I also think heavy drag settings are a no-no.... trying to stop a greyhounding Billfish on its first run, especially if its going airborne, is a recipe for heartbreak I reckon... You'bve got plenty of string on hand, so my advice is to make use of it, and get the skipper on the helm to get you heading towards the fish until she settles down, then go to work on the drag.
Andre, 100+kg of marlin will certainly rip more line off than any GT, so you're right on your quoted tactics.
Stick to 5-8kg and be prepared to give chase when you have more than 100m of string out.
The lighter drag will help prevent leader damage and pulled kooks.
To put it into perspective, on a 'standard' marlin outfit that I use with a 'strike drag' of 12kg is a 37kg bent butt rollered rod with a Tiagra 80W strapped to it.
The leader is usually 300-400lb hard billfish designed mono, since my drag settings may vary from 12-18kg during a fight.
This is on blue, striped and black marlin in the 100-300kg range.
The lure leader may require replacing after every fish. Sometimes you can get a couple big fish on a leader though I prefer to have new leader & avoid failure.
On 8kg 'standard' gear, my leader is 100-150lb, fight drag is 2.6-4kg and the bill knocks the leader around at these pressures!
This is aimed at little blacks, sailfish and junior burger sized stripies under 75kg.
On casting gear, I'd keep the hooks fine, the 'bite' leader hard and set the drag at 5-8kg.
Try your luck on the smaller sized fish before casting a 300mm stick bait at 200+kg of blue marlin!
Brock....I know you still want to do this so get a spool that holds 1000m of PE 6. You can doooo eit!
