# Mackerel offshore - Braid vs mono



## Fishing Man (Oct 4, 2006)

hey guys,

im looking to spool up my tss4 with line to chase macks, snapper tuna etc.
am i better off with braid, GSP-Fused (ie: fireline), or Mono
and any particular brands worth considering.


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

Ben although I've become a fan of gelspun lines inside, offshore I would prefer mono as up here you will encounter toothy species and it's a lot quicker in a yak to rerig mono on the water I feel and the extra stretch will give you good tolerances.

Any quality brand such as Platinum or similar is OK


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## milansek (Apr 20, 2006)

hay fm i fish for macs pro and for fun mono is the go i like shogun and jag lines ,milan


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## Billybob (Aug 29, 2005)

Ben, the TSS4 will take about 270 metres of 30lb Platinum line.

The great part about that is... you don't have to use a leader as the mainline is strong enough to 'hand' when you've got a fish at the side of the yak.

Essentially you've only got one knot to worry about. It's a very simple, reliable setup that will comfortably handle a 20kg-25kg mackerel or tuna.


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## Fishpod (Oct 11, 2006)

Hi Ben, I'm in almost the same boat as you ( just got my yak and a TSS4 ) and i've gone with mono ( Platinum). Hope to give it a good stretch on friday.


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## Fishing Man (Oct 4, 2006)

hey guys,

thanks for the tips, looks like i will be getting the mono, 
bill i see you recommend 30lb, would you go any lighter if you intend on catching squire/snapper on plastics from the same setup or will 30lb do both,

hey fishpod which strength are you using


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## Billybob (Aug 29, 2005)

Ben, I'd be using a lighter outfit for soft plastics.

I use my TSS4 rig purely for trolling and usually have two other outfits with me; a Baitrunner 3500 with 14lb Fireline on a Shimano Taipan 6kg to 10kg Snapper rod for casting slugs at Tuna and Mackerel and a 3kg to 6kg Ugly Stik with a Shimano Aernos reel and 10lb Fireline for smaller pelagics.

I would think you'd want a graphite or a composite rod for soft plastics.


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## Phoenix (Jan 12, 2006)

I go with the 30 lb braid, I also use a 2 metre 50 lb mono leader.

I match my TSS4 loaded with the above to a 7ft Penn Powerstick, which I find an extremely powerful combination.


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## Billybob (Aug 29, 2005)

Conceptual perspective? Take it easy kraley.

I use 30lb Platinum mono because it's a fine diameter line and I can get roughly 270 metres on the TSS4... more than enough to play out a good size tuna or mackerel.

I like the stretch of the mono and matched with a 6kg to 8kg Wilson Live Fibre it's a nice outfit. But yes, I like not having to have a line joiner to a leader with this particular outfit, it's just about bullet proof in my opinion.

Having said that, my other favourite outfit is a Wilson Live Fibre with a Shimano Baitrunner 4500 loaded with 20lb Fireline and 30lb Platinum mono leader.

Reality is, though, if the surf's up or it's pretty sloppy out there I take the TSS4. It's easy to service and doesn't suffer so badly from salt water intrusion.


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## troppo (Feb 1, 2006)

kraley said:


> redphoenix said:
> 
> 
> > kraley said:
> ...


One stops nasty bites, the other can sometimes give nasty bites.


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