NorCal Kayak Anglers

Kayak Fishing Zone => General Fishing Tips => Topic started by: alantani on May 29, 2016, 10:56:34 AM

Title: "stoplight" spectra rigging
Post by: alantani on May 29, 2016, 10:56:34 AM
"stoplight" rigging

penn makes a beautiful reel calls a fathom 60 two speed lever drag.  joey went through it, did a full service and then i installed a 5/0 grip and spooled it up.  the customer wanted 450 yards of 100 pound JB hollow and an 80 pound mono topshot that was spliced in.  not a problem.  remember this old photo?  we have a winding station!

(http://alantani.com/gallery/13/1_29_12_15_5_36_49_136052199.jpeg)

i still have the same set up, but i added a little more inventory.

(http://alantani.com/gallery/14/1_29_05_16_10_41_17_143752032.jpeg)

been dialing things in for the last 6 months, and i think i'm pretty well set.  for this particular reel, i put a double layer of flex wrap around the arbor and smeared a light coat of yamaha grease on the sides of the spool.  then i took some red 100# JB hollow, mounted it to the line tensioner and set the tension to a smooth 15 pounds.  then i spooled up 100 yards.

(http://alantani.com/gallery/14/1_29_05_16_9_49_18_143661062.jpeg)

next, i spliced in some 100# JB hollow in yellow, and spooled up another 100 yards. 

(http://alantani.com/gallery/14/1_29_05_16_9_49_19_143662410.jpeg)

now 100 yards of 100# green JB hollow.

(http://alantani.com/gallery/14/1_29_05_16_9_49_20_143692369.jpeg)

150 yards of 100# white JB hollow for a total of 450 yards.

(http://alantani.com/gallery/14/1_29_05_16_9_49_21_143662109.jpeg)

(http://alantani.com/gallery/14/1_29_05_16_9_49_21_143712172.jpeg)

and finally 50 yards of 80# berkely big game.  nice looking serve, huh!!!  i set the drag to 20 pounds at strike and now we're all set!

(http://alantani.com/gallery/14/1_29_05_16_9_49_23_14373576.jpeg)

(http://alantani.com/gallery/14/1_29_05_16_9_49_22_143721750.jpeg)

(http://alantani.com/gallery/14/1_29_05_16_9_49_24_14374954.jpeg)

for lack of a better name, i'm going to call this "stoplight" rigging.  it's pretty simple.  it's a double layer of flex wrap with some yamaha grease on the sides of the spool.  the spectra is loaded under 50 to 75% of your anticipated drag setting.  any mono or fluoro is then loaded under 25% of the anticipated drag setting.  the idea here is that a guy can hit the green and know that he has 300 yards left.  when he hits the yellow, he has 200 yards left and needs to start paying attention.  if he hits the red, he's got 100 yards and is going to have to make some quick decisions.  i know guys have marked their lines before, but in the heat of the battle, i think these marks can be easy to miss.  this type of rigging is as obvious as it gets.  unless it's pitch dark, you can't miss green, yellow and red, and you can't NOT know what it means. 

it's VERY time consuming to do this.  the yellow and red are a little sticky and can be tedious to splice.  i use a 6 foot section of 27 pound stainless steel single strand leader material that is folded in half to do all my splices.  i've chosen this because this is what the average guy will use.  most guys will not be able to afford a $100 needle kit.  as far as the serve goes, i have all the fancy stuff.  for most connections, i just use a modified tony pena with a four turn uni on the mono side and then 6 turns up and 10 turns down on the spectra side.  it cinches up beautifully! 

i would love to see this become the new standard!

alan
Title: Re: "stoplight" spectra rigging
Post by: Cowman on May 29, 2016, 11:08:52 AM
That is awesome! Will definitely consider doing that on my bigger avets. Great write up as always


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