color-coded braid - Tony Maja Products

TALKIN’ TACKLE
BY PETE BARRETT
COLOR-CODED BRAID
B
ack in issue #19, I talked about trolling with
super-braid lines as
an alternative to wire
line. Braid’s small diameter cuts
through water much like wire
line if you have a heavy lure attached, like a bunker spoon or an
umbrella rig, or if you’re trolling
deep-diving plugs with large swim
lips. But the real beauty of trolling
with gel-spun lines is that you can
use smaller, lighter tackle. Instead
of a traditional wire line rod and
reel that can tip the scale at five
pounds, a compact braided outfit may weigh only two pounds.
Wow! With high-speed gears, the
smaller tackle has the same power
and “oomph” needed to haul in big
bass, and big lures.
As with wire, you still need to
New color-dyed braided lines make it easy to calculate the corfigure out how much line to stream
rect lure depth when trolling for striped bass with umbrella
in the water to precisely reach the
rigs and bunker spoons, and allow the use of lighter tackle.
optimum trolling depth. According
to calculations I did with my 31 Bertram, for every 50 feet
ence line fraying, and the extremely fine diameter can cut
of line in the water, I’d get about four feet of lure depth
fingers if you’re not careful, so some braid trollers prefer
when trolling a standard six-arm umbrella rig or a large
80-pound. To learn more about it, check out Depth-Hunter
bunker spoon. To reach 15 feet of depth, divide 15 by four
at www.powerpro.com.
to see that you need about 190 feet of braid to get down to
Tony Arcabasio of Tony Maja Products recently showed
that trolling level. You can use line counter reels like those
me his special system to calculate lure depth when trolling
marketed by Daiwa, Okuma and Shimano to count off the
with gel-spun lines. He’s partnered with super-line manuline, or you can count the number of side-to-side movefacturer, FINS, to create a unique 80-pound braid that is
ments of any levelwind reel from Abu, Fin-Nor or Penn to
marked with red, white and blue 100-foot segments. Just
calculate how much line you’re letting out. For instance,
as wire line trollers have done for decades, Maja braid is
the Daiwa Saltist 30HA lets out about 20 feet of line with
also marked every 50 feet with a bright yellow marker to
each side-to-side pass, so nine and a half passes will put
allow fine-tuning the amount of braid being trolled.
out 190 feet of line.
Most readers of The Fisherman are familiar with the Tony
Both techniques (line counter reels or counting the
Maja Custom Bunker Spoons, which Arcabasio trolls with
side-to-side passes of the levelwind) work well, but at a
either wire or braided lines. “While my experiences are
recent trolling seminar, I was asked, “Have you ever used
mostly with wire over many years of striped bass trolling,”
PowerPro’s Depth-Hunter line?” Well, no, I hadn’t, but afTony says, “many bass trollers are now switching to braided
ter listening to this reader’s experiences, it sounded like
lines and I wanted to offer something they could use that
something to be investigated.
would easily allow them to deploy the right amount of line
PowerPro dyes four, color-coded, 25-foot segments
to reach any depth where striped bass were feeding.” After
of repeating blue, yellow, green and orange, with an adTony did a lot of field testing, he settled on the FINS braid,
ditional two-inch hash mark (some call it a tic mark) evbased on Spectra fibers and woven in 80-pound-test with
ery five feet for precise fine-tuning of the trolling depth.
the same diameter of comparable 17-pound-test mono.
Depth-Hunter is great for vertical fishing over wrecks and
It’s available in 150-, 300- and 3,000-yard spools. Check it
at the Continental Shelf for tilefish, and it really shines
out at www.ezoutrodder.com.
for inshore trolling. PowerPro markets Depth-Hunter line
PowerPro Depth-Hunter and Tony Maja FINS lines work
from ten- to 150-pound-test. I’ve used it in 65-poundbest with a clear mono leader at the terminal end; about
test, which is a good blend of fine diameter for cutting
15 to 20 feet seems about right. If you’re trolling with levelthrough water resistance, yet there’s still enough line
wind reels, use a knot like the Reverse Albright to bend the
diameter to allow easy handling of the line. Under hard
leader to the braid. It’s a slick, slim-profile knot that slips
use while trolling spoons and rigs, it’s possible to experithrough the line guide with no hang-ups.
46
THE FISHERMAN
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SEPTEMBER 22, 2011