Reel for Blue Marlin in the 200-600 lb range

[thunderboy13]

I live in San Juan, Puerto Rico and I am gearing up for this year's blue marlin season (July-Early October). I am looking for a strong, yet economical reel fit for the job. I am considering either the Shimano Tiagra 30 widespool or the Shimano TLD 50 2-Speed A. Plz tell me which you think is better for the task (and price) and other reels you think I should consider

Sincerely,
JC

[Makubwa]

Shimano is always going to be a good make but personally for the ultimate (marlin) I use Penn.

[Capt.Tony]

Shimano's are great, I use Tiagra 50WLRS and 30WLRS wide spool.
If you are going to be using 80 LB. line the TLD 50 2-Speed is a good economical reel if you dont want to spend too much money. And its light weight is a plus if you do stand up fishing.

The Tiagra 50 WLRS is a much more robust reel but it costs more than the TLD.

[razorz]

Most Shimano stuff is top notch and reasonably priced besides the Stella line.

:thumb:

[Capt.Tony]

razorz,
Couldn't of said it better myself!!

[thunderboy13]

Thx!!!

Sincerely,
JC

[floridadeckie]

tiagra 30LRS spooled up with 50 lb braid backing and 80lb topshot

[Warren_Brantley]

Regards to everyone,

I agree with all of the above. This past fall '06 season (in Venezuela) we used a Penn 9500 (SS I believe) Spinning Reel on a custom 50 -80 two piece rod (a stiff surf rod cut down a bit would do just as well) with 60 Spectra and no top shot. Worked like a jewel. We ran it as a shotgun bait. Caught rat blues and a tagged white (tagged in Punta Cana in June of 2002/Thank You Capt. Paul Ivey). I think the 80 pound top shot would be nice. Should handle blues up to 250 - 300 pounds with no trouble. Anything bigger than that could be manhandled quicker with conventional gear.

To adapt a harness just loop a foot of 1/4 inch rope just above the reel, use a Sampo (or similar) shoulder harness attaching each clip to the rope. This can be used standup with a fighting belt or in the chair. With the harness this allows for one handed fishing actually. Lean back........reel forward.

This is a nice option to offer a client who has never caught a marlin on a spinning reel. I plan to deep drop it for swords one day. I have never tried to catch one of them on a spinning reel. It's quite an affordable option also.

Tight lines. WGB