Penn VISX 16 hollow braid question

[nickyn99]

Hello all,
New to the tuna game up here in N. Cali. I bought 50-100lb rod from Stubborn Rods (Local in my area) and a Penn VISX 16. Was gonna put 100lb hollow braid (Diamond Gen 3) with 100lb fluoro (Seaguar) top shot. I know some say to put on braid somewhere in the middle of the rod's rating but also have read that people are putting 100lb on this type of set up. This set up will be mainly used for trolling in my boat and up here trips for me (work still) won't be as often as I would like.
Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Big_Tuna_]

How big are the bft up there? Trolling what? Madmacs? I'd go heavier leader like 200. We got chewed off with 100lb trolling madmacs.

 

[nickyn99]

They are getting some big ones up here. Yes trolling Madmacs with 200lb leader is the plan. 100LB fluoro top shot to 200lb leader to Mac?

 

[Big_Tuna_]

Oh I see, okay, I'm sure you'll get many ideas here, but if you are going with hollowbraid, just get a 200lb windon leader and do a loop to loop connection with your hollow braid. Will go through the guides no problem. No topshot. You're just adding more connection points aka failure points

 

[SD2600]

100lb braid to 300’ 100lb mono…. Hawaiian clip to jig leader….. the mono let’s u know how far back your trolling. My madmacs have 200lb mono about 2’. Crimped

 

[Highwayman]

If you have a 16 VISX I would fill it wit 100lb spectra and maybe a 100 ‘ of mono to get line capacity. We used 30’s filled with 100’ spectra and 300’ of mono. We hooked a few 100+ lbers and no big deal. Got one over 200lbs on a MadMac way back and it pulled a lot of line at that trolling speed. Drop it back and count to 45 or 50 or so at trolling speed.

 

[vipertom1970]

Penn VISX 16 does not have enough line to troll Madmac.

 

[nickyn99]

What would you recommend a 30?

 

[Big_Tuna_]

Hmm yeah tunasniper makes a good point. I hadn't really thought of that, I think it can be done I did troll and hook up using a visx16. it will easily fit 500 yards of 100lb braid (I think). But at one point lines got tangled and I had to cut off 100-150 yards off my visx16 ((((( so now for sure it doesn't have the capacity for MM trolling

Now I troll madmacs with my visx50s... just got a 190lb last week, used 40lbs of drag. The 50 made it much much easier. Would not have been able to apply that much pressure with a 16

 

[vipertom1970]

What would you recommend a 30?

I troll with VISX 50, 500+ yards out but remember you always troll 2 MM on a private boat and after a strike you still try to run another 30 seconds to get the second strike while line pulling on a hooked fish.

 

[nickyn99]

Thanks guys