Atlantic fishing gear.

[Allan]

During my Atlantic crossing, this summer, I hope to do some fishing. I believe the gear I have is too light. I think my rod and reel are OK, can anyone suggest what line, traces, lures, hooks etc. I should be buying?
Allan

 

[JayBee]

I would thoroughly recommend this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/RYA-Fishing-Afloat-Dick-McClary/dp/1906435022

Should have most of the answers for you.

Tight Lines!

 

[Neil]

My shark fishing gear would be about right for atlantic trolling:

IGFA 30lb and 20lb class Penn Internationals with Okuma Gold 50 and 30 reels respectively, both loaded with 50lb mono (you probably don't want to catch anything so big that it would need heavier than 50lb). I'd think about Rapala Magnum lures in some of the bigger sizes, maybe a couple of squid trolling lures, maybe go from 6/0 up to 8/0 or 10/0 hooks, with beefy swivels to match, crimped. I'd use some 250 or 300lb mono as a rubbing leader, or some equivalent BS American Wire. Use a clip and lanyard to keep the rod and reel on the boat!

you could easily go lighter - a UK 20lb or 30lb class stand-up rod with a 15lb class reel, 20 or 30lb mono, hooks and lures scaled down accordingly.

Dorado (dolphin fish) are likely candidates, plenty of eating in a 37kg fish..........

 

[TQA]

Assuming you are taking the usual trade wind route forget the rods. At least 100 bs line with 10 feet bungee cord if you are trolling short lines.

I use three, one at 250 ft, one at 150 ft and a short one skipping on the surface.

5 inch pink squid seems to work well.

 

[HoratioHB]

l personally prefer a rod. A good boat rod and reel that will take 300m of 50 lb line. Apart from anything else a reel gives a good notice of a strike and allows you to manoeuvre the fish to where you can get at it. I always use a wire trace but check the breaking strain, they can often be less than the line even though they look strong. I swear by pink plastic squid trolled on the surface about 100m behind the boat. Oh and a gaff can be very handy to get the big ones on board - don't gaff them through the gills unless you want blood everywhere. And finally a squeegy bottle with cheap alcohol spirits will knock out the biggest fish with one sqirt in the gills.

 

[Neil_Y]

Hand line (twisted poly) is far quicker to get the tuna back on board, 5-6" pink squid lure on wire trace and go fast. Wrap the line round a genoa winch the wrong way and it works as a great friction run out that wakes the whole boat up.
Elastic bands or bungees work well to help soften the hooking. If you are used to mackerel, Tuna/dolphin are big powerful fish, hook yourself on, wear gloves grab them by the bone under the jaw, I've always managed to lift them on the line and grab them from the swim platform. That works with 4' tuna which are big enough!

 

[KellysEye]

What we used was two fifty pound rods, 600 feet of 50 pound line, a six foot wire trace and Penn reels. Use swimming lures, they have a small plate under their chin and mimmick the swimming movement of fish, thus they are the most effective lures. Buy different coloured lures because different fish take different coloured lures at different times of year. If you see any sport fishing boats in your travels look at what colour lures they are using. Small lures catch small fish, monster lures catch monster fish which you really don't want. We used lures about 5 to 6 inches long and caught lots of medium sized Dorado, some other boats also caught Tuna.