Albacore gear and connections

Russell

Russell

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Buddy picked up a new boat and plans to take it out from the north coast down here in ca. I’m hoping to get invited out with him and hopefully maybe even get a chance to use a fly rod.
Wondering what gear is needed. I have a scientific anglers glass 13wt and a Pate marlin and believe these would work but what line leader and what knot connections to put it all together.
Also any popper topwater lures recommended for a spinning rod.
Thanks
 
Rod and reel will be just fine. I recommend a heavy sinking shooting head if you're going to bring a single line. Airflo Big Game Depthfinder, Orvis Depth Charge, Rio Leviathan....all great lines and one of those three would be my pick for a single line to fish albacore.

I don't do anything fancy knot wise. A good nail knot coated in UV has been my standard if no loop on the fly line. If there is a loop I just use a Bimini twist and make a loop to loop connection for the backing/fly line connection Same thing on the leader end. If the line has a loop I simple loop on 4-6' of 25 lb flouro as a leader. If no loop, I nail knot 18" or so of heavy mono with a loop on the end to make lopped leader connections.

If you tie good knots there isn't much need to get super fancy. Although I can't say what the chances are of larger bi catch in your waters.

Can't help too much with poppers for spinning rods. I've seen people bring poppers out and have seen them work on occasion, but can't name any specific models. I will say that most of the poppers I've seen designed for that are quite large and obnoxious, and IMO something a bit more subtle is more effective much of the time.
 
You don't want topwater poppers for the spinnin poles. Get some M action Shimano Trevalas and a pack of knockoff blue coltsnipers from amazon. Twitch those around on a stop and hang on.
 
Sounds like I'm pretty set with a rig to use. I have a faster sinking sa billfish line that should work and actually casts pretty good on the rod .
Pretty proficient with fly knots as well so if an albright and nail knots work, I should be set.

Have a jigging/trolling rod but will pick up a couple coltsnipers. Saw some youtube with people fishing with poppers and it looked fun.

Thanks for the advise. Hopefully the opportunity will arise.
 
Russell said:
Sounds like I'm pretty set with a rig to use. I have a faster sinking sa billfish line that should work and actually casts pretty good on the rod .
Pretty proficient with fly knots as well so if an albright and nail knots work, I should be set.

Have a jigging/trolling rod but will pick up a couple coltsnipers. Saw some youtube with people fishing with poppers and it looked fun.

Thanks for the advise. Hopefully the opportunity will arise.
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If you do get those knockoff coltsnipers, get the 80g size and change the hook out for something sturdier and bigger.
 
A group of guys were generous enough to allow me to join them this Sept with @Nick Clayton for an albacore trip. I've got a 12 wt Redington Predator and am planning on building a 12wt glass rod ala @clarkman. I'm planning on getting a 12 wt saltwater reel by then but would like it to double as a hopeful GT reel. I'm thinking of putting the recommended 80lb braid as backing on the reel. Would I be fine just attaching one of the above lines to this backing? How do you guys feel about a 10wt or 11wt rod?
Sorry about the neophyte questions....I checked the old site but couldn't dig up all the info.
Mark
 
Kado said:
A group of guys were generous enough to allow me to join them this Sept with @Nick Clayton for an albacore trip. I've got a 12 wt Redington Predator and am planning on building a 12wt glass rod ala @clarkman. I'm planning on getting a 12 wt saltwater reel by then but would like it to double as a hopeful GT reel. I'm thinking of putting the recommended 80lb braid as backing on the reel. Would I be fine just attaching one of the above lines to this backing? How do you guys feel about a 10wt or 11wt rod?
Sorry about the neophyte questions....I checked the old site but couldn't dig up all the info.
Mark
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In my experience, a 10wt rod would be fine for the albacore we caught last year. @clarkman , for example, fished a 10wt glass rod all day long and had a blast. Not sure about what would happen if he’d hooked a yellowfin or bluefin, or significantly larger tuna than we caught.
 
Yeah, probably wouldn't have been all that fun with much larger fish. That said, my NFC 10wt glass is really more of a 10+ and it was pretty easy to whip them into submission pretty quickly. My other 10wt glass (Epic Bandit) probably wouldn't have been all that fun even with those fish as it just doesn't have it in the butt like the NFC.
 
A few years back I went on a 10 day boat trip to Baja. As I was getting ready to buy gear I ran across a guy that was selling some Blue Water flys. I contacted him only to find out he had just sold the last of his flys, but he did have some good information to pass along. He told me on the first day of fishing he broke two rods in 30 minutes one was a 10 weight and the other was a 12 weight. He told me to buy the best rod I could afford and have have a back up. I did not break a rod but I did let a guy use one of my back up rods because he broke his only 12wt within a few minutes of fishing.
 
Kado said:
I've got a 12 wt Redington Predator.
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I used mine last year during my trip with @Jake and @clarkman. It will hold up just fine for the tuna. I enjoyed having the foregrip.

Good luck!
 
Heavier grade albies in the 25-30+ range are 12wt minimum fish in my experience. A 13wt is my main albacore rod. Might be a tad overkill for anything under 15# but I'd rather land the smaller fish quickly than suffer at the rail winching up a toad. Besides, things are a changing out there and you never know when something unexpected might eat your fly.
 
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There's a reason I bought the 12wt NFC blank rather than sticking with the 10wt for that fishery....I might have mentioned earlier, but I was fortunate that all fish I got on it weren't in that larger range.
 
Yeah, every trip we were putting fish in the boat in that 20-30+ pound range. Also got the biggest albacore I'd ever seen last year in that 40lb range, which was rough even on heavy trolling gear. I have yet to get a jumbo on a bait stop though.
 
The fish we caught last year were mostly on the smaller side of average, at least on our fly trips. Hell an 8 would have handled many of those fish. But I'm here to tell ya you get into a bunch of 25+ lb fish and that 12 wt or larger rod will suddenly not feel over gunned in the slightest.

Anyone remember how long it took me to land that pig I got on a popper on our first trip two years ago? And that was a 12.
 
Squatchin said:
I'll be bringing a yet-to-be-finished NFC 10wt
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I'm inclined to lean towards the experts here.

That said, that particular 10 is far more powerful than any graphite 10wt I've ever played with (and it's not close). I'd still have something with even more backbone as mentioned above, especially if you end up hooking a 25lber and decide that it's (the NFC) just not enough (I'm still on the fence on that one). Regardless, you're not going to break it, so when you go don't baby it.
 
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