Looking for my first big king rod. Looking at a penn 8000 with either a 7 ft or 10 ft rod. Which is better. I've used a 7 or 8 before (borrowed) but never a 10 ft. Suggestions?
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Looking for my first big king rod. Looking at a penn 8000 with either a 7 ft or 10 ft rod. Which is better. I've used a 7 or 8 before (borrowed) but never a 10 ft. Suggestions?
Most guys use a 7-8' rod on the pier. 10' is gonna be heavy and unwieldy.
Thanks. Combo only came in 7 or 10 ft. Went with the 7ft. Wish they had it with a an 8 ft. Was thinking the 10 ft would be too big.
Just a heads up, that 8000 is gonna be way too big. I did the same thing when I first started out and bought a Penn Sargus 8000. That is overkill for most anything on the pier. I use it for offshore adventures now. A 6000 size reel is about what you want. That can handle up to a cobia. I use a Battle 5000 to throw lures for kings. Perfect size.
Good catch, I didn't catch the reel size she I responded.
If you can change your order, I would.
What Rockinchef88 said. Spot on.
Ditto on 8000 being "too heavy for king fishing from the pier" and 10 feet being too long...
But Bass Pro has the Frigate combo (a 6000 on an 8 foot rod) for $109.99 and it will hold a 300 yard spool of #30 braid
(or 240 yards of 15# mono ;-)
These reels are made in the same factory (in China) as the Penn Battle IIs.
But they are backed by Bass Pro for 1 year from DoP, and mono can be spooled for no additional cost!
Chillin: The Penn Battle II 5000 will also hold a 300 yard spool of #30 braid (great for throwing plugs ;-)
Thanks. Ordered a 8000 with and 7ft rod and 6000 with 8 ft rod. Free returns so will decide and send one back. Liked the idea of 350 yds of 25 lb mono on the 8000. Have a couple 4000 reels and others for smaller fishing. Learning more every time we fish. There's 4 of us that fish, me, my wife and 2 kids. We love it. Learned last to watch those gotcha lures. Got one in the hand helping my daughter get a Spanish over the rail. We will be down the 25th - 30th. Hope the fish are bitting.
I will have a few mitchell ready next week if anyone is interested...301,300,400,and a 402
402 for me please......and a 300 for the wife.
Most guys on the pier are using 15 or 20# mono for kings, my Okuma 6500 holds 310 yards of it.
25 lb mono is overkill for just about anything other than tarpon and BIG cobia. IMO.
Capacity is more important than #test, you would be better off getting more 20# on it vs. putting on 25#. If you get spooled, 20 or 25# isn't going to make a difference, something is gonna break.
But having 50 more yards of line could mean stopping the fish before you get spooled.
Won't have that capacity on the penn 6000. So was thinking about 250 yards or so of braid and 100 yds of mono. Would you still stay with 20 lbs braid and 20 lbs mono? And will 100 yrs of mono be enough to keep down most tangle problems? The main reason I was thinking about the 8000 and 30 lbs was the occasional shark that might happen to take my bait. My father in law has a similar set up but he goes after the sharks on purpose but I don't plan on shark fishing. I've never fished kings with lures just live bait fish that my wife and kids catch. Actually not just kings as last June when we came seemed more Jacks were caught. Never caught anything larger than a big Spanish. Last year seemed to always miss the big schools. Too late or left too early. Came Last month and nothing but lots of whiting trout and one day of Spanish.