Hello Folks:

I have been using 25 pound mono (Offshore Angler and Big Game) and I have not had an issue with it, all of my reels have 15 pound drag washers so at their max they will slip at 15 pounds.

Now the question, would any of you think overwise if I went to 20 pound mono? Why, well more line per spool and more line on my ABU 5000's not that I need alot more but since I have replaced the busings with bearings I tend to cast out about 2/3's of the line on a ABU 5000.

Best
-a

and a kiss for my haters

I have more confidence with more line on my reels just a personal preference. I would suggest you try out mcCoys brand of mono strong much lower memory for a bulk spool but it's a bit more pricey. Pound for pound strong line with plent of abrasion resistances.
20 will be fine asking as you know how to horse them right.

twenty lb would be fine but the 25lb gives you a little lee way when you get a little abrasion on it.

I have 40lb mono that has a 20lb diameter....love it

17# P Line CXX

Pricey, but worth every

20lb. line with 15lbs. of of drag is only half the tensity strength of a 50lb. fish. I'm changing all my line to 30lb. when i respool

20lb. line with 15lbs. of of drag is only half the tensity strength of a 50lb. fish. I'm changing all my line to 30lb. when i respool

Smoky, what are you using?

I have 25 lb Andy on about half my reels and a couple of them are 5000s so I know exactly what you mean by casting a lot of line off your reel. They can also get really low if you let a lot of line off your reel when drifting. The other half of my reels have braid. I fish a lot of big heavy timber so im switching them over to braid as they need to be changed. If I fished open water more I would probably drop the 5000s back to 17 or 20 lb. Im wanting to to upgrade my 5000s to 6500s or 7000s when I am able to do so to fix the low line issue.

If your using 25# mono on 5000 it must cast like a Model T...And I can only guess it will only hold 75-100y. Which is not much line..17# would be better choice...Your drag is there to protect Gears in reel and protect line..In theory 15# max drag set (working perfect) could never break 17# line...People got it in there head line test has to be more than the fish weight you will catch.Just not true. Unless you plan to lift fish out water with line wrapped around hand...Thats what leader is for or dip net..Of course you could go to Braid to get # up and line yardage up.Drag and Line Capacity is your friend

Just a little LOL story to go with..Back in 60s when I was just getting into offshore fishing Young and Dumb..Had a couple 209 penn reels uaually loaded with 30#..Offshore I wanted to go big so I went with 100#.Well caught a few then I hung into a Big Un had drag locked down an line was just peeling away then saw silver spool and when it hit end of line I was ready..so it didn't jerk me overboard..But it Jerked the spool out if reel and the spool took out each eye as it passed and tip top too...True Story

I have 5& 6000's and more spooled with braided line...smaller , stronger , no stretch , deadly with 8/0 team catfish double action hooks.. I used mono for years mainly Ande 30-40lb test..once you get used to braid in my opinion it cant be beat for catfishing

Exact same way I feel. I love the no stretch feature braid gives. When I tell people I use 65 lb braid in heavy timber they ask how I ever break it off when I get hung up. Simple, no stretch on braid lets me give a couple wraps of the line around the face of the real and a solid pull. Either the line will give or whatever I am hung on will give. Try that with mono and the line seems like it will stretch for miles.

I also like braid for drifting because if I get hung up I can quickly wrap it around the reel and break off and continue my drift. If you hang up with mono the line stretches so much it makes it difficult to break and can actually result in pulling the boat back toward the object you are hung on (into the wind) instead of quickly breaking. This usually happens on days where the wind is real strong. Now you boat is turning circles and every line on the boat is wrapped up in a mess.

And yes, I use braid and TC 8/0 double action hooks are a great combination.

Im not worried about a big fish breaking 20 or 25 lb mono. I don't use braid so that a fish cant break my line. I use it so that I can break it when I need to.

Thanks for all the input guys, I think I will stick with the 25 mono for now and my Model T casting ABUS's

I picked these 4 up yesterday, I will replace the bushings with bearings on three of them and convert the 5000 D to regular star drag, and lastly but Carbon Tex drag washers on all of them and they should be good to go.



best
-a

I use 20 lb mono with no problem on fish breaking with drag set ,but I am tempted to use braided for drifting . The stretch on mono and pulling the boat back does suck