I’m starting to purchase equipment for offshore trolling and bottom fishing. I won’t be targeting marlin but rather the usual mix of Mahi, wahoo, tuna and sails. I also want to be able to target your typical assortment of bottom dwellers. Im leaning towards shimano tld 25 and 30 s with 40lb mono on top of some base braid. I’ve been looking at some nice custom rods which are 6ft and am hoping I can use them for both trolling and bottom. They can be made with or without rollers and I’m not sure I really need the rollers. Is there an advantage to rollers for the type of fishing Im wanting to do?
do not get the rollers unless you get larger wind-on type. but then with the line riding so high above the rod, there will be lots of rod torque to fight as well as the fish unless you wear a gimble harness.
quality eyes will hold up very well and allow you to use wind on leaders if you are backing with braid.
I’ve got a basic, inexpensive, and multi-funtional set-up. Penn Rampage Jigging Rods XXH with Penn Squall LD 40s/50s. The set-up is light and works fine for bottom dropping and trolling with almost 500yds of 40# mono. I had braids with topshot on my other set-ups and got away from it as I didn’t like the braid. Talk with Josh at Southern Drawl or Scott at W. Ashley Haddrell’s and you should be able to get a good set-up for a reasonable price. Also, if you are patient, a lot of tackle will be up for sale the next few months relatively cheap if you don’t mind buying used.
You don’t have to use rollers for the # class tackle you’re talking about. Rollers benefit you when you’ll be using heavier wind-ons, bimini twists and doubled line, etc. If the rollers are not large enough, they’ll create problems. On the other hand, if your open guides aren’t of high enough quality, they’ll create problems as well.
There are knots, knotless methods and hardware options out there today that eliminate the past need for roller tips, which let you drop back to fish, get to the bottom, or cast easier by using straight guides.
The caveat I will offer is to pay for the best hardware on your custom rods that you can, especially the rod guides and tip guide. The knots, serves of knotless splices, and everything else will benefit from high quality guides as opposed to inferior grades. If given the option between low to medium grade open tip guide or roller guide, then I’d want the roller guide for durability. However, there’s very good hardware and connection options out there now, and you can get the performance of an open tip guide without the downfalls formerly associated with such. If offered the best roller guide and the best open guide, I’ll take the open guide every time- if fishing for the species you mentioned.
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Fished on the Sea Breeze out of Oregon Inlet back in July. Noted they had all eyes on the 50 pound custom rods they use. 50 tiagras filled with 100 lb line for the occasional bigeye that shows up. The only rollers they had were on the 80’s.
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The Shimano Talica and Terez teamed up would be a nice set of setups.