Fought an SBT Barrel? Advice from experience please.

[Curly B]

Have had the excitement and disapoinment of a 100+kg BFT on and let me just say that you need gear ( rod & reel ) that you will have full confidence in, when the game is on you don`t want to be second guessing if your gear is up to it ( as was I ). After losing said barrrell I went out and bought better gear so that it wouldn`t happen again. In saying that though I had gear that was relevant to my budget and experience. Buy the best you can and do the best you can . We learn as we go, thats what makes us better..

[EatMyPilchard]

What was the outfit that let you down?
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[JayyyyGee]

Not SBT but many a YFT all in the 90 kg range spewing never personally go to crack the 100 best was 98 kg but best on boat was 106 kg,

Rare these days but would've loved todays gear back when the fish were about instead of the back breakers we were using

Ideal rod for tuna 5 ft 6 " or just under you dont want anything longer & it should be a straight butt much better control aroud the boat.

Keep reel as small as possible whilst maximising line capacity mainly fish 30 A's these days loaded with 15 kg line but do carry a couple of 24's standard 50 size reels.

Unless you're fishing shallow water fish will want to sound deep dont just stand there like many idiots do & let fish dictate fight those guys will tell you they spent 3 odd hrs on a fish.

Drive off it give it a couple of 100 meters if that's what it takes to raise it to the surface you'll get that line back in no time
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Save The Fish, Eat a Pussy Cat

[Peter Pakula]

Agree with Jay about driving off fish, but also consider the direction you drive off, speed and pressure is relevant.

Drive off down current so the fish is upcurrent of you, use at least strike drag when doing it and as you drive off slowly, but fast enough to get away from the fish and get some angle oin it you'll find it will come to the surface relatively quickly, within 100, 150 yards.

Rods are pretty important. Sabre isn't a brand or company, it's just a trade mark (an australian one at that, not US) Although short strokers are great for lidting fish from the depths, which there's little need to do if you drive off they are quite difficult to get smooth tension out of.

The need for rollers becomes clear with a pretty simple experiment. Tie a weight around the weight of drag setting ie 8kg on 24 to a length of line, thread it through the rod and with a set of scales and see how much it takes to pull the line through the rod to where the reel is. Try it with a fully rollered rod and a non rollered rod. There is quite a surprising amount of friction even with the best non rollered guides that just makes retriving line under drag pressures a whole lot harder than it needs to be. It will also become apparent that it's a lot harder to keep even pressure on the fish.

If that doesn't makes sense then do these exercises with a fully rollered rod and non-rollered rod using the same reel at the same setting and see the difference.

http://pakula.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=171&Itemid=315
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[JayyyyGee]

[Lymphocyte]

My understanding is that Sabre WAS a brand, but their technology has been passed on through a number of companies and have ended up at Seeker. Seeker now make all the blanks under the 'Sabre Australia' trademark. The 'Sabre' trademark doesn't seem to exist in the US anymore.

Anyway, this thread is throwing up some good info, so keep it coming lads.

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[lukeaday]

No heavy jigging setups on the list yet?

Keen to take out my xzoga taka 58(16kg drag)
And mxl new avet mxl raptor (15kg drag) with 500yards of 60lb jb hollow core and a topshot of 50mtrs of 80lb mono.
Should be good fun on the school fish and more than capable on a bigger model?

I also have a tiagra 50wlrsa with 80lb shogun mono sitting on a snyderglas flamewrap 37kg stroker, short straight butt, fuji rsg heavy duty sic guides and ball bearing roller tip.
havent got it wet yet.