How to Cast Offshore Conventional Reels
Tips to prevent nasty backlashes when casting with conventional gear by “sport fishing”
Tips to prevent nasty backlashes when casting with conventional gear by “sport fishing”
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Whether casting a jig or live bait, West Coast anglers are some of the best offshore conventional casters I’ve ever seen. Experienced slingers out of San Diego, Dana Point, Long Beach and other popular ports launch surface iron with a star-drag reel 100-plus yards to blitzing yellowtail. Possibly even more impressive, they cast delicate live baits (as small as 4 inches long) away from a drifting or anchored boat using conventional gear filled with braided line of 65-pound-test or heavier.
Because of the nature of headboat fishing off the SoCal coast, anglers have mastered distance casting to catch tunas, yellowtail, wahoo and dorado. And because fishing is often shoulder to shoulder along a rail, anglers require lightweight conventional gear with high drag pressures to prevent losing fish to friendly-fire tangles, the boat’s hull or sharp teeth.
Because of the nature of headboat fishing off the SoCal coast, anglers have mastered distance casting to catch tunas, yellowtail, wahoo and dorado.
For anyone who trolls the majority of time with live bait, or tosses plugs with a spinner, casting 50- to 80-pound conventional gear is a whole new ballgame. But as SoCal anglers will tell you, conventional gear casts iron (a type of metal jig) farther than any spinner. Conventional reels also have stronger drag systems to land 25- to 200-plus-pound pelagic from a stationary boat (though a few elite spinners are making a push into the high-drag arena).
Given these advantages to casting conventional gear offshore, I reached out to two West Coast experts for their insight on what to do and what not to do. Their comments convinced me that there’s no reason to fear the overrun.
