Some thoughts...I'm tired of the 1-1.5 hour fights; this is what I used to do. 60lb flouro leader; 30lb powerpro; 4500B heavy rod. I would set the drag by feel. I was pretty successful with that set up solo stinkpot fishing for poon; doing everything can be kinda tough and can have it's moments, but my biggest issue was the length of the fight. It's hard enough steering, reeling, fighting, and drinking to hydrate - do that for 1.5 hours with no one to tap out to and it's a good challenge. Beach poon was pretty do-able, Skyway there's a bit of luck and "pushing the fish" with the throttle (you really need a third hand), Gandy - holy poop that would have been hard. Too many spans. Fortunatly I never hooked up there.
My goal this year is to cut the length of the battle in half from 1-1.5 hours to 30-45 min. So I decided to get scientific about the process. I'm beefing up all around - 50lb braid, stay with 60lb leader, Cabo 50 - which has a drag of 26lbs versus 15 on the 4500B. Heavy Xfast Teramar rod. And most importantly I'm setting the drag using a scale marked at 25% of the weakest link - in this case the braid. So roughly 13 lbs - then I'll back off 3-5 clicks. I suspect last year I was at about 8lbs. Then after the initial 2-3 runs I'll clamp down the 3-5 clicks. At that point I should be in "within spec" but really be able to go mano a mano. Staying with spinning and taking the "love/hat" crutch. No conventional stuff for me.
BTW - 13 lbs will cut your hand on braid if you try and pull it out by hand. I use a fixed object - I use the trailer and watch the scale and start pulling rod in the classic "C" position.
Now...why all that background, because I'm curious to know if people have been going the 1-2 hours like I have and if the above is just absurd or in the ballpark. Or "Dude - WTH - it's just fishing take it easy."
After I get that figured out, I'll want to give that a go in the kayak. I hear Aruba is nice in the summer.
![Cool :cool:](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif)