Every year I do a San Diego Long Range trip. I have had great success with my Calstars and small two speed reels for the offshore scene and for tuna at Guadalupe and Alijos. I have never used, handled or even seen one of the popping rods like the tuna sniper.; but I am really intrigued by them. I would use it for both poppers and bait. Sometimes a long cast with a sardine is the only way to get bit. Would it work as a bait rod? How would the rod do for that application? Would a Cabo 70 be sufficient or would I blow it up? Most likely the tuna would be under 110lbs with the majority in the 60-90lb range. Cheers. LT
If theres not a chance of a bigger tuna I would go with the 40-60lb tuna sniper. It will cast the sardines better than the 60-80lb Tuna sniper. As far as the Cabo goes, theres a lot of guys that use them and haven't had any problems with them. I don't think the Cabo's reel stem will fit the reel seat on the tuna sniper. I would think a Saragosa or Twinpower would last longer and give less problems than the Cabo. d-a
I built an OTI 50# Spinning and an 80# Conventional for this exact application. I have a Cabo 80 and a Trinidad 40N mounted on them. My other, smaller set-up is a Saltist 30T on a 2-piece 7'2" Muskie/Tapron style rod. These are the top 3 rods my 6 rod travel aresonal for when I work in So Cal, the ease coast, or anywhere else with water! I caught a few small (25-35 lbs) Yellowfin on my 1st 1.5 day trip out there. Had to go out of Newport Beach b/c farther south in Dana Point was sold out due to the mahi and albacore that had moved in the week before.
