Sealine X50HV or Penn 320 GTI for surface iron?
 

Own both, spooled with 65# spectra. Penn is on my sabiki/backup yoyo rod right now. Daiwa on the Phenix Abyss 1008 for throwing surface iron. Even with the casting brake cranked all the way down, the Daiwa ends up a complete bird's nest if I really load up the rod.

Line is TIGHT and evenly spooled. I'm not great at casting conventional reels (reformed spinning rod surfcaster, what can I say....), but I'm not asking for miracle casts here. Just more than the little bloopers I'm getting with the spool thumbed hard to prevent righteous backlash before the iron even hits the water.

My thought is that the much larger/heavier spool on the Daiwa just runs away from the light line, and that perhaps the 320, with its smaller spool, could be a better surface iron reel, especially if I disabled the levelwind. The added line capacity and higher speed of the daiwa would be good for yoyo'ing in deep water.

Am I barking up the wrong tree? Or does my intuition here make sense?

<cite>www.youtube.com/watch?v=Say6dnWEI3Q</cite>

I've found the sealiines to be one of the better reels for throwing irons but I run strait 40 lb mono with my jig stick. My thought being that surface irons are a reaction bite and a whole lot easier to deal with a birds nest with mono.

It's actually an X50HV. Don't know what I was thinking. Ooops. Edited original post.

You can static mag your 50 and it'll tame that lively spool.

Do you have the internal brake collars installed? Maybe start with both sets installed, then after you get the hang of it, drop down to one and then eventually none as your thumb gets "educated". That's how I learned to do it.

I think the 50 is too wide to make a nice surface iron reel. The 40 is better and that's what I use.

Taming spectra is hard, you might start out with mono as someone has already mentioned.

I've found the sealines to be great casting reels. If you're new to jig stick surface iron casting you might consider going to a bay and practice casting for a bit. Mike

I'd go with the Sealine loaded with mono instead of braid.

I see some guys cast the braid really well on their jig sticks, but I'm not one of them. I've been trying my Penn Fathom loaded with 65# spectra on my jig stick with pretty unsatisfactory results -- just too many backlashes at critical moments. If I threw the iron more I could probably get it dialed in, but I just don't have the time to practice.

I switched back to a Daiwa Saltist B&G 40 with 50# mono a couple of weeks ago and the problem was solved.