Hey mate, if you wanna fish mono but worried about capacity have you thought about braid backing, or fishing braid and using a short mono top shop/leader?

That line you have has a thick diameter for its weight, this means it wont cast as well as alot of other 30lb line.  I use 30lb platypus lowstretch mono which has a .45 diameter on my 850 and 950.  The 850 would take at least 400m of that berkley line you have so if that is more than what you have then get some backing line which can be anything really around what you are using 20lb - 50lb and half fill the spool with that first, then tie it to your berkley and fill the rest with that.  Your really need to guess how much backing to put on and its a trial and error process.

good luck

rig

Use braid and a cast/shock/windon Leader of Mono/Fluoro. That way you will get all the capacity you need, better distance and less wind/wave resistance on the line.

Cheers

Neels

Thanks guys.

What about issues with weeds?

is a big tangle. With braid you are up the Crap with that. Smaller tagles or a bit of weed on the line I actually find braid easier to untangle because it is thinner and can "cut" through weed (not that I recommend doing this).

If there is a lot of weed, its a waste of time IMO either way.

JMO.

Neels

The 850ssm can hold 750/30lb avg braid get more with better brands, max drag 11lbs so 30lb line is perfect for it, upto you how much braid backing you want, i myself would probaly do 300-500yds 30lb and the rest 40-60lb mono

Good advice i reckon Dicey, thats pretty much what i did with my 950 except the braid was heavier

850ssm holds 750yrds of 30lb braid?

Crasny and John, you guys are right.

Thanks guys for the advice.

As for backing, mono or braid?

If mono, how do i know what lb of mono to use? Same goes for braid as well.

Also, how do i know how much i should spool for backing?

Monfsts if your running braid mainline, you need a mono backing. This prevents slipage and the braid from rotting. I would run 65lb powerpro braid as your main line, with an 80-100lb mono backing of about 2m and then a 5m topshot of the same mono.

Use a bimini to gt or albright!!

Or if your using 30lb braid, same deal except use 50lb mono backing and leader

I think, given you've only got about 11lb drag. I would go 600yrds of 30lb braid. 20yrds of 50lb mono backing and 20yrds of 50lb mono leader. I wouldn't fill the reel to the brim. You will get a bit of resistance with the spool itself !

i heard the new pens arent so good with braid..

Dicey is right with the capacity.

Check this out http://issuu.com/jonylarri/docs/penn_-_catalogo_2010

It seems that for 850ssm braid

750/30

525/50

440/65

max drag 11lb

So, i should use braid line, and back it up with mono. Maybe i can back it up with my Berkley Big Game 30lbs. What do u guys think?

Now, the dillema is getting what lbs braid line...any suggestions

Have a think about how long you want your mono top shot mate. Salmon/mullas even 10m is fine, bigger rays and sharks I reckon 150m plus is a good move so you dont get busted off on a sand bank or rocks when the fish is half a k out to sea. Plus you dont need the sensitivity to feel a pickup with these fish.

This is gonna depend on fishing style and personal preference though....

Just thought of something else I used to do mate.

I had about 400m of braid and 200m of mono on my penn 950ssm, in summer fishing for sharks and rays I would have the mono at the top (important as I used it for sliding baits back then), then come winter and I was fishing for salmon/tailor, I would reverse it.

You can do this using a drill and 2 empty spools that line comes on when you buy it, use the drill with one empty spool to pul the line off the reel, then move it in the same way to the other empty spool then finally back onto the reel, thus reversing the line. PM me if that didnt make sense and you go with that option mate.

Thought it might be usefull to you as the 850 is a versatile reel you can use all year round.

Hey Dicey, John, Till and cuthbad, really appreciate your comments. It really helps me a lot as to decide what to get and what to do as well. As some of you would have know, I am still a beginner...

Cuthbad, your last comment was really good. I never thought of doing that.

So, you basically use a drill (as a motor ?) to spin the empty plastic so that i pulls the line off the reel and because you want the mono to be the top, you spooled it again into another empty plastic before spooling it into the actual spool itself.

Yeah, i got given the combo a while ago so i think it's about time to spool it and use it as summer is round the corner!!!!

Guys, now come down to the lbs of braid, i know John has suggested 30lb braid.

I am just curious, are there any reason for not using 40lb or 50lb braid?

Also, I was thinking of using powerpro braid, and i realised that they have a few different colours. Any idea what colour to go for?

30lb is good because it can use the 11lb drag of the reel, rule of thumb is 1/3 of the breaking strain of line for very hard and fast running fish you may want to set it to 1/4 however there are other ways to achieve higher drag by palming the spool if you do decide you want to run like 65lb+ braid and 80-100lb topshop.

Use 10-12kg 10x , great mono line, has the strength to land most fish, is good in the weed, can load enough to stop My post pic is of a 17kg Mulloway on a 850 reel using 10kg line at Flatrocks in a location that had a lot of weed and rock.

hey Kingfisher,

This may sound stupid...I dont get it when u say 10-12kg 10x...

What is 10x? Is it a brand of mono...?

I know...it is a silly question...

Cheers

You should really be more specific with what you want to target.... Salmon to sharks is a huge difference, if you want to go hardcore. If this is gonna be the heavy outfit, then fish 15kg. You'll be surprise how hard is it to bust 15kg mono. If it is gonna be your allrounder, dont chase sharks bigger than 6ft, the reel is just not up to the task too often.
Why do you need more than 300m of line?? If you are chasing sharks larger than 6ft.....I suggest look for a more suitable reel. I have 2x 8500SS and they only run either 10kg or 15kg mono. Reason for that is its mainly used for beach and rock fishing, I dont need more than 300m of line and its more managable with mono when rigging up.

Is the reel really suitable for heavy braid?? Remember the origins of the Spinfisher series?? Built for heavy duty offshore fishing with 10-15kg class lines.

yes the new reels are a great improvement but still uses the same design.

If you need line capacity, look at the Penn 950ssm and/or use braid as backing but if you do use 50lb braid, DON'T crank up your drag cos you have 50lb, coz you mono may only be 30lb.

One penn 8500SS runs 300m of 10kg Berkley Trilene (2yrs old)
the other runs probably about 260m of 15kg Berkley Big Game

My 7500ss runs probably 260m of 10kg Big Game
My 2 x 6500SS runs 300m of 8kg Trilene (oldie)

7500 and 8500s are used for beach and rock fishing for snapper, mulloway and small sharks, not that I've ever hooked any on those gears.

Its only an estimate, but there is atleast 250m of 15kg on it.

I'm with Honsu on that one. All depends on what rod your using and what fish your targeting.

The 850ssm will be smoked by bigger sharks that will need say 750yrds, so there isn't much point in spooling with that much line. (Any fish that takes 750yrds of line is obviously going to be big, so make sure you have a decent rod to start with)

As Honsu said, spool it with say 300yrds of 15kg mono, its just more manageable and a lot cheaper. The 15kg mono will also work better with your drag as Dicey mentioned. No point have 65lb braid with and 11lb drag...

The line I use is Penn 10X, use rods based on the 8144 blank, ozflex can be purchased of the shelf, also have several Pacific Composite rods custom built that are excellent in the surf for Mulloway and sharks.