Yankee I as well have the penn 345GTI. It's a huge freeking reel with a slow retreive ratio but it's built like a tank. I ran 400ft of the 45lb last year and did okay. One thing I found is that I prefer running it on a big board as opposed to the inlines. To much drag when you fight that board in and we lost fish. I had a tangle at the end of the year with it (PITA when you get tangled, expensive too) and have some more left. So I plan to put mono in between each 100ft section so I can adjust depth that way. Hope to get 500ft on the reel. I have 300yrds of 30lb fireline for backing. Shrink tubing is a great Idea but I am paraniod about putting the copper directly into the clip off the board line so I planned to use mono. Do you know if copper is okay to clip in an offshore planer clip? Thanks!
Oh ya I use a short Diawa heartland rod thats used for leadcore. Works okay but I would like a little more backbone to it.
BTW I'm not sure you remember me but we met and had a few pops with you and your dad up in wilson during the derby. We were fishing with Candy on a charter that day. It was me, my father, shorthanded and ssafran (steve) We fish with Andy every year. Hope to see you up there again in the spring!!