avet exw 50/2 braid backing or mono?

braid backing and mono top shot. you want the most line capacity you can get. i would preset your drag for the 100lb braid tho.

What do you think is the max strike drag I should run. I think I can get away with 33-35 lbs im guessing when the reel is in full it will put about 44 lbs or so if strike is at 33

I would think that should be more then enough drag.

600 yards of 130lb hollow core braid backing and then splice in a 100lb mono topshot. 130lb Jerry Brown Hollow is alot cheaper than the 100lb and you will still get about 900 yards of line total.

they say to set your drag for 1/3 the breaking strength of the line. so 100lb it is gonna break at over 100lbs. but i would just set it at 1/3 of 100lb witch is 33.3333333333 but since fish scales dont read .00 we will say 33lbs of drag. a stock exw 50/2 produces 50lbs at strike and 57lbs in full. that shouldnt break the 100lb braid but i would still put it at 33lbs or around there just to be safe.

That is what I came up with earlier.

What kind of knot to splice the line. I normally use and albright

i had a albright fail the other day. but that may have been a bad knot idk. id use a uni to uni or maybe sebile knot. i never had it fail but only used it snook fishing never shark fishing. but uni to uni never fails.

sebile knot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N0mCf0AIAA

uni to uni knot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WigqdKpE7M

assuming the braid is solid and not hollow then you would want to use either the PR knot or the FG knot - both work basically about the same. you want to make sure to spool the braid as tight as possible, i like to make four wraps around the spool before i tie it off because this tightens up 4 wraps on the spool as opposed to just one. spool up the braid (all of it), learn to tie one of the two knots above and join the mono that you have as your topshot - you will have plenty of line. once you have the reel spooled up i recommend the following procedure for setting the drag. get into your harness and plate or however you plan on fishing the reel - figure out how far your average drop is - lets say 150yds for the sake of argument - pull off approximately 150yds of line off of the reel and have someone pull on the line as you raise the lever towards full until you are holding all the drag you can comfortably hold, when you reach that point have them stop and leave the lever right where it is, use a spring scale to measure the drag coming right off the reel (not thru the guides and make sure to leave the 150yds off the reel that you just pulled off - wrap the line several times around the hook on the drag scale to be able to measure the drag pressure. it doesnt really matter if the scale is 100% accurate because we are just using the number for a reference point. lets just say that number is 37lbs - you should set your strike setting to 37lbs on the scale (with the same 150yds of line off the reel). the difference between strike and full is going to be about 5-7lbs on an avet 50w. now reel in the 150yds of line to where the spool is full again - use the scale again to measure what the strike setting is now with a full spool (it should read a few lbs less). write this nymber on the top of your mono spool and you will now have a record of how to set up the reel again when you respool a new topshot of line onto the reel (same topshot as the first time). now you will not have to readjust the preset again until you respool with something different than what you did the first time. using this method lets you use the reel to its full capabilities as well as yours without fear of slamming the lever into strike and getting pulled over - you have to depress a button on the drag lever to get to full anyway so that shouldnt be a concern. good luck and let me know if you need any help - i fished the 50w for a year and a half and absolutely loved it - its truly a beast !!!