Hi HBP, get 400 feet, not because you necessarily need all of it at once, but the difference in price from 300 to 400 feet is only $4, and you will need 300 and not 200 feet if you want to get deep enough. And what happens is you wear out the end of your cable and have to re-rig all the time - little things like tangling cables with each other or things on the bottom is real hard on the business end, as is just simply fishing - cables start to come unraveled at the clip. So you are always cutting some off, and if you don't start with a lot then you will have to replace it sooner. Also, if you run over your cable with 150 feet out, like I did last week, you will still have 250 left and won't be out of business if you start with 400.

With the 15 pound ball I use, and the Power Pro line that is just 12 pound diameter and produces less drag than mono, I find that I deflect 15 feet at 150 feet deep and going 2.5 MPH. I don't fish 200 too often but I seem to remember 20 feet of deflection last time I tried it. Add on at least a dozen or more wraps that you want to have on your reel and you had better have at least 250 to fish 200.

Oh yeah, how was the fishin' at PD today. Better than catching a 30" spawnout on the nooch? (which is what I did today )