Line On My 3500 For The Rare King Fish

[mikey85]

My set-up at the moment consists of 2 rods, both 4-8 kilo ugly sticks with Shimano BR 3500 with 5 kilo mono line, 4 kilo trace.

A few months ago me and my old man went out with one of his work mates for an over night fishing session up the hawksbury and ended with with around 25 - 30 fish. A mix of bream, whiting as big as my arm, flatties and an 80cm jew.

He has been fishing all his life, 30 odd years and told me all you need is 1 rod and 1 reel for everything. Everything river based / just outside that is. He was fishing with the exact same setup as above and landed the jewie with that rig. (On the way home me and my old man stopped off at the tackle shop and got ourselves some new gear )

So thats my story heres the question:

I live 30 mins from botany bay and after being smashed the other week on something huge, i want to occasionally aim for kingy's. I'll prolly fish the bay on average, Once a month. I want to put 30 lb braid on one of my Baitrunner's.

When fishing in the river i will more than likely use these 2 rods just to cast out and let the bait sit while i use my SP setup (that im buying very soon)

In places like the bay, I'll use the 30lb braided rod baited with squid and livies to aim for kingy's and my other 5kilo mono rod for bream, flatty etc fishing.

Is this a good idea, given that i dont go fishing every weekend, and i dont want to buy a new setup because of the ammount of fishing i dont do. I do realise that constanty catching kingy's on this rig would stuff the reel.

This one is more of a side question, i've never really understood the weighting of lines. I mean i know it relates to the breaking strain, but if im fishing for bream with my 30lb rod, will i feel less if holding the rod, than i would if i was fishing with the 5 kilo rod. I wouldn't think so given that braided has almost 0 stretch and i'd have a 4 kilo mono trace on it.

Thanks guys, any help is appreciated

[kbark]

anything from 15-30lb would be fine and will handle plenty of kings. you will feel less on the 4-8kg rod, not because of the braid (that will actually help) but because the rod is fairly heavy for bream and flathead. A lighter 2-4kg rod would be better for this.

[domza]

I don't know if 30lb will be enough mate, my old man got smashed by something huge, after a 15 minute fight it went straight down and cut the 50lb leader. He was using a Big okuma baitrunner with 30lb braid.

He respooled it with 24kg braid the next week

[mikey85]

you will feel less on the 4-8kg rod, not because of the braid (that will actually help) but because the rod is fairly heavy for bream and flathead. A lighter 2-4kg rod would be better for this.

Yeah i'm buying a new setup (hopefully tomorrow) with a 2-4 kilo rod.

[namesay]

Hey Mikey, if you want to catch kings, then buy some good gear. These fellas will find all the weaknesses in your tackle real quick. You really can't "dabble"into a certain kind of fishing. You either go in 100% or suffer losses.

If you intend to just target small kings then you will be ok with 30lb braid but how can you JUST target small fish. Even if you get a fish in the 90-100cm class then they will just blow you away let alone a fish in the 15-30kg class. Could be the fish of a life time.

Those of us who take fishing seriously make sure we have enough ammunition to CATCH and land that fish of a lifetime. Be it a xos bream, flattie, king, jew or whatever.

ALso be careful with braid. It is thin for its breaking strain and some reels have not been engineered for it. 30 braid is as thin as 10lb mono and if you fish the line to its max then you better make sure your tackle is designed for it. Otherwise it will be a painful experience.

I use 60lb braid for my kingie fishing and often go to 80lb braid. Got some expensive gear but even that fails sometimes. My $900 torsa overhead failed after just 4 months of heavy fishing on the kings. Cheers kelvin

Edited April 8, 2007 by namesay

[insolent]

Hey Mikey, if you want to catch kings, then buy some good gear. These fellas will find all the weaknesses in your tackle real quick. You really can't "dabble"into a certain kind of fishing. You either go in 100% or suffer losses.

If you intend to just target small kings then you will be ok with 30lb braid but how can you JUST target small fish. Even if you get a fish in the 90-100cm class then they will just blow you away let alone a fish in the 15-30kg class. Could be the fish of a life time.

Those of us who take fishing seriously make sure we have enough ammunition to CATCH and land that fish of a lifetime. Be it a xos bream, flattie, king, jew or whatever.

ALso be careful with braid. It is thin for its breaking strain and some reels have not been engineered for it. 30 braid is as thin as 10lb mono and if you fish the line to its max then you better make sure your tackle is designed for it. Otherwise it will be a painful experience.

I use 60lb braid for my kingie fishing and often go to 80lb braid. Got some expensive gear but even that fails sometimes. My $900 torsa overhead failed after just 4 months of heavy fishing on the kings. Cheers kelvin

Sorry to highjack, Kelvin what failed on the Torsa?

Cheers

Evil