What Rod And Reel To Use

[harold]

I have long been quite ignorant on which rod and reel is best in which circumstance. On Pittwater and the surrounding areas what do you think are the best combinations to use? I would also appreciate some estimate on the relative cost of the rigs. I think it is time Mimi and i totally replaced our old stuff which was mainly bought because "it looked good for the price" rather than any objective motivation.

harold

[bmar560]

I have long been quite ignorant on which rod and reel is best in which circumstance. On Pittwater and the surrounding areas what do you think are the best combinations to use? I would also appreciate some estimate on the relative cost of the rigs. I think it is time Mimi and i totally replaced our old stuff which was mainly bought because "it looked good for the price" rather than any objective motivation.

harold

58370[/snapback]

Hi Harold,

Maybe you need to be a bit more specific on what fish are you targetting over at Pittwater. Are you using bait or lures ? spinning reels or overhead/baitcasting reel ? What line class will you be using ?

cheers,

Mario

[Guest Jocool]

Sorry to break it to you Harold, but if you want to cover a few bases you may be up for a fair bit of spending. When I go out on my boat, especially if solo, I try and cover as many options as I can for the day.

This would be my normal tackle for a day:

Live Baiting: 8kg and a 10kg overhead.

Pelagics: 3kg and 4 kg spin and a 4kg baitcaster that I love throwing slices with. I have just gotten a new 6kg spin outfit that I hope will be utilised on bigger Kings.

Light Spin: 2 and 3 kg spin. These are used if the bait gathering if I am going to be live baiting, and can be used for bream, salmon, flathead and various other species. It is also very easy to swap rigs on these to use them for bait as well. I also have a small 2kg Baitcast outfit that doesn't see a lot of water, but I really want to blood it, so it will be going out more often.

Nine times out of ten I will load most of these into the boat. So any given day I may have upwards of 7 outfits on the boat. I try and limit it to three outfits if I am on someone elses boat, but it all depends on what the target species is...just like Mario has alluded.

[Bashir]

I would go for at least two outfits.

One would be a 3500 baitrunner with a 7ft rod that has nice light tip but strong but, can be used from bream to kingfish with baits or lures.

The second would be a 10kg outfit, preferably an overhead but a threadline could be more versatile. Stick to shimano and you definately won't go wrong.

[kevvie]

I think the boys nailed it on the head pretty well..

What i've found is that you can sometimes skimp on the price of a rod but you should always buy a quality reel.. Now i don't mean buying a rod that will snap come the first fish but spending a few hundred dollars isn't necessary either.. something in between would suffice.

On the other hand, when it comes to reels, spend as much as you can afford.. you won't regret it.

[harold]

Thank you guys for the input. We have 4 rods on board which range from a light spinning rod, 2 ugly sticks with Shimano spinning reels and a heavy duty game type rod with an overhead reel (i forget which make i bought but the rig cost $1000.00). I think i will buy a new mid range outfit as Mimi and i mostly are bottom bashing at various parts of the Hawkesbury. To be frank, we dont really "target" a specific fish, rather we just go out there, buy a few different baits and toss it overboard with the min weight we can and see what bites. Having said that we catch our fair share of Flathead and Bream.

Last year i discovered SP's and after i caught my first flatty on that i was hooked so i want to increase the range of those on board also.

Fish well and thanks again

harold

Edited July 18, 2005 by harold