Kayak Combo

[roosters123]

I was interested in getting a "big Fish" rod and reel for a kayak. I was looking for an overhead reel mainly going to be targeting king fish and other pelagic (tailor, Aussie salmon). Any suggestions from previous experience on any combo would be helpful. Also i do not have the funds to buy a $500 dollar combo so below $250 is my target but may be stretched.

[arpie]

Keep an eye on the For Sale section here, Roosters - some good deals come up that can give you an 'upgrade' for your $ spent!

Where are you planning to fish? Inshore or offshore? Bait or lures? Casting or trolling? All these will influence the gear you use.

A lot of yakkers are actually using lighter gear than ever now - even for MAJOR offshore fishing (eg marlin!) All part of the fun!

cheers

roberta

[roosters123]

Yeah inshore but the west side of the harbour bridge (sydney). i will be mainly using bait and casting. I was looking at the penn fathom. never used one of these so any experience on these would be helpful

[roosters123]

I was looking at the penn squall if anyone has used this it will be helpful. also a rod to match

[SMn]

I use Alveys off my yak (I use Alveys for all my fishing hahaha), a 500c5 for bait and plastics on a 7ft uglystik and 455be trolling reel on 6'6" el-cheapo 5-10kg boat rod. However if your not familiar with these types of reels they can be very cumbersome on the yak, but have exceptional line capacity. Hardest fighting fish so far has been a good sized salmon on both reels handled nicely. No kings for me yet hopefully summer will see success.

My overhead and baitcaster experience is pretty limited, however, I have used an Abu 7000i overhead in the surf and a low profile Daiwa baitcaster in my yak before. Have you looked at the Abu Garcia Ambassaduers range for overheads? I reckon if your chasing Kingies line capacity and weight vs size would be high on preferences, as well as fish stopping power. I think weight will be your biggest trade off in finding a big fish reel.

Good luck!

[JET01]

Mate they are running out the old penn spinfisher reels and rods at a big online retailer at the moment. These reels are almost indestructable. There are a few different sizes available. $99 for rod and reel so money left over for good braid.

[roosters123]

Im interested jet01 where,pm?

[roosters123]

SMn yeah they do look good never seen them before do you know how much they cost and what size i should be looking at

[SMn]

SMn yeah they do look good never seen them before do you know how much they cost and what size i should be looking at

I think they range in size from 2500 up... the smaller you go the less heavy line you can fit. The 7000i I used off the beach was pretty heavy but held a fair wack of heavy line. They are robust reels and reasonably cheap, I was using a mates combo that cost under $120 for rod and reel (beach setup). Check them out online I saw a fair few for sale a while back. Balancing on top of the rod would take a bit of getting used to if your paddling a yak. Maybe a good idea for trolling but for constant casting from a yak would be tiring pretty quick.

That Spinfisher Jet01 suggested looks great too and probably more user friendly for casting and trolling. Have you used an overhead from your kayak before?

Edit: I would still prefer an Alvey to an overhead or spin reel any day though... if you can try a few and see what your comfortable with.

Edited November 14, 2013 by SMn

[Guest Aussie007]

i was looking for a neat little reel with good drag a few years back i wanted a penn just for value and being robust so i picked up the penn slammer 260 my main target was kings and flatties on light gear the penn slammer 260 being the smallest in its range, i dont think i ever caught a kingy on it and got tired of using the reel just the weight was to heavy over a whole day of casting and reeling although it has great drag and i have never broken the reel but it just sits in the shed now

i mostly use a cheap shimano sienna a very affordable reel around $50 and the drag is surprisingly much smoother than the penn slammer and the penn slammer has the HT-100 drag washers, the shimano sienna is a lot lighter and more balanced on the rod over the penn i could cast it all day i also have the small size i think 2500 a couple of outings ago i was live baiting yakkas on the shimano sienna matched with a 1-2kg rod and 8-9lb line from memory, it had no problem pulling in 50-55cm salmon

my next reel will probably be another shimano

i think we are allowed to say ebay on here now as its not censored? there is a bloke on there selling kayak rods for i think 30 bucks 4'6" i think they were he shows a picture lifting a 10.1kg bucket of water off of scales without the rod snapping