Tips for buying a rod and reel
It’s amazing how often I see people fishing with tackle that isn’t suitable for the type of fish they’re chasing or the locations they’re fishing.
A good example of people using outfits that don’t suit the species of fish are people using surf outfits in freshwater, I’m not kidding, I’ve seen it more times that I care to remember. When you speak to these people about catching fish, they can’t understand why others having success but they aren’t. These days, there are plenty of quality combos for many types of fishing that won’t cost the earth that WILL increase the odds of catching fish tenfold!
Most weekend or holiday anglers can get by with one or two outfits that will cover just about every fishing type they’re likely to do. At least, that is, until they get the fishing bug and then the skies the limit!
Realistically, a two to four kilo spin rod of around two metres in length coupled with a 2-2500 sized spin reel, loaded with three to four kilogram breaking strain line will cover a huge array of fish species and fishing scenarios. An outfit such as that will be perfect for chasing trout, redfin, murray cod, golden perch, bream, whiting, pinky snapper, bass and any number of other river, lake and estuary type fish.
About the only fish or areas it won’t be suitable for is specialist fishing such as surf fishing, trolling or heavy offshore or bay fishing.
A spin casting outfit, as above, would probably covers just about 90 per cent of most anglers needs, a basic surf outfit for those fishing the ocean beaches, and a heavier bay type setup for chasing snapper etc.
Balanced tackle
One of the most important decisions you make when buying a fishing outfit for the first time is selecting a BALANCED outfit. A balanced outfit simply means a rod, reel and breaking strain line that go together to suit the style of fishing you’re doing, the type and size of fish you’re targeting and the weight of the terminal tackle being cast or fished.
For example, large (not necessarily heavy) reels are designed to balance with stiffer, heavy rods, heavy terminal tackle and fight bigger fish while light reels with more sensitive rods are designed to cast lighter terminal tackle and fight smaller fish. There’s a whole gamut of rods and reels between these two examples that are built to specialise in various fishing scenarios. But whatever that scenario might be, to get the most enjoyment from your fishing and the best fishing results, outfits that are balanced for the type of fishing you’ll mostly be doing should always be selected.
Knowledgeable fishing team members at your local Ray’s Outdoors store can give you a good selection of balanced outfits to select from to suit your fishing requirements and importantly, your budget.
Written by Trevor Hawkins and first appeared on the Ray’s Outdoors website. Visit them here for more great camping advice.
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