Gear for the Bays.

[brent]

Hey,
Our boat arrives sometime in december and whilst we'll be fishing estuaries and rivers a lot of the time, living in Melbourne means we'll be floating around on PPB and Westernport quite frequently.

Unfortuantely, I know very little about fishing the bays and even less about what tackle to use. We have good gear for the smaller stuff (both bait and plastics combos), but if I want to get onto snapper and other bigger fish, I'm probably going to need some more heavy duty gear.

I would appreciate any suggestions on rod and reel setups that are good value and will last a few years. Something that works as a good all rounder for the larger fish in the bays and coastal waters.

Thanks!
Brent.

[kingrichard]

Theres no hard fast rule with it.But just a few simple guide lines.
All comes down to budget in the end.
I`m putting together an article on what I use, but people are different and have different views on what to use.Hopefully everyone will agree with me (lol)
As the more choices there are the harder it is as there too many to choose from
Rick

[Dekka]

Brent, like Rick said there are no hard and fast rules, however I believe most regular fishos have common theories.

Myself, I use the following;
WP/snapper-gummy - 2.1m 1 piece rods 8-15kg with overhead reels (calcutta 700 or charter special), spooled with 30lb braid. Leader is minimum 1.5m long 60-80lb fluorocarbon. Sinkers attached to main line via ezy-rig (or similar) on a 600mm 15-20lb dropper.

PPB/snapper - 2.1m 1 piece rods 4-6kg with overhead reels (calcutta 400) or eggbeaters (penn spinfisher 550) both spooled with 12-15lb monofilament. Leader is approx 900mm long 30-40lb fluorocarbon. If using a sinker it is no bigger than a pea, located on leader running directly to hooks. Most of the time, and my preference is, to not use sinkers.

There you have it. Just my setups.

[kingrichard]

Thanks Des, I was about to write the same.

I have my sinker behind the swivel/snaplock and I use baitrunners in ppb, always 2 hook rigs and at the top of the bay have the 2nd hook free running.

Hooks used are 4/0,5/0 7/0s depending on the bait size and fish size.

And remember that terminal tackle is the only bit that is between you and the fish so good quailty hooks/ swivels etc are cheap and a lost fish is a waste.So replace hooks, leaders etc at a minimum each trip.I replace hooks and leader after every good fish or a couple of hours in the water
Cheers Rick

[Shoulders]

Brent,
I recon the advice your looking for won't come much better than that, couldn't agree more :)


Cheers.............Shoulders

[brent]

Cheers guys! That's fantastic advice! Much appreciated.

Actually, In the last couple days I've been offered 4 x rod/reel combos second hand. They're Penn 5600L Live Liner threadline reels with Silstar powertip 7'6" rods. Touted as a 6-8Kg setup I think. At $140 each, is this a good deal and will it be a good combo for bay fishing?

Thanks to all!

[kingrichard]

Wingas gear,
Yeah would be good quality. Dont know if i`d buy all of it in one hit as at 7`6 rods you might find them a bit long and once you have them its a bit hard to give back,but in saying that they are a good price.
I have a couple of Silstar diamond tip whiting rods (pk702s)and they are pretty good so the snapper ones would be ok.
Penn reels been around since noah came off the ark so no problems there.
I know a few guys that use 7`6 rods and love them to death and work fine for snapper.
Its a hard call in any case.I went threw dont know how many combos until I found something I really liked
Cheers Rick

[brent]

Thanks KingRichard,
What's the normal length for boat rods?

[kingrichard]

Anywhere from 6`6 to 7`6.I think it come down to what you feel comfortable with,quality of the blank,space in the boat,space in the car if you have to transport gear.In the end go and have a look at them and If you are happy buy them
Myself I use 7ft Wayne Wright Braid busters,as i find them the best alround for me and i love the power in the butts of them and with great sensativity in the tips
Cheers rick

[Steve-G]

Brent, welcome, mate you really can't go wrong with a couple of Ugly-stiks and Abu 7000 overheads or Shimano 4500 bait runners.
So long as they have sharp pointy things on the end of the line with some fresh bait your in with a good chance.

Good luck.

[Dekka]

How come Winga's selling his gear?

[Steve-G]

Don't know but he just quit Fishnetting :roll: as well, for personal reasons.
I wish him luck.

[grant]

Brent, welcome, mate you really can't go wrong with a couple of Ugly-stiks and Abu 7000 overheads or Shimano 4500 bait runners.
So long as they have sharp pointy things on the end of the line with some fresh bait your in with a good chance.

Good luck.

thats where I have bene going wrong... no sharp pointy bits.

g./

[brent]

Following up on this thread, I bought a couple of shimano outfits and some cheaper Okuma outfits. Cranbourne fishing tackle had some pretty good specials!
I got 4500B Baitrunners with shimano rods and the Okuma combos aren't fancy, but at $70, they're a good place to start!

Thanks for all the assistance!

[Steve-G]

Mate, you can't get a better bait runner than the 4500, unless it's the bigger one 6000.