North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Looking for a new reel as i can now go further off shore to chase bill fish and pelagic's. Reel will most likely end up as the shotgun reel so a large line capacity is required and a bit of grunt is needed in the drag department in case the big guys in grey suits decide to eat any mackerel etc. that I've got on the end of my line. Anyone have any suggestions for what reel i should look at? Should I be looking at graphite or metal frames? Size 30 or 50's?

Any suggestions are appreciated

Hey mate, personally I have got 2 x tld 25's, a tiagra 20 and a tiagra 30WLRS. For the price the tlds aren't too bad of a reel. However my tiagras are great reels. The 20 is perfect for sailfishing with plenty of drag but lacks a bit of line capacity and that's what my 30lrsa is for. Has 14kg of drag and holds 500m of 24kg mono. Also bought the tiagras because I plan on having them for a long time and hey are of a top quality. The 30 will handle any marlin encountered up here in my opinion

Are you set on overhead? A 10000 saragosa will smoke anything up here and versitile should you need to pitch a bait, recover line quickly, etc. I run a 6000 size shimano as my switch rod, its perfect, just lacks capacity for anything other than short corner. A fin nor lt100 is my shotgun, purchased it after excellent reviews from alanhawke.com, very happy with it. A 10,000 baitrunner does all the medium lengths I will eventually go with a couple of saragosa 8000 or 10000's and the 6000 will remain for the switch bait. Food for thought anyway.

What's your budget NCbazza?

Big saragosa will do the job, Tiagra 20, Tyrnos 20, Talica 20. I'll be running 3 Tiagra 16's spooled with 8kg next year for the riggers and shotgun and the big girl 30WLRSA's on the corners myself

Mate if you want a shot gun go a tiagra 30 wlrsa run 24 kg and that way you have a big bait rod as well

Deepblack I'm probably looking at spending 600-1000 for a reel and a rod.

rumluck i'm set on an overhead for a shotgun reel as I've already got an okuma azores 80 spin reel that I can use to pitch a livebait to anything in close, also doubles as a good casting setup for pelagics.

A Tiggie 30 with a good 15-24kg rod with line can be had for that price new. if your a facebook kind of guy get on to the game fishing buy sell swap Australia page, guys are always selling reels on there, could be had for about $500 with line then get the rod locally.

What Rod are you planning to run the 16's on Simmo?

Not sure yet mate, I need the budget to recover before I get them. Outriggers, 2x 7410 Garmin and a 80lb elec to go on before I get those 3. They need to be 7ft long and have a low reel seat for my girls to use one day. Probably head down the live fibre path or build the 3 myself

I have been looking at a couple of Tiagra 16's myself to go with the pair of 30wlrsa's I picked up recently. My thoughs were to put them on the Shimano Ocea swithbait 20-30lb overheads and spool the reels with 80lb braid and a 200m 30lb mono topshot so I have an outfit that is light enough to feel good on a fight with the smaller sails but can put the hurt on bigger fish. As a plus in the off season the mono topshot can be swapped back out for braid.
Cheers,
John.

Sounds good John, i'll check out those Ocea rods but from memory they are pretty expensive. Good idea for the top shot, gives you fresh line every yeah and yeah you could go back to braid, it works on the big reels so why not do it on the smaller ones. the trick for me if I did similar was finding IGFA rated Dacron/braid to keep the T&R IGFA legal for tag points. It could be an option but, 20lb Dacron backing would be nice for the kids to take some of that stretch out. the 16's are a great sized reel for Darwin, I should have never sold my ones from Karratha.

Good point on the braid for IGFA. 20lb dacron would be the go I think. I know the Ocea swithbaits are a bit pricey but to be honest I haven't been able to find anything else I'm happy with yet. One day I might have the time to build my own....
Cheers,
John.