rod & reel outfit for less then $350

[Macka 0]

G'day All,Probably like everyone else asking what should I get. lolIm new to the game when it comes to the bigger fish, but hey goto start somewhere.So yeh come to ask the experts at the game.MyScenario: Will be heading over to Fowlers Bay SA around christmas time.Will be doing some boat fishing & land fishing.Question is I have no idea what to buy. Apparently theres a few big snapper jewies samson kingies etc etc around that area.Have aproxiamately $350 dollars to spend on a rod reel combo.Have only ever used egg beaters in the past but willing to learn how to use an overhead.Have purchased a Dawia sealine bull 6000hi $184.95 only the other day & now not sure if I did the right thing.Will I be better of with a Overhead combo?If not what would you match the 6000hi with?Also can someone try explain to me line class on the rods eg 10kg 15kg.I gather its to do with breaking strain, but some rods i see say 24kg and are cheaper then one that says 10kg.Does anyone know which rods are way above the breaking strain listed. Mates are saying the penns are the way to go.I've got 50lb braid that a mate has bought me to use on what ever i get, does this comes into the calculation...Hope the above makes some kind of sence.Cheers All in advanceMacka

[Macka 0]

What do you Guys/Gals use for catching bigger fish upto the 24kg mark.Any help would be appreciated.Cheers in advance Macka

[Cal 480]

G"day Macca,my thoughts on a couple of your questions.If you are used to using an eggbeater setup then you would be better off using this than an overhead combo.I personally wouldnt go all the way over to Fowlers and fish with an outfit I wasnt familiar with,an OH combo isnt going to catch you anymore fish.Dunno to much about the boat fishing side of things,but your Opus would be fine for the beach there,and there are plenty of surf rods around to match it up on.Cheers and all the best on your trip.

[Macka 0]

Cheers Cal, for your input.Muchly appreciated.Still decidng on what to match my reel with, but good sound advice on the overhead side of things.Might have a practise on a mates, If I don't catch a fish, im sure to catch a bird.Bird nest here we come, what are mates for. lol

[Ranger 48]

I'm not gonna provide advice on what to buy, coz the local tacklestore will do that for you.In regards to the rating, that's the recommended loading capacity for the rod.A 15kg rod ya load with up to 15kg of weight. A 24kg rod ya load with 24kg weight, etc.However, you hear of people fishing with lines much heavier than these specs and that's because you have a drag on your reel that allows line to peel off once it reaches a set pressure. Because of this it's possible to use a far heavier line than the rating on the rod.The general rule of thumb is to set ya drag at around 1/3 that of the breaking strain of your line.For instance if you are using a 10kg line, you set your drag to around 3kg so that once the fish applies 3kg of pressure line will start peeling off your spool.With 3kg of drag you can now put that 10kg line on a light rod rated 2-4kg without fear of damaging the rod.In regards to this drag tensioning I'd challenge the average angler to hold onto any more than about 8-10kg of drag for any more than about 5-10 minutes, coz your arms will be stretching and ya back will be aching!This means about a 24-30kg line on an 8-10kg rod is about the strongest you would ever need without moving up to a game chair you can strap into.The problem you are faced with, is that the fish have massive pulling power and you need to know that your reel actually holds enough line to tire and stop the fish before it pulls ALL the line off your spool!Having said this, I have friends who skull drag in whiting on 50lb braid! :icon_eek: That just aint my sorta fishing though!For big snapper, kingies, samson, I'd be using that 50lb line on about a 15kg outfit with about 8kg of drag set on my reel and "at least" 300-400m of line minimum! You're gonna need a quality outfit on those sorta fish though, coz kingies and samson are really gonna test ya gear out, and that might cost a bit more than the budget you've put aside, although you will get something to do the job with the budget you've set.Me personally, if using an eggbeater I'd be thinking SALTIGA OUTFIT but that's ridiculously out of your budget, and that's just MY preference!If overhead mebbe a TLD at the cheap end or Tiagra at the high end.