plankton

The "medium-heavy" class of overheads, which those Toriums belong to, are definitely capable of doing all the things you mentioned. The bigger models, 20 and 30lb class reels, will easily handle small to medium tuna and sharks, possibly a bit of overkill on snapper but if paired with the right rod would work great, especially on deeper drops, and they make great surf casting reels.

I have no personal experience with the Torium series, I'm not a big fan of many of Shimano's reels, they look and feel cheap to me. The exceptions being the TLD series and their small threadlines.

One word of warning on the Torium for surf casting, or any casting really, the spool does not look to have much of a flange to it, so when trying to control it with your thumb you'll most likely burn the crap out of it because you have to apply pressure directly on the line.

A couple reels in the same class I would recommend for your purposes are the Penn Squall, or possibly the Fathom. I have a Squall 25N and use it for surf fishing for mullys and sharks, beautiful casting reel, strong, smooth drag, well made and reasonably priced.

http://pennfishing.com.au/product/squall-star-drag/

I also have a few Daiwa Sealine X reels which are brilliant, they are still sold by Daiwa in most other countries but not here.

It was put on by Mulloway Taggers SA, unfortunately I couldn't make it down there. Plenty of decent mullys were caught, the winning fish was in the 80's. There are photos on FB, look up Mully Mayhem Fishing Series. There's another round coming up in West Lakes sometime in March I think.

I don't mind Willy Weather, I've never noticed the tides being far enough off to make a difference to me, and I fish the Onk a lot and the tides are wacky there anyway.

I also like the graphic representation you get on WW, which not only displays tides but wind, temp. and whatever else you want. Makes it easy to compare several weather variables and choose a good fishing time.

Of course when the forecast turns out to be incorrect everything goes out the window, but that's fishing, and over the years I've learned more when fishing in the "wrong" conditions.

 

 

My personal opinion (only handled them instore) They feel ok... I have heard that they dont rate sinker wise very well....

 

Ive got myself a Penn Allegence... Nice bit of kit and only set me back $130 for a Graphite surf rod it's pretty ballsy..... Havent caught a fish on it yeh but casted well and handle weight and bait no dramas! 

 

hey Southie, which model did you get?

 

12ft 12-20kg one mate 

 

They rate that rod to throw up to 200g, so a 6oz sinker and a half decent bait. In your experience do you reckon it actually handles that?

Yep that makes sense.

 

But I wouldn't have thought the weight of the slit shot/hook/bait would be enough to drag the line through the float holes - but something I could try anyway and hopefully reduce so many tangles. on casts.

 

Thanks Plankton.

I've only used it on jetties, so it's a bit easier to let out some slack line and jiggle it a bit to get it sliding. With a berley float I only have my hook about 10cm below the surface anyway, so not much line to slide through.

Good luck

When I've used a berley float I set the rig up so the float can slide between the hook and swivel, stopped by a split shot down near the hook. When you cast the float is near the hook so limited tangles, then when it lands in the water you give it a bit of slack line and the split shot sinks the hook and brings the float up to the swivel. Does that make sense?

My personal opinion (only handled them instore) They feel ok... I have heard that they dont rate sinker wise very well....

 

Ive got myself a Penn Allegence... Nice bit of kit and only set me back $130 for a Graphite surf rod it's pretty ballsy..... Havent caught a fish on it yeh but casted well and handle weight and bait no dramas! 

hey Southie, which model did you get?

Every beach will have fish, just pick one nearby and have a go!

If you want any further advice it would help to have some more info, such as...

Where are you located?

What species of fish are you looking to catch?

What sort of gear are you planning to use?

Bear spray is basically pepper spray. It comes in a little fire extinguisher bottle. The whole idea is to blast the bear in the face and pray it is enough to spook it off. I've never actually used it but I know it is pretty strong stuff. Some goof at a house party back in the day thought it would be a good idea to let off as can indoors. It cleared the house. 

 

Nah...they aren't all that bad. Bear attacks are almost 90 percent human fault when they happen. Either not wearing a bear bell on your pack when hiking or keeping food in the tent, or getting out the car to take photos and close range. 

Just need to be smart about it when your out there in the right season.

 

I guess its similar to here and sharks..you know they are there but you wouldn't go swimming the metro beaches with a Tuna tied to your ass. hahahaha 

In Alaska bear spray is called a ".45 automatic". But most time they don't want to be anywhere near humans. I lived in the mountains of Colorado for awhile and in the Spring you'd sometimes get black bears nosing through rubbish bins, they were pretty timid and easy to scare away with loud noises. Brown bears are more aggressive, but they're close to non-existent in that part of the world now.

Hiking in the mountains what you really needed to look out for were mountain lions, although most experts would say you'd never see them coming anyway.

Iv got lever drag reels but I do love the 12/0.

Lever drags have their place, but for many applications those old star drag Senators are hard to beat, I've been looking for a nice 113hlw (4/0 wide) to add to my collection.

Here's another site I thought of for reference, basically every Penn schematic ever and heaps of good info and parts,

http://store.scottsbt.com/PennParts/Home.aspx

I've owned a few Senators, but I've never had to do any serious maintenance on them as they're fairly bulletproof.

Try here, this guy is the reel guru,

http://alantani.com/

Good luck

Thanks for the suggestions. I have decided to look at TLD 25 combos and found these 2 at RayAnnes. Which one would be best?

 

1. http://www.rayannes.com.au/daiwa-shimano-reels-australia/rod-reel-combos/boat-jigging-combos-spin-overhead/shimano-tld-25-combo-only-199/

 

2. http://www.rayannes.com.au/daiwa-shimano-reels-australia/tuna-fishing-tackle/shimano-tld-25-tuna-trolling-combo-only-239/

Depends on which rod you want, both will probably get the job done. Obviously, Shimano rates one of the rods a bit more than the other, hence the price difference. Personally I have never cared for any Shimano rod, the TLDs are great reels though.

I've seen a bit of information about pulley rigs for snapper but never used them myself, I did some googling last night but could only find information about using it with an impact shield. My question about the pulley rig is I'd still like to use the breakaway sinker trace, that way I've thought about it was using 40lb line connected to the hook with a bead to stop the sinker from the mainline running up to the hook trace/knot so it doesn't get trapped in there or anything and then using a small sinker with maybe about 2-3cm of 20lb line connected to the sinker, I'm just worried about possible entanglement while casting such as the bait twisting around the hook trace while casting

What you want is a clip down pulley rig with a rotten bottom setup so sinkers can break off without loosing the whole rig. The clip down system makes the sinker and bait one single mass at the end of your line, so no helicoptering baits which means limited entanglements and better casting distance.

For my clip down pulley rigs I stay away from the impact shields as I find them too fiddly. I prefer to use a Breakaway Imp clip or my new favourite the Gemini rig clip.

For the rotten bottom setup you can use special clips designed to fail, but I prefer to use a second Gemini rig clip and a short length of lighter mono. The advantage of this is you can still cast with heaps of power, which the rotten bottom clips can't handle.

You can source all the bits needed for these rigs here in Australia. I have seen the Imp clips in shops but they're kind of dear, not sure if the Geminis are available, but the Fishing Guru sells an identical part that I have tried.

Here's a link to a PDF with all sorts of crazy British rigs, some are quite simple looking and others incredibly intricate. You'll find the pulley rig and rotten bottom rig for a bit of reference.

http://www.skysports.com/downloads/Book_Of_Saltwater_Rigs.pdf

If you like, later tonight when I get some time, I can take some photos of all this stuff I'm talking about as it's kind of hard to explain in words.

I reckon the Tyrnos 50 2 speed is overkill for what you want.

What sort of size shark are you after? Do you plan to just drift out baits or do you want to be able to cast?

For my LB sharking I have a surf setup that can be cast and I usually use it for slidebaiting chasing small to medium size sharks (6' or less). The rod is a stout 11' model from the US and the reel is a Daiwa SL-X50. The same setup could be used for LB snapper, although a bit heavy, and the reel would do fine trolling for school bluefin but probably not enough for barrels.

I reckon you want a bigger, castable overhead and possibly a couple different rods to do everything you mentioned. Daiwa and Penn both make a few decent models like the saltist, sealine, squall and fathom. Shimano probably has a suitable reel, but I'm not as familiar with their stuff.

Good luck.

I just put together a tuna/kingie combo for casting poppers, stickbaits and bigger metal lures. The reel is a Fin Nor Lethal 100 and for the rod I chose an Ugly Stik Bluewater 7' 15-24kg. A tough rod with a softer glass tip but plenty of grunt down low, plus Fuji heavy duty reel seat and alconite guides with a SiC tip. Best thing is the price.

Nah I mean how evenly it spools and what happens when you adapt it.

Went on nice and even, no need to use any of the adjusting washers. Not sure of the actual diameter of the braid I used, so others might get different results. I reckon it took at least 300m, probably a bit more, but more than enough either way. If I hook something that takes more line than that against the sort of drag this reel puts out I don't imagine I would have landed it anyway.

After reading a bit about how people rig for kingfish popping I've decided to skip the wind-on and use a shorter length of leader tied on with a bimini and albright combo, probably 80lb for tuna and a bit more if I get a chance at some kingies.

Nah I mean how evenly it spools and what happens when you adapt it.

Ah yes, I'll let you know how I go.

Let us know how you go spooling it up, assuming you are doing it yourself (winding it on).

 

Cheers

I assume you're referring to the difficulty of getting the braid packed onto the reel very tightly. I'll be using the phone book method, basically running the braid through a phone book with an appropriate amount of weight on top. The resistance from the weighted phone book in conjunction with the reel's drag does the job quite well.

How much was the lethal? I'm looking to buy one.

$125

After getting the heads up about the Fin-Nor Lethal 100 reel in another thread and reading the review by Alan Hawk, with a bit of birthday money in my pocket I decided it was time to pull the trigger on a big threadline outfit.

I picked up the Lethal at The Scene, a shop I had never been to before but one I will definitely be visiting again, good prices and great service, if you're in the Old Noarlunga area or headed past to Victor/Goolwa stop in and check them out.

The reel feels very solid, incredible value for money, and seems like heaps of nice smooth drag. Just need to load it with some 80lb braid and an appropriate wind-on. If you're looking for a big jigging /popping reel you'd do well to check it out.

I see myself using this reel in a couple possible ways, casting lures to tuna and kingies and deepwater jigging. As I have a tuna charter planned for later this Summer, I figured I'd first pair it with a rod that would cast bigger metals and surface lures. Someday soon I'd love to chase kingfish with it as well.

After looking around I chose an Ugly Stik Bluewater 7' 15-24kg rod, absolutely bulletproof blanks with top of the line Fuji guides and heavy duty reel seat. Another awesome value for money item, IMO. Eventually I'll get a jigging rod as well, most likely another Ugly Stik.

So for $300 I've got an awesome combo that should handle most things that swim in our waters. Once I get some use out of it I'll post my thoughts and some photos of the badass fish I catch.

I haven't done much tuna or shark fishing, but I can certainly recommend the Penn Squall. Although I imagine you're thinking about the lever drag model, I have a Squall 25N star drag that is a brilliant reel, use it for heavy surfcasting and if I get a chance to do some tuna trolling I'm sure it would do well on smaller to medium tuna, just not enough capacity for barrels. I've been a lifelong fan of Penn reels, well built and the best drag in the business, IMO.

The 4000 will be perfect for it. I think the 'M' is more suited to a 5 or 6000 SW sized reel. (The 'H' I tried a couple of months back was too heavy for a 6000 Saragosa).

I have a Penn Slammer 360 on my 325M, balances wonderfully and is one of the best surf lure casting reels made IMO.

Those people are absolute morons. The river is "useless" and needs to be made "healthier", what a bunch of BS to support their own selfish agenda. Go race your stupid boats somewhere else! If you think the river is useless, take a look on any given day and see how many people are fishing, kayaking, swimming, SUPing and just enjoying the river as it is.

Anytime we interfere with the natural flow of rivers and estuary systems we are putting the natural way of things out of balance. I personally don't like what they've done to the Murray, but I can see the need for steady supplies of freshwater, so there is some valid reasoning behind it, although I think the health of the river would be much better served by removing those barrages.

I can't believe anyone in power would be shortsighted enough to listen to these idiots (Clean up the Onkaparinga River Campaign ) but I've been unpleasantly surprised by the government before.

Great, informative post, thanks!

I have the squid ezy tool and find it works well, definitely sped up my cleaning time.

All this squid talk, I need to get out and bag some cephalopods!

You should be fine casting that sort of weight. Whether that size sinker is enough would depend on the wind and water movement. If you don't need to cast far you could probably get away with a bit bigger sinker as long as it's just a gentle lob. Otherwise, if you need better grip try and find some 2oz grapnel sinkers, although I'm not sure they're readily available around here, Let's Go Fishin would be your best bet.

Can't make this one, but last year's event was great, I even won a rod and reel combo.

Should be plenty of mullys landed, the river has been firing well lately.

Good luck to everyone, and thanks to jimbojames for organising this great event!