Quobba spinning Rod & reel suggestions
Submitted by hairyhaggis on Fri, 2023-03-31 11:02
Hi all,
Heading up to Quobba in June, going to be doing mainly ballooning/droning for mackies, but also wanting to spin some lures/metals/soft plastics
Just wondering if there is a nice rod that can do all 3 well? Looking for something that can cast well, and allow me to work stickbaits, poppers, and plackies.
Looking for a rod in that $200-$500 range, cheaper the better, but willing to pay a bit more for that better rod. Would a PE2-4 rod be good enough?
Will be using it to target mackies, tuna, kingies, snapper, spango, etc.
At the moment looking at:
SALTIST HYPER LIGHT ROCK SPECIAL S902-PE2/4
Shimano Coltsniper BB 96MH PE3
Cheers!
flangies
Posts: 2542
Date Joined: 11/05/08
In my opinion PE 2-4 is too
In my opinion PE 2-4 is too light for an all rounder. Hooking fish at quobba is not hard, landing them is the real difficulty. You have to contest with pumping swells especially in winter, sharks, the snaggiest rocks you've ever seen and every fish bar a mackerel or tuna wants to bury you in a tackle graveyard. You also want to be able to dead lift a decent reef fish and not have to worry about a cliff gaff or long pole gaff if you can avoid it.
Over the years of fishing there my spinning rods have become shorter and stiffer. I started with 9'6" and got dusted up too many times. Nowadays I've been using a 8' demon blood which is rated 6-8 but fees more like a 4-6. I would definitely recommend going something 4-6 if spinning for mackies, tuna and Cobia. Having said that I take a 9'6" 2-4 when chasing shark mackerel in the summer months. Also take into consideration your guide sizes on the rod compared to the planned leader size. 80lb leader casts like shit on a rod designed for salmon.
Reel size 10,000-14000 for spinning. The problem with droning and ballooning is that spin reels lack in line capacity compared to overhead reels, so to get an ample amount of line you'll have to get a reel so big that it's uncomfortable to spin with. Dont underestimate the pulling power of a 3kg spangled emperor too, those things are nuts.
tight lines
jb
hairyhaggis
Posts: 36
Date Joined: 06/04/18
Really appreciate the reply
Really appreciate the reply mate, cheers for that. Exact type of info i was looking for regarding rod size & weight. The last 2 years ive fished the block on DHI, year before that was Quobba. This year we're heading back to Quobba, and whilst we normally balloon & drone for mackies, and then bottom bounce bait for reefies, I am wanting to try out lures, plackies, etc this year for something different. 100% agree about the snaggiest rocks, lost many a good fish to the rocks and sharks up there.
The bottom bouncing outfit i take up is good, plenty of power for pulling the fish out of the snags, but that is very basic fishing, no finesse. Was worried about too stiff a rod wont work the lures very well. The drone/balloon outfit is my 10ft Ozflex 24kg rod and Spinmaster II OH reel, which has like 650m on it. Caught plenty of good macks, tuna on it the last couple years, an absolute pleasure to fish with too.
I'll defo take a look at the Demon Bloods too
hairyhaggis
Posts: 36
Date Joined: 06/04/18
Ahh mate, i just re-read my
Ahh mate, i just re-read my original post, and it made it seem like when I said all 3, it was balloon, Drone, casting (spinning). I originally meant 3 of Lures, Plackies, and poppers.
I've got a drone/ballooning set up already, it is just for the lures & plackies off the rocks.
Sorry for confusion!
flangies
Posts: 2542
Date Joined: 11/05/08
Ah yep that's how I read it.
Ah yep that's how I read it. I would say that for soft plastics and lures including poppers, try and get plastics that require minimal action on the anglers part so that you're not jerking a heavy stiff rod for minimal returns.
For soft plastics - paddle tails, grubs, segmented plastics. You'll still get an awesome action while it's sinking down the bottom and allow you to fish a larger variety of weights. Trying to jerk a jerk shad with a 2oz jighead pisses me off after about 5 casts.
For poppers and stickbaits there's not all that much you can do action wise as at most spots you're generally way higher than the rocks and the angle of the line is quite high which makes most things flick out of the water with any aggressive moments. All I'll say is make sure they're durable. If you can fish singles rather than trebles you won't get them caught as much at the base of the rocks in the oysters and weed etc. He who casts the most and covers the most ground hooks the most fish, they don't care if it's a $20 rooster or it's $70 handcrafted and signed by mark mcgowan, chances are a sharks going to wear it.
Metal slices are pretty self explanatory but if you're going to spin them a fair bit look at the higher gear ratio reels of any model you were considering. It might be the difference between being able to spin a 3 hour session and a 2 hour session because your arms are cooked.
Your spots are quite limited safety wise for spinning in the winter when the big swells roll through; I nearly got washed off south wall to give you an example.
mulloway_hunter
Posts: 455
Date Joined: 18/04/11
in all honisty man go the
in all honisty man go the mapheox they outcast anything iv had and my mates even the ocean legacy can fish plastics and lures and baits not a problem at all
hairyhaggis
Posts: 36
Date Joined: 06/04/18
Cheers mate, any specific
Cheers mate, any specific model?
mulloway_hunter
Posts: 455
Date Joined: 18/04/11
the 10ft one go get away
the 10ft one go get away balcatta and rob will point ya in the right direction
hairyhaggis
Posts: 36
Date Joined: 06/04/18
Thanks to all who replied in
Thanks to all who replied in here, ended up going into Getaway Balcatta today, and had a good chat with Rob and he pointed me in the right direction for what I wanted which worked with the lures etc I already had. Ended up going with the Ocean Legacy Specialist 9'8" PE2-4, and pairing that up with a Shimano Stradic 6000XG & 40lb braid.
TorquenFish
Posts: 321
Date Joined: 30/12/12
Done Quobba a few times
Done Quobba a few times predominantly spinning and bottom bashing.
Spinning recommendation: Demon Blood 962H (PE2-4), Saltist in a 6500 or bigger size (keep in mind the larger real you go the more effort it'll feel like when casting all day - go as small as you can safely go would be my 2 cents) with 50lb braid. Some people use wire trace but I prefer a long wind on mono leader around 100lb.
Bottom bashing: A stiff PE4-6 rod in about a 6-7 foot size, 6000+ and up real with plenty of drag power (lock youur drag and hope for the best). I ended up swapping back to 60lb mono main line with a 120lb leader, so much more resistant to damage than braid when you're dragging a fish up the cliff face without a gaff.
As other has said, hooking the fish is the easy part. Landing them is a whole other story. Take a 6m cliff gaff and a rope gaff incase you get something XL size but most fish we just "handlinded" up using gloves (i.e. lay your rod down and grab the line and pull up by hand while someone else reels in the slack as it comes). Be patient with the swell, lots of good fish lost due to rushing it at the cliff face. Wait for the right wave to get the fish onto the ledge. My other tip would be let the palagic fish run before you put the hurt on them, much better trying to get a tired mackie past the sharks than a green one.