Advice wanted on gear for spotties.

[theoldlegend]

Following my spectacular(?) succes with my first (very small)spanish last November, I've developed a phobia for casting for spotties and schoolies.

Normally I would consult my consultant, but my consultant is probably right at this moment gorging on chilli mud crab as we speak. :(

And I'm not there. >:(

Anyway, I've come up with the following suggestions;

(a) a fast taper 120 4W 4-6 kgs that can throw a lure in the 45 grams class

(b) a fast taper 120 5W 6-10 kgs that can throw a lure in the 60 grams class.

I was thinking that this should be matched to a Shimano BTR 6500 high speed reel with say 9 kg Platypus Platinum mono.

Am I on the right track?

TOL

[mattooty]

I dont do alot of casting for spots, but id be guessing that the (B) option rod would be your best bet in case a bait ball being smashed by spottys turned out to be a bait ball being smashed by spaniards.
And the reel and line sounds perfect
Matt

[SeaSaw]

Go braid instead of mono (20lb is a good choice) ;) You will be able to cast further with the braid, which helps if you can't get in too close to the schools :)

Mark

[Tony_N]

I have a 6500 and I didn't think it was particularly fast. 4.2:1 is a fairly pedestrian pace I reckon. Unless there is a new one out that is faster? My preference ( here he goes again!!) is for the Daiwa Emblem Pro 5500(5.1:1, retrieve speed/crank = 122cms. A cheaper option is the Shimano speedmaster TSS4 (5.8:1) which so many people on this site speak so well of (very fast, very reliable, but a fairly rough diamond). agnes_jack had some of these on special not so long ago - they are being phased out, apparently.

I have my Emblem Pro (with 20lb fireline) on a 8ft 8-10 kg live fibre. This is a fairly soft rod - but it casts very well. The reel holds roughly half a kilometre of20lb fireline so even if you get hold of a decent tuna you have a good show of getting it in, even on the relatively soft rod.

FWIW

Tony

Another thing to consider is that the 6500 carries two drag systems and weighs 870 grams (emblem Pro is 690grams, TSS4 probably lighter still) This is a seriously heavy threadline and you would get very tired casting it all day and it would be hard to find a spinning rod that will give any balanced "feel" to the outfit. I really like my BR but it is much better suited to floatlining than to spinning for mackerel IMO

[billfisher]

The TSS4 I would highly recommend. The fast retrieve will get you extra hits on any pelagic and its a very rugged and reliable reel.
9kg mono will cut you casting distance down with the lighter lures. I use the fine monos for this sort of fishing eg: Platypus Super 100, Schnider Fine or Siglon line.

[philip_thomson]

i have a baitrunner for spinning but it is so so slow (36inchs/turn). it is also a very heavy reel so at the end of a good session your arm is dead.

recently i bought a new outfit stradic 6000 (42inchs/turn) loaded with 6kg platy pink on a gary howard moreton bay spin 6-8kg stick. this is a brilliant outfit, its lite, high speed, smooth as a ... good drag system however costs twice that of a tss4.

if you can find a tss4 any were buy that and match it to something like an 8ft 6-8kg live fibre, loaded with 6kg platy pink mono. the reason for pink is that i find it has less stretch than your other monos so your getting less line twists and hopefully less tangles.

if you aren;t able to find any tss4's the okuma Epix (not baitrunner version) is a high speed reel the EFS-50 and EFS-60 are the faster 2 i think.

6kg line is generally sufficent spinning for spotties.

Philip

[revs57]

G'day TOL,

I have a tss4 loaded with 10kg Sufix Matrix pro matched to a 10-15kg penn sport (fast taper) for the job you outline - still yet top really give it a work out but I'm sure it will perform well when the time comes. I reckon the Rovex 7500 bigboss loaded with 15 kg Sufix Matrix pro on the same rod would do the job nicely too (I predominately use that outfit for floatlining), even though it hasn't quite got the retrieval rate of the tss4, it is a very nice outfit to use and performed well on some really tough fish....

Cheers

Rhys

[Robbo_Townsville]

I currently use a Shimano Sahara 4000 and it gets the job done. If I had the dough I think the Stradic would be the way I would go, very smooth no where near the bloody wobbling of the TSS4. Dont get me wrong the TSS4 is a good reel (I had one for ages) but she get a wobble when cranking.

[krazyfisher]

been using a 8kg live fibre and an okuma epix efs-80 1.22mtrs per turn. I run 8kg pre test have no problems with spotties and mac tuna. i have been using this for a bit over 2 yrs with no problems

[theoldlegend]

Thanks for your replies guys. They've certainly given me plenty to think about.

Will start to look at rods first, I think.

Went browsing this arvo to fill in a bit of time and was looking at Platinum line. Asked the young bloke "Have you got any Super 100?" He said "Don't think we've got any 100lb line at the moment". "No mate, it's called Super 100 and it's a bit thinner than the Platinum for the same breaking strain". "Don't think we've ever had that stuff". "Funny that, I got some from here about 3 months ago". " I've only been here a couple of weeks".

Oh well, will just keep browsing.

TOL

[2iar]

Hi TOL,

See my earlier post in the "Braid for Alvey" thread. I picked up some Super 100 at Sundown Marine at a very good price yesterday.

Good luck,
Mike

[MOZ]

TOL

If this years Moreton bay spotty season is anything to go by you might be better off saving your money for a nice whiting outfit!

My wife and I have been spinning up bay spotties for over 20 years and have 6 TSS4s .My 3 boys use them on Ugly sticks and I have a couple of Custom spin rods from a mate who builds them as a hobby but does not market them.

Have used 15 lb Platinum for years and found that it casts reasonably well, is strong enough for any spotty, has caught heaps of 10 to 12 kg longtails with patience! Fits almost 500m on a TSS4 and is cheaper than super 100 etc.

Years ago an old Ryobi reel with 4 to 1 retrieve ratio was fast enough to catch all the spotties you could ever want. But now days if you use a slow reel and someone is using a faster reel beside you they will catch 10 to your 1. ( I have done it!)

Be prepared to lose lots of lures, 15 a day is par! I have been making my own for at least ten years so as to keep that part of the costs down. Now if I could only find a cheap source of good clean unleaded petrol!

MOZ

[theoldlegend]

Thanks Moz,

From reading all the replies, I might be better off reducing the rod length down to the 8 feet mark and having a look at a live fibre. Was originally thinking of 10 feet, but that length can be a bit of a nuisance in a boat.

Need to decide also whether to have a go at making one up from a blank, or just getting one off the shelf. I would be able to get excellent help if I made one up, but commitment (or the lack of it) is my biggest concern.

Also, the wide choice of reels is something I'll have to give a lot of thought to. Something I didn't consider was the weight of the reels, which could be a big factor at the end of the day.

Will keep browsing, I guess. Thank you all again.

TOL

[simonm]

Use the TSS4 and a 6-10kg Live fibre myself, which is a great combo. Definately recommend braid instead of mono especially with the amount of casting you do when chasing spotties. The only negative of the TSS4 is that it isn't the neatest of line layers and can sometimes leave braid in a bit of a mess. Some of the newer high speed spinning reels do a much better job laying the line, but may not have the proven reliability of the old Shimano.

[Tony_N]

..... Some of the newer high speed spinning reels do a much better job laying the line, but may not have the proven reliability of the old Shimano.

I have had my Daiwa Emblem Pro 5500 for a couple of years now and it has done some serious work both off the rocks and outside. I think its a stayer. Smooooth drag, non-lumpy wind, and lays the braid on with a designed pattern that never buries the line on the reel. There is a name for that, but over the last few years names for things seem to elude me more than I'd like to admit. [smiley=blush.gif]

Tony