Quality gear !!

[nomad]

Could we have a topic on "Good, Quality," fishing gear. I would like to have an "unbiased" view on gear like - rods, reels, fishing line (braid, mono, ect), baits, or anything fishing. Please make it "unbiased", so as we all can learn from the experience of others. Personal experience is what I am after. I have just bought some Shakespeare rods and reels (I got them very cheap) and friends have told me I waisted my money, but they do a great job for me. With your replys could you also give "reasons" for your answers. Thanks -- Nomad.

[spinner]

Hey Nomad,
I can remember when Shakespear had the most popular spin reel on the market. I think they were the 2400 series. They had an oiled felt drag and a metal spool and body with a colour scheme very similar to Shimano`s Stellar series. A lot of sportsfishermen liked them because they had such a good drag.A lot of good spin reels still use an oiled felt drag.I`ve got 3 Shakespear rods that I`ve had for many years now and they are still going strong.

[Outsider]

My advice is more about the where rather than the what.

Stick with the big names and the proven models tried and tested by other Ausfishers on here.

Like everything, in fishing you get what you pay for, but you can really save some $$$ with a little effort.

Shop around. For general duties the A, the Camp and the K type marts stock some good brands like Plano, Halco, shimano, abu etc etc at good prices. Some of the lower spec gear can be a bit dodgy.

Or if you're willing to purchase off the net (either from Aust shops and especially from the States) either on ebay or online stores you may find the savings justify the wait and the risk.

Do your homework before you rush out and buy something.

[NeilD]

Shakespeare have put out some pretty good reels in their time. You generally get what you pay for, however even the moderate - low priced equipement available today is significantly better than more expensive gear from a few years back. Give your gear a go, look after it and if it lets you down you can buy something a bit better.

Neil

[Cheech]

This is a very good topic. Is easy to be sidetracked with what you currently use and have bias towards.

I have a couple of lower quality reels that I have thrown away. But then I have a couple of similar that are still serving very well.

The difference is when I discovered the appropriate maintenance. So I trashed a 70 dollar reel, but have a 30 dollar reel that I bought for my son that is still performing faultlessly.

For myself, I pretty much just buy Shimano reels. They have proven track record, and if you look after them they are very reliable. Though what I now consider cheap has changed. Under $200.00 is now my yardstick.

Rods are interesting. I am less particular as most of any reasonable quality rods are pretty good. I have a lot of ugly sticks and they seem great to me. I also have a couple of Shimano rods and they also seem really good. Again, I always look after them well and keep them as new . This really does make all the difference.

My preference if money was not an issue would still be with Shimano reels, and probably live fibre rods. But very happy with the above.

Cheech

[beatle]

Recently spent a few hours at the Aussie Fishing Park at Bli Bli on the Sunshine Coast. The tackle shop at the park hires out rods and reels to the tourists, school groups and whoever wants to fish. The fellow at the tackle shop told me they have found that Shakespeare reels were the best and most reliable reels they have used and they have hundreds of eggbeaters there for hire all in excellent condition.-Beatle [smiley=beatnik.gif] [smiley=beatnik.gif]

[damons33]

you speak of the old "ambidex" series they came in a blue(saltwater) or tanny(freshwater) look both had polished ally spools , they where classic reels in their day some 25/30 years ago, they then made the "sigma" which also where top line reels- in there day- but they moved the manufacturing to china and started reducing material outlay on the reels using plastic spools in the smaller units- ie the 025,035,040 and 050.
which still made them ok for the average punter- but not for the "leet" light tackle man. another e.g would be the old b'n'g series diawas' or the triton reels in shimano's(remember shimano was into pushbikes not fishing gear). mitchels(spelling is an "issue" here!) had top quality eggbeaters,etc, etc, etc!(thx ul briner!).
so you want to know if you wasted money? only you know that and you say they do a top job! so you have the answer there already in your "own" words- what it is, maybe? is that you cant understand why somebody else spends $1000 on a same size reel as what you bought for fiddy dollars!
so i'll cut to the chase and tell you this! that same size reel won't imploded under the "sustained"(hmmmmm,subliminal marketing ) load of a 10kg longtail for 3hours on 4kg for a "stella" capture by the angler!.
give me your reel and i will destroy it in a couple of fish(if i'm lucky!). i think that a $120 would be bottom line for a new eggbeater for say 1 to 3kg line classes and $15 for the line! and the rod you could spend around $50. thats for somebody who fishes regular "for sport". if your a pensioner looking for a feed, cause you spent all ya' money in pokeys! use a handline!
:-* ::) :-*
if you are poor family man, who is finding it tough to put a rod in ya' kids' hand. look for quality second hand stuff that is durable and can go thru the hands of all of lil' jimmys 7 brothers!- like say an alvey reel(the old quality fiberglass ones! ie-600a estuary champion).
look i dont want to tread on peoples toes! ::)
but,its not a fair thing to "bait" people("duress" is that the word i'm thinking of?) into exposing their lack of knowledge about the topic or to exposed the "bigotted" characters of the "know it all" variety! lol.

little wonder mackmauler keeps it short n' to the point!(point lookout that is!) haha.
i got a custom rod for $120 and a sutain 2500 for $350 odd at the boat show. i use platapus line
damon ps. this is not a "product endorsement"

[bignick]

I agree with a lot of what has already been said. You pay for what you get and you get what you pay for. You can't realistically go to K-Mart and buy a $30 spinning reel and then whinge when it gets turned inside-out by a big Cobia. I burned out a spinning reel in 4 weeks at the Cocos Islands catching monsterous GT's spinning off the jetty; the reel was absolutely cactus with not a saveable bit inside it. The cheaper stuff is fine for kids or for chasing Bream or Whiting off the bank. But, if you want to get serious and chase bigger fish or fish more often, then you've got to buy better, more robust gear. There's no point skimping on the very thing that decides whether or not you land a hooked fish. Why buy and destroy 8 reels at $50 each when you could have bought 1 for $150 and never had a problem. Some people will also have the nice boat, the good rod and reel and everything else and use the cheapest line they can find or the cheapest, nastiest hooks on the market. Some people are just like that, I suppose. Sticking with the bigger brands is usually OK, but don't completely discount some lessser-known brands either. If a brand name is unfamiliar to you, check them out on the Web, speak to other stockists or, even better, speak to people who use that brand and get their honest opinion. For example, I like Shimano products, but I think they are out of control with their pricing. So, I shopped around and came across the OKUMA brand and did all of the afforementioned things and they looked good, and they had a 5-year warranty, which very few, if any, other manufacturers offer. Got some at the right price early on and gave them a try and I could not be happier with their performance. I am now getting into their big lever drag reels; they look good, they feel good, they have the standard Okuma 5-year warranty and they are priced such that I can buy 2 Okumas, fill them both up with 24kg Platypus Pre-Test and take wife and I out for a nice dinner and still come in nicely under the price of the equivalent Shimano. I can't wait to hook up a big Wahoo and see how they go!!

Cheers,
BIGNICK.

[Heath]

It also has a lot to do with the perception of quality.

Just look at the thread a while back about Livefibre's

I think a lot of the gear on the market these days is just on par with each other.

I have $60.00 Butterworth rods that IMO peform better than rods 3 times the price. I also have a Tiagra 20 which is the smoothest & most reliable reel that I own & no doubt the most expensive.

Price is not always the sole indicator of quaility and looking around will often find you something of comparable quality for a lower price.

There is also difference in quality within the same product range. We went through 4 Ugstiks before getting a good one. Had them last a week each except for the last 2 which I rejected there n then in the shop ( all 4 had cracked runners ). The ones we have now are around 3 - 4 year old with no issues. Baitrunners are another example. Gimme the old model with the preset front drag anyday over the current A & B models. The new ones might be smoother, but there is no comparison when it comes to the drag. The older ones beat them hands down.

All our reels are shimano with the exception of 1 Penn. That being a 245LD (45GLS), it is just as reliable as any of the shimanos and up until recently $100.00 cheaper. The 2 people I knew with Okuma's sold them when they started to rust. Overhead models as well.

Mono - We refuse to buy name brand mono. For about $40.00 for 500m it would cost a small fortune. Bulk line by weight & it is just as good as anything we've used on the market & at around $5.00 per spool up is excellent quality.

Braid - When I first decided to try it, I went for the most expensive brand I could find at the cheapest price. Spiderwire Stealth is what I use & am very impressed with it. Even if you paid RRP for it you would be happy with it.

Hooks, well we go through so many I again buy cheaper ones. Gamakatsu 8/0 Octopus pattern for example will set you back about $6.00 for 8 hooks?? I buy a no name brand in bulk lots of 200 for around $7.00. Just as good & reliable. So I would call that excellent quality..... that it except for the odd blunt one :-[

What I'm trying to say is that price nor name is any indication of quality. But there certainly are some excellent products out there that don't cost an arm & are probly just as good if not better quality.

[bignick]

Another point that is worth considering in this discussion is the fact that, whilst this may be debatable, many of the so-called "BIG NAMES" in the fishing media would get a hell of a lot of their gear either given to them in the form of sponsorship in exchange for advertising, or they would have to pay a token price that would be way under what the average bloke in the street would have to pay; and then they would be able to write most, if not all, of that off in tax. I'm not crying foul; that's just the way it is and good luck to 'em if they can get paid to do what they love. All I'm saying is that just because you see Mr. Superfisherman on TV catching all these fish with rod and reel brand "XYZ", don't fall over yourself rushing down to your local tackle shop to buy the same gear because you are going to pay a hell of a lot more for it than he ever would. We all see Rex Hunt catching these good fish on the "Rex Hunt Combo's" he flogs through K-Mart but we never see the effects such fishing has on that gear over an extended period. He can throw the gear away if it's cactus after 1 fishing trip, but you and I would be stuck with it. By the way, those 8 or 9 minute segments on catching Barra up North that have us believing that they literally jump into the boat actually take 3 or 4 days to shoot, then they are edited to make good footage for television.

Cheers,
BIGNICK.