swains reef soft plastics setup.

[hooknpull]

hey guys, heading out to the swains this september for the 3rd time but want to give soft plastics a go this time round. does anyone on here know what rod/reel should be needed to turn the heads of those yummy coral trouts and maybe even red emperor? thanks
aaron.

[nickstock]

First of all you have to understand that you may encounter fish that you will not be able to stop on P.E 10 gear so don't be to alarmed when you loose a fish.

With this in mind, to target Reds, Trout and Spangled's you should not need anything more then a nice 6'6 15kilo Spin rod loaded with 50 lb Braid. The reel should have at least 7 - 10 kilos of drag and I like to use either 55lb or 70 lb Schneider Pink for leader.

You could beef this combo up and you may land the odd fish more however if you are only using plastics, a combo that if to heavy in physical weight is a pain it the arse.

The Tropic Angler range by Steve in Bundy are absolutely bullet proof for deep water plasticing and accounted for most of our Reds last trip.

Nick

[Horse]

I'm in the same boat heading to the reef in September and I'm looking for a heavy plastics rod that can double as a med spin/popper rod. I was looking at a Stradic 8000 matched to something like a
T-curve 10-15 spin
Fin-nor Ahab 10-15
Nitro Godzilla
Monstermesh ct762h
Loomis Problue BBR844s
I have used none of them and am very interested in the responses you get. The Nitro seems to be the better option if you want to chuck plastics around the reef edges and on top off bombies as it casts down to 28gms.

[diabolical]

Im off to Swains next month and the rod I already had and will take is a
Shimano Lucanus Jig Spin 6'6" pe 2-3(2-4 in the latest catalogue)60-200gr jig weight.
It is very light and will sling a 3/8oz plastic quite well.
This rod is not unlike the MMesh which I looked at too, the shorter butt suited me better on the shimano.

Stuff taking plastics to Swains.........bucktail jigs are cheaper in the long run.

[Spot82]

I'm in the same boat heading to the reef in September and I'm looking for a heavy plastics rod that can double as a med spin/popper rod. I was looking at a Stradic 8000 matched to something like a
T-curve 10-15 spin
Fin-nor Ahab 10-15
Nitro Godzilla
Monstermesh ct762h
Loomis Problue BBR844s
I have used none of them and am very interested in the responses you get. The Nitro seems to be the better option if you want to chuck plastics around the reef edges and on top off bombies as it casts down to 28gms.

I have the Loomis Problue PBR844s and PBR843s and both are great rods, the 12-25lb version is what I used to use for heavier plastic'ing in 30-60m matched with a Stella 6000 (equivalent to the new SW8000), good combo and well balanced and plenty of grunt. I would probably go the 843 as it is a bit softer in the tip but still has heaps of grunt. Now have matched it with a 8000D Baitrunner and this should be a great combo.

I have recently also got a custom built "Bay Master Pro" by Gary Howard 7' 8-15kg and 30-90gram lure weight. Haven't used it as yet but it is a very nice rod, similar action to the loomis' with much better guides. Probly a bit heavy for typical plastic fishing for your bay squappers but be good for swains and more heavy duty battles with old man snapper.

Other combo i have for plastic'ing is a Gary Howard custom built ATC built on a Bobby Loomis blank, 15-30lb but much lighter rod than the other mentioned. Bit more finess than the other 3 rods but still good grunt if it is needed. This is matched to a JDM SW6000 Stella, awesome lightweight combo I have managed to pull 3kg coral coral trout out of 8m of water and a 5kg red sculled out of 60m to beat the sharks on this but the rod was at its limits and you would have to be careful about high sticking it. Looking forward to testing it on some big snapper this winter though.

Anthony

[SWANO1]

went for the first time last year and cleaned up on plastics using a quantum catalyst 40ptsb thats got 9.1 kgs drag for only 352grams of weight on a rovex carbon tec 30lb 7footer . caught some great rte , trout and a 13kg GT with no problems at all. (see video)



Horse the ahabs are a great blank , i have most of the range if you would like to have a gander
cheers swano

[dan204]

I have to agree with Anthony there, the Gary Howard would most likely be the MB705, a heavy action rod with plenty of stopping power.
All my heavy plastics are done with my Egrell's for big barra and snapper, the egrell s10 with Twinpower 10000 wih saltiga 30lb sensor braid will stop most leviathans. If not my Bear S10H with Sustain 6000 with 30lb Bionic(42lb test) will get a work out.
Have a look at th BeaR Metal and BeaR Essential as well.