Deep drop start up

[boatrower]

Hey guys,

Wanting to get into deep drop fishing for first time, fishing around the 300mt marks and was wondering what would be a good set up for this rod and reel wise. QAlso any tips for off the sunny coast would be awsome.Cheers

[Dignity]

How much do you want to spend, unrealistically you will spend anything from $2k upwards taking into account rod, electric reel, the leaders and hooks etc droppers - you will need some fairly heavy ones, 2 to 4 kg will cover a lot of ground. You could start with second hand gear.Some electric reels can cost you even more if you are that keen. I haven't tried the Sunshine Coast area as it can be a bit difficult to find good areas and those that do have probably invested at least 2 years of searching with very little to show and not too likely to part with locations other than point out in the direction of the sea.

[Out-Station]

Boatrower, just been through the same process whilst in non fishing lockdown. Long time fisho but new to deep drop. I quickly worked out i can spend more on deep drop than i can on gamefishing!! I went with two 2nd hand tanacom 1000's (both fully spooled with 80) and new bet but deep drop mid range rods. Thinking this starter kit will get me in the game down to about 400 and stretch a bit further. Also got myself a few rigs and lights over the net. Made myself some sinker 2kg to 5kg out of solid bar and i'm all good to go. D-day 1770 in a couple of weeks.

It took me three months to procure the reels (gumtree), be warned the good ones go fast!!

Scott

[Dignity]

Then once set up a whole new way of fishing. Look for depth contours that are closer together, you will need to work out direction of drift as when you do drop you keep motoring forward at least as far as it is deep so that the droppers end up where you want otherwise you will miss completely. The skipper generally has to be on the ball keeping the motors running and doing corrections as wind and current can play havoc especially if you have 2 rigs down.
Be aware that there is a lot of weight on the end of your leader even without fish so great care is needed at all times as those hooks will penetrate flesh easily. The small trick that most newbies find hard to come to grips with is that bait sizes need to be small, so many try with large baits and they will be mostly ignored except by green eye sharks. I was telling a mates neighbour about it and on his last trip after only getting the odd fish they ended up with 11 bar cod last weekend and he reckoned it was dropping the bait size down that worked.
You can buy rigs or if confident make them yourself, it works out a lot cheaper.
If you haven't done it before it is worth trying to go out with others first for a few trips.

[boatrower]

Cheers guys. Was looking at the diawa 1000 just not sure what brand of bent butt to get at this stage. Have plenty of lead for the sinkers so will make a mould for them. What would be better for the leading edge, pointed or flat tip? as to stop it from spinning and knotting up on way down.

[Dignity]

A big ball is perfect but all I use is a piece of ally tubing or even water pipe. Just fill it and put a loop of wire in the top mainly as I'm getting time poor (lazy is another term). Wellseys tackle at Kawana has a couple of Garry Howard bent butts although Dinga sell the identical ones but under a different name.

[scottar]

Most of the blokes I know simply use aluminium cans as moulds. The two I know who do it fairly seriously have progressed past rod and reel and onto winches - mainly due to the limitations rod and reel put on the amount of weight that can be fished. A couple of times I have been out with them and we haven't been able to hold bottom with 4.5 - 5kg. Admittedly they are running 200 pound braid as main line to avoid breakages (make sure you run a lighter section of mono for your sinker as a break away) so the lighter line on the rods won't need as much weight.

[Dignity]

Yep, as Scottar mentioned, many, many ways to do deep dropping One thing I intended to mention was that your rod/winch mounts need to be top quality and mounted securely, an enormous amount of pressure is exerted on them and will pull straight out of your coaming.

[scottar]

Yep, as Scottar mentioned, many, many ways to do deep dropping One thing I intended to mention was that your rod/winch mounts need to be top quality and mounted securely, an enormous amount of pressure is exerted on them and will pull straight out of your coaming.

Reckon they should bring back old school Sam . I fished 450 metres once in southern WA on rod and reel. At the time I was using a Penn Senator 4/0 and I reckon when the sinker touched down I had about 20-30 metres of braid left on the spool. I caught a few nannies and was glad I didn't connect with anything that wanted to actually pull string.

[TREVELLY]

Sinker 5kg = 500ml can
4kg = 360ml can
If you're using something like a 1000 Tanacom you will rarely go above 2 to 3kg the above will kill itIMG_20200606_143119.jpgIMG_20200529_163826.jpg

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Ausfish mobile app

[Noelm]

If you know anyone that works building big concrete structures you can get very thick steel bar, I used to be able to get bits cut to length, about 1" diameter and bigger, works a treat, and you don't have to scrounge lead, just weld a loop on it, or drill a hole in one end, old window sash weights are used too, but hard to find now, just about everyone deep fishes here now, it's common to see a dozen boats on the grounds.

[Dignity]

Reckon they should bring back old school Sam . I fished 450 metres once in southern WA on rod and reel. At the time I was using a Penn Senator 4/0 and I reckon when the sinker touched down I had about 20-30 metres of braid left on the spool. I caught a few nannies and was glad I didn't connect with anything that wanted to actually pull string.

Did it once in just under 300 m and that was bad enough, pulled a double of 70 cm pearlies a couple of times out of 125 m on a venom rod and TLD 25, i think that was just as bad and it was about then I decided that electrics was the next step. With bad bursitis in my shoulders it may be all I'll be using for a while.

[Dignity]

If you know anyone that works building big concrete structures you can get very thick steel bar, I used to be able to get bits cut to length, about 1" diameter and bigger, works a treat, and you don't have to scrounge lead, just weld a loop on it, or drill a hole in one end, old window sash weights are used too, but hard to find now, just about everyone deep fishes here now, it's common to see a dozen boats on the grounds.

A bit of heatshrink on the reo helps protect the boat. Yes, it is getting harder to get those items.

[Dignity]

Sinker 5kg = 500ml can
4kg = 360ml can
If you're using something like a 1000 Tanacom you will rarely go above 2 to 3kg the above will kill itIMG_20200606_143119.jpgIMG_20200529_163826.jpg

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Ausfish mobile app

Add 3 or 4 bar cod at 11kg each or even one at 30 to 50 kg and the reels will be going into overload mode. I used to make my own droppers and started with a 6 hook rig, soon downgraded to 4 and often only 3.

[blacklab]

I couldn't find any photo's, BUT, best thing you can use, as I used to, were old double hung window weights. Go round to your local second hand dealer, they usually have hundreds sitting out back, various weights and sizes, they have the line loop already attached. They are lead and shaped like a tube, which is how they sat in the window frame cavity. You can usually pick them up for $15 a pair, perfect !!!.
I was lucky, I used to re-cord the old double hung windows doing my trade, so didn't have to pay for them, they work real good for the deep dropping we used to do back home...... HTH

Col