# How many rod/reel combos is right?



## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

As a struggling mortgage paying guy with 2 kids and no spare cash who can't afford to buy new fishing gear every week, I'm constantly amazed at some guys tackle collections and the fact that they continue to buy new rods and reels even though they already have 20 outfits.

So this got me to wondering...For a 'typical' yak fisho - ie one who fishes mainly estuaries and does some limited offshore work, how many outfits (rods/reels) do you consider is enough? What rod weights/reel sizes and line strength do you consider is ideal?

I know theres some out there with the 'he who dies with the most toys wins' theory, but for the majority of us who can't afford to constantly buy new gear, how many rods and reels do you _really_ need?


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## Eberbachl (Jun 21, 2007)

I'm also a struggling mortgage paying guy with 2 kids and no spare cash 

In the last ten years, I've bought five rods, and maybe four reels.

Two of them have been fly rods, the other gear, spinning or baitcasting stuff.

That much is more than adequate for all of my needs


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## FletcherG1991 (Apr 17, 2007)

3, one live baiting/trolling outfit (capable of fishing 30 - 50lb spin or overhead), one medium 5-8kg or so (4000 or equivilent overhead) to have rigged with a metal or bit plastic or something and a light 2-4kg flick stick (1500 - 2500). It depends on what your fishing for mainly but i would think this would cover most situations.

Having said that, I am one of those people that already have 20 different outfits but still buy other ones. I only buy what I know I will use, and whilst I wont use all my rods and reels on the one day, I will certainly have a good 6 - 10 combo's with my at one time, depending on what im chasing (this would be out of the boat). If I go out jigging, I will have 3 - 4 rods rigged up with different jigs (Spin and Overhead), some lighter rods with bait jigs/squid jigs and a heavyer spin rod or 2 with metals/plastics, this would be the minimum I would take. Same thing goes if I am fishing for Jews, Snapper, Kings, Marlin or anything really, it always pays to have rods rigged and ready to go cause when the fish do show up you don't wont to spend time mucking around tieing knots when you could be catching fish.

I know im going to use them, thats why i have that many but realistically the 3 listed above will get you through most of your yak fishing.

Cheers,
Fletcher


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## aleg75 (Dec 20, 2005)

hmmmm I am one of those "he with the most toys wins" type of guys, although I do also have kid and mortgage, but I do like my fishing tackle, I typically double up on most combos, two for each occasion, mainly casue I bait fish and having two lines is normal, and trolling two lines....I guess I could break it down to light, med and heavy gear.......

My esturay and all rounder rod is suited for 6-10lb and matched with a similar reel, 7ft.......if i could only have one rod/reel combo, that would be it!

Ash


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## Gunston (May 10, 2006)

I suppose it's one way to fight child obesity  
I must admit I am addicted to baitcasters, (I've got 6 I think) however the $400+ jobs I can't justify. Do they realy make a difference?
Chris


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## justcrusin (Oct 1, 2006)

Five for me two good pfleuger trion rods with president reels $200 from Mo's a cheap flyrod a kmart boat rod and then have two older rods. Seems to do me but i am looking at a new 7-12 lb overhead probably pflueger for summer hopefully around the $200 mark to replace the kmart cheapy.

Cheers Dave


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## sam dimauro (May 13, 2007)

mate i just did a revamp of all my outfits. i started by selling the old gear and now have 4 spin outfits.

1. dsr8200s g loomis and 1000 twinpower
2. t-curve 2-6kg and 2000 sol
3. t-curve 6-10kg and 4000 twinpower
4. pro blue g loomis and 4500 saltist

i also have rock fishing stuff as well.

i love my fishing and like you i have a mortgage and 4 kids. the secret to buying the gear is to use "she money" - she money is money she doesn't know about.


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

for the record I have 8 outfits and use the following (not all at once!)

6'6" (was 7 foot) 2-4kg rod, 2000 series Shimano Aernos reel, 4lb fireline (light spinning/softplastics)
6' 6" 2-4kg rod, 2500 series Shimano Sienna reel, 6lb fireline (light trolling/spinning/soft plastics)
7 foot 4kg rod, 3000 series Shimano Aernos reel, 10lb fireline (trolling, larger soft plastics)
7 foot 4-6kg rod, 4000 Series Pflueger President Reel, 15lb Fireline (trolling, large soft plastics, livebaits)
6'6" 6-8kg rod, 4000 series Shimano Sienna Reel, 20lb fireline (trolling larger lures, large softplastics, livebaits)
7'6" 8-10 kg rod, Shimano 4500 series Baitrunner, 30lb Fireline (livebaiting, trolling big lures)
5'6" 10-20kg boat rod, 6000 series Okuma Baitrunner, 50lb braid (have never used this on the yak)

I'll probably get one more light outfit 1-3kg rod, 2000 series reel, 6lb line. (Using the N + 1 theory!)

Some of the rods were $40, none were more than $100 and the reels range from $40 to $100 (except the baitrunner which I won). I too can't justify $400 on a reel or rod!


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## turley (May 16, 2006)

I mainly target bream in the salt, bass in the fresh with the occasional trip north or south for cod and barra.

1-3kg black diamnod clear cut spin 6ft' with laguna 1500 2kg braid used out of the kayak in creeks

3-5kg Rack raider spin 6ft 8' with symetry 2500 3kg braid generally used for shore fishing for bream

2-4kg Nitro Crankbait baitcaster'6ft 6' with daiwa cvx-103(soon to be conquest 50) 5kg braid used for impoundment bass

5-8kg baitcast 5ft 8' with daiwa HRF 10-15kg braid for barra, cod and casting slugs and poppers around river mouths.

If I could start again, I would probably have gone for a longer 1-3kg spin rod and gone for a 4-6kg spin rod (instead of 3-5) for casting 20g slugs etc

Hope this helped?!


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## Garfish (Jun 2, 2006)

I'm trying to convince myself that I only really need three quality outfits.

I'm yet to be spooled or busted off by a fish and like to think that my impressive angling skills  will get me through if I have a decent snapper on the other end. I usually up the breaking strain of the leader if I'm fishing for larger species, rather than swapping outfits.

Most of my fishing involves light estuary/bay work...

My outfits are as follows:

1 x Shimano Sedona spooled with 4lbs platypus pretest on a 6 foot shimano spinning rod (2-4kg)
2 x Okuma reels spooled with 6lbs platypus pretest on a 6 foot shimano and 6 foot 6' jarvis walker

3 rods allows me to have two to troll or two in the rod holders, with another pre-rigged with something different for quick access (could be for schooling salmon, float rig for gars etc).

I'd like to upgrade one outfit to something really nice for flicking plastics with... (that's the n+1 principle).

I should also mention that my finace loves fishing and browsing tackle stores as well... I haven't included her two outfits in this email... as one is pink).


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## granpop (Mar 23, 2007)

I am not going near this thread. Have been fishing and collecting for 50 years. I dont want to know & SWMBO doesnt' need to know. Beach rods,HS Spinning Rods/reels, Esturary, fly (lots) bream etc - nope dont want to know.

Cheers

Dave


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## justinp (Jul 9, 2007)

I have two bream outfits, both chopstix custom rods, 2-4k with stella 1000, 2-5k with team daiwa 1500, two bass or small king salmon outfits, penn 2-4 tournament with daiwa sol, shimano 2-6k with team daiwa viento, daiwa 6-12k snapper outfit, rapala 1-6k kingy spin outfit, soon to have blacky outfit too, just dont tell the cheese and kisses.


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## camel (Oct 4, 2005)

I've a newly acquired first mortgage and I'm a soon to be father. So naturally my tackle expenditure has been drastically cut back. I'm finding it very hard to adjust :shock: . 
I build allot of rods and have four on the go at the moment. My wife tells me I have way too many rods......To which I reply, a man can never have to many rods.
I have never thought too much about it till I read this thread. I now embarrassed to say after making a list in my head, she might be right. 

Heres my pre mortgage/baby list of the ones I use the most.

Estuary Kayak spin/baitcast rods

1-2kg Hastings GUSA 6'6"
2-4kg Hastings GUSA 7'
1-5kg Hastings GUSA 7'
2-3kg Samurai S002 6'
4-6kg Strudwick Softbodz 6'6"
4-6kg Samurai S008 7' baitcast
1-3kg Samurai silhouette baitcast
2-4kg Samurai S007 7' 2pc

Beach/Rock rods

Snyder MagBream
Snyder mt4144
Pacific composites ppg surf heavy
Livefiber zmt4144
Livefiber zmt4126
Pacific composites ppg bream
Pacific composites FSU4126G
Diawa Heartland Surf light 12'
Pacific composites BWS 275-4

Fly

Temple Fork 4wt
Temple fork 6wt

As to DaveyG's question what you'd really need for estuary and occasional light offshore Kayak fishing. I'd have four maybe five outfits I couldn't part with.

Cheers

Anthony


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## Dave73 (Dec 3, 2006)

In leiu of the fact that my immenent mortgage repayments will start in 4 weeks time :shock: 
I'm buying as much tackle now as possilble (maybe a kayak also)...

Currently have..

Daiwa Procaster X, Penn Spinfishier 4400
T-Curve Powerspin 5-10kg, Caldia Kix 3000
Ugly Stick 7' custom 7-13kg o'head, Daiwa Sealine X 20SHV
Nitro Godzilla, Baitrunner 6500
Silstar Powertip 8kg 6'6", Shimano TSS4
Daiwa Saltist 8/10 jig rod, Spheros 14000

Viva 9ft spin rod
Ugly stick 5'6" boat rod
Live fibre 10ft 8-10kg spin
TCurve Bluewater spin 10-15kg 
Japanese Smith WRC80p/35 popper rod (on order, any day now)
Saltiga 80TN popper rod (pick up this weekend)
Few crap general rods

Penn Squidder o'head reel (my Dad's, old school, sweet!)
Shimano Twinpower 8000 (on order)

Next on the list would be a Nitro Magnum Butt spin, and maybe another reel also.
I also think I need a nice light finesse outfit.

ps, where can you sell tackle if you have to? I'm a bit worried about this mortgage.... 

Dave


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## SharkNett (Feb 20, 2006)

I would say 
Couple light (1-3kg) and couple medium outfits (4-6kg) for the estuary. These can also double for ultrlight to medium snapper/pelagic fun.
Couple heavier outfits. 1 or 2 heavyish spin (8-15kg) to tackle kings/jew etc and maybe a lever drag with 15kg or 24kg if you want to chase bigger fish.

This in no way however explains my collection which just seems to keep growing. I could argue that my eyesight deteriorating is a good thing since I have not built any more rods and therefore don't need reels to go on them. Could go see an optometrist I suppose.



Dave73 said:


> ps, where can you sell tackle if you have to? I'm a bit worried about this mortgage....


viewforum.php?f=6

We'll make sure you get a decent price, honest. :twisted: :lol:

Rob.


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## justcrusin (Oct 1, 2006)

> I tend to go pretty cheap w.r.t gear, but replace reasonably regularly (except the alvey, which is almost as old as I am). I'm gradually clawing up the 'quality' chart trying to find the best dollar/longevity tradeoff for the way I fish & tend to treat my equipment. 100 bucks for a reel, and slightly less for a rod, seems to be the sort of dollar amount I usually spend.


Red try the pflueger gear, I got my first one after i snapped the cheapy rod at barlings so far it has caught bigger fish than the old rod. I started with a catera reel but it was pretty S*&^thouse and is relagated to my gulp sandworm rod dragging behind me but i replaced that with a pfleuger president spinning reel 6730 and its a great outfit has handled anything i through at it so far, the rods go for $99 dollar mark some places have them for more but hang out they regularly come up at this price and the president reels go for $89 if you include postage from somewhere like mo's puts them just over the $200 mark for the combo. 
The dropshots look OK too for $99

Cheers Dave


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## slider65 (Feb 9, 2007)

At last count i had over 25 outfits ranging from 1kg flick rods to custom 25kg plug rod both spinning and overhead and 5 fly rods. The main thing with my collection is i have always bought the best quality i could even if it ment saving up for 6-8 months and make sure they are maintained and all are stored in racks in hard travel covers. And some of my outfits that i still use today are 20+ years old this goes for reels also, all my reels get cleaned and stripped after every use, and the ones that haven't been used still get stripped and cleaned and oiled every couple of months.
The old saying of always buy the best you can has worked for me as i have spent the time maintaining them all and they have served me well and also as the missus and kids get more into fishing i pass the gear on to them to use.


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