[Emre]

I need your advice regarding the spinning rod & reels and try to summarize the conditions how I'm angling... Last time I was fishing in the midnight and there was many seabass attacks on the surface to the groups of atherine & grey mullet fish. Then I started casting with my Rover 98 and cought one which was not a real seabass in terms of length, it was shorter than 40cm and released...By the way how do you call the small Seabass in U.K? Then I had a very good hit on Maria SW white holo but I could not land the fish which must have been more than 7-8 pounds and I lost the fight... Because I dont feel comfortable with my Shimano Catana 270MHTX rod. Its nice, no problem so far but I dont believe that its powerful enough to land bigger sea bass like more than 7-8 pounds (3,5-4kg). Thats why I'm looking for a powerful (unbreakable:wink spinning rod whom I can rely on during fishing & fighting against big seabass. As you know that confidence is quite important for saltwater spinning. Also the rod should be light, around 200grs and must have a closed length of max 110cm. Otherwise I can not put it to my car trunk. There is also a limit of my pocket that I can effort for a new spinning rod currently. It should not be more than 50-60£ (approx 70 USD). I know that there are many nice rods on the market, especially Shimano Lesath, Game AR-C, Tengryu etc. But also some nice and cheap and powerful rods such as Cormoran Bullfighter, Lineaeffe, Shakeaspeare ugly stik etc. For the reel, I've a catana 4000 FA and I'm quite satisfied with it. But I'm looking for a better reel too. I like the shimano exage 3000 and stradic GTM 3000. Especially that of Stradic it has a line retrieve of 90cm and has almost every features that Shimano offers for its new generation reels. Recently I found also sahara, symetre and sienna... I like to use 0.18mm braided lines & 0.25 mono (trabucco t-force spinning) on my reels as a side note...Not sure whether I should use FC leaders but will give a try soon. Thanks in advance for your valuable advices.

 

[Dave Irving]

Emre,
Good news is that your rod should be fine for sea bass even to 4kg+, Just set the drag on your reel to just over 0.5kg. And let the bass run, keep in contact (ie the rod bent), and after a couple of runs. You should be able to land the bass easily. Just take your time, with the bigger bass. If you rush, that is when you tend to lose the fish.
Shimano Exage is a good reel for the money, but I would go for the 4000 size, as it will balance your 2.7m rod better than the 3000 size.

 

[Emre]

Emre,
Good news is that your rod should be fine for sea bass even to 4kg+, Just set the drag on your reel to just over 0.5kg. And let the bass run, keep in contact (ie the rod bent), and after a couple of runs. You should be able to land the bass easily. Just take your time, with the bigger bass. If you rush, that is when you tend to lose the fish.
Shimano Exage is a good reel for the money, but I would go for the 4000 size, as it will balance your 2.7m rod better than the 3000 size.

But the rod is a telescopic one and a friend of mine had broken it just in the middle while trying to land a blue-fish (6-7 pounds). After that I lost my confident on it...
For drag setting, actually that night I tried the drag setting for the first time and I think that I opened it up too much.This was another reason why I could not land the fish. Do you think that its really necessary for each round of casting?
Thanks for the reel advice as I'm confused a lot. My current setup has the same weight approx 550grs. Its fine for now not tiring much. But would prefer lighter setup. 210 rod + 3000 reel?

 

[Dave Irving]

A bluefish of 6-7 pounds is a much harder fighting fish than a bass would be. But the same thing is true for bluefish and bass, if you pull too hard or set too much drag, you will lose them 90% of the time, or as your friend found out. If you set too much drag while using braid then you can break the rod.
Keep the drags light 0.5-0.75 of a kilo, and let the fish run (and wear it's self out). If the fish moves to the right of you, lean the rod to your left. If the fish moves to the left of you lean the rod to your right. If there isn't too much rough ground (rocks/reef) then lean the rod over until it is horizontal. By doing this you can control what the fish does. All the time your drag will be wearing the fish down.
Honestly, a more powerful rod won't help if you hook a big bass (or bluefish),
To give you an idea, I fish with a 2.85meter rod which casts up to 30g, and a daiwa 3000 reel (same size as the shimano 4000). This set up is more than powerful enough to handle bass/bluefish to 5kg.

 

[Dave Bennett]

Hi Emre on a budget if i was you i would get a savage gear bushwacker rod and a Italia fishing aluspin4011 reel. Fantastic bits of kit for the money Emre

 

[Emre]

A bluefish of 6-7 pounds is a much harder fighting fish than a bass would be. But the same thing is true for bluefish and bass, if you pull too hard or set too much drag, you will lose them 90% of the time, or as your friend found out. If you set too much drag while using braid then you can break the rod.
Keep the drags light 0.5-0.75 of a kilo, and let the fish run (and wear it's self out). If the fish moves to the right of you, lean the rod to your left. If the fish moves to the left of you lean the rod to your right. If there isn't too much rough ground (rocks/reef) then lean the rod over until it is horizontal. By doing this you can control what the fish does. All the time your drag will be wearing the fish down.
Honestly, a more powerful rod won't help if you hook a big bass (or bluefish),
To give you an idea, I fish with a 2.85meter rod which casts up to 30g, and a daiwa 3000 reel (same size as the shimano 4000). This set up is more than powerful enough to handle bass/bluefish to 5kg.

Thanks Dave. I'll keep all these in mind. Hope I'll meet the same size bass next time when I go fishing & lets see if I can land the monster...
One more thing just came to my mind now is that the Maria chase SW lure has a very big treble. I think that they are number 3. That big bass that night managed to save himself after shaking head many times & when I try to lift up the rod bam! he was gone. Then blaimed the big trebles of the lure...

 

[Emre]

Hi Emre on a budget if i was you i would get a savage gear bushwacker rod and a Italia fishing aluspin4011 reel. Fantastic bits of kit for the money Emre

Checking right away...Thanks Dave.

 

[Dave Irving]

I wouldn't worry too much about the treble, just make sure that they are really sharp. Then the bass will pretty much hook it's self.
Good luck with the bass (and bluefish - a favourate of mine), and when you get a good one-show us all on here a photo or two.

 

[Dr.Thomas k]

did you have a look in the classifieds "for sale" section of the board already, Emre?

Cheers
Thomas

 

[Andy K]

Sounds like you could do with some helpful person with a landing net and also able to fish too Emre. Gimme a holler if you want some help

Seriously tho, I have Shimano 300H (new rod coming next week tho ) along with another Shimano Exage 330H. Both are extremely strong rods and take a lot more than you would think. But as Dave said, keep that clutch set properly and your rod will do what its made to do and not snap like your friends did.

Good luck with the bass and blues too.