Shore based GT popper style fishing?????

[Neville Haglund]

Hey Nathan,Merry Xmas mate.
Any chance of you giving me an update on exactly what your land based set up consists of,reel rod etc.There are a few places I intend going to where a land based set up would be a good idea not to mention taking the costs of a charter out!!!.
You are so Lucky having GT'S on your door step.I have to get on a plane and fly 3hrs due  North or 5hrs Nth Nth West.

[John-Pierre Nicholls]

Hi Nathan
How do you find casting lures on a overhead reel using braid ? I have done a lot of shore based GT popping , but with nylon on my overhead reels.
 I also agree with the casting distance being longer than with a spinning outfit , but , I haven't mastered the casting of braided line on a overhead reel . For me the braid tends to loosen itself after a couple of casts and then a BIG mess in the line tends to follow. What is the secret ?

cheers
JP

[Gary Krol]

slightly off topic but how have you liked that new Saltiga? 

[dante green]

It seems that it is practically impossible to find a 9ft (no more and no less) heavy duty popping rod for shore

Anyone here know of any other 9ft rods? 

[Sydney Neal]

I have a EP 90/37 ICBM on order its nine foot but more for casting sticks and it ain't no heavy duty rod, 8foot6 is probably it in a heavy duty rod and my fisherman big game 86rs is a serious bit of kit that can flog a heavy popper out there and make them pop

[dante green]

The specs I've been looking for is:

-  length :  9ft

-  line :  pe8 - pe12

-  lure:  120 - 200gr

Just straight up brute force of a rod.  I wish fisherman had that BG in a 9 footer with the same specs as the 86



cheers.

D

[Sydney Neal]

Nathan what blank would be suitable to cut down to a serious 9 footer

[Nathan Tsao]

Wow, hunting for a 9ft BG Jack is kind of a tough one! I dont really know of any 9' blank that is exactly in the same idea range of the BG Jack. There are 2 broken BG Jack's sitting against my wall, with another 2 waiting to be re-wrapped for my friend Vinh. Handling them now, i really cant think of a 9' (no more, no less) that can accurately be compared with these. 

Does the blank in question need to be a 2 piece rod? If you are OK with a 1 piece rod , then a good one to look at would be a Calstar GF 900H. The blank is rated up to 80lb Mono, which puts the braided line rating at about 100lb or PE8. The Clastar GF series is a blank that transitions from an all graphite butt section towards an all E-glass section at the tip of the rod. The tip "glass" section of the 900H is only about 18inces long, making the rod very stiff while still useable. I have owned the GF800L and GF900M, but not the 900H, as it was too much rod for the striped bass i was targeting at the time. If you were to cut 2" off the tip of the 900H, i think you'd have a rod pretty close to what you are looking for; just a face ripping meat hammer! They are an excellent blank with one of the best reputations for durability in the market. I'm not sure the availability of Calstar Blanks down in AUS though, do they distribute them over there?

If you can be a little flexible on length, then the United Comp 100XXH2-J would be another one to look at. You could cut down the butt joint section maybe as much as 8-10 inches, then trim another inch (maaaaybe 2) off the tip, and you'd have a rod somewhere in the 9'6" range. *The 100 series blanks come in at somewhere between 10'4" and 10'6"*. Myself and a few others that own this blank can all tell you that it is a MONSTER of a shoreline rod. with the modifications mentioned above, it would easily be more powerful than the Patriot Design Rockfist. As an unmodified stock blank the 100XXH and the Rockfist XTX blank are extremely close in feel with the UC being a tad stiffer.

Hope this helps somehow, please let me know if you do find a 9' blank/rod that is comparable to the BG Jack, as i have a few customers who would line up for one!
Aloha!


 

[Mark Harris]

I am hurting even thinking about trying to handle a 9 ft BG Jack type rod! 

[Brandon Khoo]

I'm not sure how many anglers on this earth could hold onto a rod like that under heavy drag!!

[Nathan Tsao]

Once you set the hook, you find a place to jam your leg or hip or feet or whole body into a lava rock and hold on for dear life until the fish turns or you break line. Fishing with heavy drag from the lava rocks forces you to use the terrain as much as you can to your advantage. If you've got a few good rocks, you can apply more pressure to a fish from the land than you can from a boat. Then once it turns, that fish can absolutely not take drag again or its all over. Often times it becomes a foot scramble between rocks to keep the best pressure on the fish. Stick and move, stick and move, is the only way to get the job done.
It just sucks when you get reefed and end up flying backwards ass over tea kettle onto sharp lava, always ending up bloody and bandaged during the year at some point!

[Mark Harris]

Huge respect to you Nathan.. really.

[Brandon Khoo]

Now that is extreme fishing!

[Trevor Skinner]

Huge amounts of respect.

I feel like a real wuss now......'why hasn't this boat got a cappuccino maker?' is my idea of roughing it.

Regards,


Trevor

[Vinh Nguyen]

The United Composites 100XXH is a beast of a rod, it'll cast a 200g+ popper a mile and have enough power to work a big cup popper properly.  I'd say its a 10ft pe10-12 rod.  Nate trimmed my UC down a bit, the butt section is really long so trimming it to shorten your swing during casting is ideal.  I foul hooked a GT that was about 35lbs range from the rocks and it didn't tap into the power section of the UC, very strong rod.  Only downfall, if you want to look at that way, is the UC is a 10ft butt jointed rod so transporting it will be challenging.

Again, another option would be the Patriot Design Rockfist.  At 11ft and 70/30 joint it's a little easier to transport.  I think the Rockfist has a slightly fast action tip than the UC.  But they're close down low in power.  I've only handled the Rockfist blank at the moment until Nate finish wrapping it for me, so I can't give you a side by side comparison.  Though I don't plan on having to 2 heavy shore rods, my plan for the Rockfist is to keep at 11ft and use it to throw slightly smaller lures and utilize the 11ft to clear areas that needs to clear some distance.

Another option, and an impossible one, is the MC Works Raging Bull 938XX, 9ft 3in, pe10, the only butt jointed rod and strongest of the Raging Bull series.  Probably the lightest (weight wise) of the group.  Only downfall is actually finding one.  EXTREMELY hard to find, even in Japan.  Good luck