What Light Tackle To Get????

[Michael Rall]

Hi there. I'm quite a keen fisherman and recently went to Dibba, Oman to fish. I live in Dubai so its not that far. We were taking turns to trawl and pop. Its the first time Ive ever been popping and its was awesome I got a great Barracuda of about 12-15kg and a little GT. We were using light tackle, 10lb line and 105 halco poppers.

Where I'm going with this is. I want to buy some light - medium popping tackle here, but i haven't got a clue where to start. Everywhere i look only talks about the heavy gear. I want to have some fun with the smaller guys before i go for the monsters. The boat I'm working on will probably pay for most of the gear anyway.
So what length and strenght rod should i look for? Reel and line? The brands are very limited here. Penn are one of the bigger brands.

Thanks

[Brandon Khoo]

Mike - it is really difficult for anyone to give you advice unless they know the stores in Dubai and what they stock and there aren't going to be too many of us here in that position!

The strength of the rod you need will be dependent on the class of line you want to fish. Generally, for popping, you will need a rod at least seven feet in length. Not every rod of that length is suitable for popping. The rod must be able to work a popper effectively. Reel - well, you need a reel that is going to be able to handle the class of line you want to fish. For lighter tackle, it isn't so important but as you go up to heavyweight, the choice of reel reduces significantly thr the premium level.

i think you will find that roughly, we regard light popping as being around the PE3-4 class, medium as 4-6, heavy is probably around 8 and extra heavy would be 10-12.

[David Noble]

Hi Mike,

For punching out poppers and getting a good action from them, select a rod with a strong tip to work the poppers effectively.  I guess you've realised that already with the little halco's, though the next size up 135 will make this more apparent.  If you want to buy a brand, then Saltiga do some nice lighter ones, but you dont have to spend top $'s.
Even some cheaper rods will do the job, though go for something with a higher carbon graphite content. 
I have a shimano tcurve bluewater powerspin for the kayak, and it casts small poppers a mile.  I have a Caldia Kix 3000 on it and 15lb.
Depending on what your targeting, you may want a larger reel and spool capacity, but for 10lb you could grab a Daiwa Certate or Shimano Twinpower and a suitable rod, and have a ball.

cheers Dave

[Michael Rall]

Thanks for the help guys

[Andrew Poulos]

Saltiga dorado 80TN + Daiwa Catalina is a sweet combo. Been using mine for a while and its quite comfortable for a long spin session with medium sized poppers e.g halco's.

[Chris Young]

 I have to agree with Andrew on the reel, I also use a Catalina (high speed) with 300m PE4 on it, matched with a Smith GTK-70JP. Its a 7ft PE5 stick ,very light but can pack a considerable punch when called for. Best casting weight for this rod IMHO is between 60-110G, it is rated to 130g but I think I can punch it out a lot harder when not maxed out. Might be a bit heavy for small halco's (30g) but a really nice combo for midsize sticks & poppers & just magic for throwing slugs & lge plastics at tuna.

Cheers Chris

[Jon Li]

With the advance in braiding technology , a PE3 line can be as high as 50+ lbs. in breaking strain and I see very little point in getting a light rod for the purpose of specifically targetting small GT when there are chances the big ones have precense in the same area , Oman is one of the place where many European anglers go for big GTs .

I would be aiming for PE 4~6 rod that can cast 40 gr. lures to a reasonable distance but has enough backbone for the task , should a 30+ kg GT slam your lure . As for brand , there are a lot of them in this catagory and the choice are huge from the reasonably priced to the very best . It's a matter of how much one is willing to pay for a popping outfit .

Jon .