Inshore Outfit Advice

[Peter Finnis]

Hello all.

I need to equip myself with an inshore outfit for my next trip to Jardines De La Reina in Cuba. This will be complementing my fly gear so space is an issue. Target species include Crevalle, Snapper and Cuda upto the 15kg class (although bigger stuff are always possible) in water upto 5m deep over inshore coral reefs. I need it to include a travel rod. After much initial research, I'm thinking along the following lines:

Rod - Shimano Caranx Kaibutsu Light Pleasure STC 100g casting
Reel/Line - Shimano Saragosa 8000 SW with PE4 Braid
Leader - 80lb Mono plus same strength single strand titanium wire bite piece if necessary
Lures - A range of poppers and floating stickbaits in the 40g to 80g size range

I am committed to absolutely none of the above so please feel free to advise me and pull my ideas apart. Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Regards
Peter

[Simon Bomholt]

A reel that i have bourght and a really happy with is the shimano sustain fg. Try to see if they make it in 8000. A super reel.

[Jon Li]

Hi Peter ,

Check Carpenter BLC83/35R P-Max Super Cobra 3pc Travel rod , it breaks down to less than 1m n complement well with Shimano #8000 n Daiwa 4000 .

Jon .

[Peter Finnis]

Thanks Simon - they seem to do the Sustain FG in 6000 and 10,000 size so definitely a possibility, I'll look into it. There is also a distinct possibility that I will end up saying, what the heck, and get a Stella!

Jon - thanks for the heads-up on the Carpenter 3-piece, I'll do some research on it - I must say I'd be tempted to buy at the top end of the market as I do appreciate quality. I've always bought and used the best fly gear so why not popping gear. I guess as a lifelong fly angler I'm struggling to get my brain around spending as much on spinning gear - but I'll get there!

[Joey Tun]

Hi Peter, Sustain FG 6k & 10k have the same body..so you might as well go for 10k.
My personal preference for PE4 class is shimano Stella or Twinpower SW in 6000HG. Much lighter than 8000/10000 size and a joy to fish with. If you rig it right you can stop some serious fish. This will probably be too small for BLC83/35 though.
For the fish that you are describing and if the water is relatively open, you can probably go much lighter as light as PE3 with shimano 4k or 5k size reels. 200m or so of line should be sufficient.
Whatever you choose just be sure to have a variety of lures to cover the entire water column as some may not be too cooperative to strike surface sticks.

[Rob Paterson]

Might be of interest , had a Stradic new stradic 8000  upgraded with the following bearings kindly done by Clem, as I'm a novice when it comes to DIY.

http://www.sportfishermen.com/board/f258/upgrading-2012-shimano-stradic-8000fj-yes-i-did-heres-how-1810278.html

Hope the link works works

Completely transforms this reel, at a fraction of the cost of Stella's and firmly believe will be more than sufficient for most inshore scenarios.

Have paired it with 8'0 Tentyu yellow tail and feels great, had a test run I'm N orthern Oman ( Mussandam ) but fishing was slow and didn't connect. Only down side  I feel is needs a slightly higher gear ratio to work fast moving surface lures 40-80g.
Has the same ratio as the Sustain.

Hope this may be of some help.

Cheers
Rob

[Peter Finnis]

Thanks for all the helpful advice so far guys. My biggest dilemma is deciding how heavy or light to go. I want to have fun with the large number of crevalles and cuda but, at the same time, there are plenty of big snappers and groupers on those shallow Cuban reefs that I'd like to give myself some chance with as well.

[Gerhard Delport]

I am looking at the BH Magic Eyes rod to pair with my Sustain 6000 for inshore species around Vanuatu.

Anybody fished with the BH Magic Eyes rod in the past?