Carpenters in Fiji

[Trevor Williams]

After doing my research and taking advice from Forum members I did a trip to Fiji to chase GTs for the first time. I took a lot of ribbing from my mates about how much I was spending on gear and how their calstars would do the job.
Less than half a day casting poppers and they were pleading with me to let them use my "spare" Carpenter. ( I thought it would be wise to have a back up rod rigged and ready in case of line breaks or tangles when the fishing is hot).
I am not knocking Calstars, I've got some and they are great but these guys did not have the right rods for the job and it made a huge difference. We were all beginners and went on a big learning curve with a lot of fish around 18-20 kg but the most important lesson we learned was "get the best gear you possibly can".
My warm thanks to Brandon for his advice on rods and for all the others on the forum for sharing their experiences.

[Jay Burgess]

Any pictures from the trip Trevor? 

[Andrew Poulos]

Obviously the Carpenters are great rods, but what in particular didn't they like about the calstars? Weight, performance,or the wrong blanks for the job ?

andrew

[Brandon Khoo]

I'm pleased that the little bit of advice we were able to give you was helpful, Trevor. It's good to see you were able to get among the fish and you certainly prepared well for the trip. There is no substitute for getting the best gear you can afford as it's purpose built.

Calstar makes a couple of good blanks for GT sticks though. Were the ones which your mates took along unsuitable for the popper weights you were casting?

I bet you just can't wait to plan the next trip now! 

[Trevor Williams]

I'm a big Calstar fan but my mates probably just had the wrong blanks,or the wrong construction or both (I think one was an 800H) - they were way too heavy and the butts were too short to get any leverage.

[Brandon Khoo]

I can easily see why they wanted to borrow your rod now! You can't cast anything worth a damn if the butt is too short.

They wouldn't have needed to spend the money on a Carpenter. They could have gotten the Shimano T-Curve GT rod which you can get at excellent prices and while it is not a Carpenter, it is a very capable GT stick.

[Sachin Chaudhry]

Hi Trevor.I of the same opinion regarding gear now although I cut my teeth on cheaper gear.
I do not buy anything less than specialised popper fishing gear now. I have a Calstar GF700XH from Wellsys and it is my reserve rod with my Deep Monster and WV80XH being front line rods. There is a world of difference in the performance of these rods compared to the Calstar and although the Calstar is a few hundred dollars cheaper it does not take long to realise that the WV is in another league.
I have also used a Saltiga GT86, Muramura 76, Fisherman GT Monster 72 and a Sevenseas Armorclad and they all reinforce this opinion.
Next stop 78 UHL SHP or Hots Tide Lez 75 XHHH.
Brandon, thanks for the advice on the WV.

[Trevor Williams]

Haven't seen a T curve GT  rod in the shops here yet but have heard all the buzz about them. I was talking to the Shimano rep today and apparently they have some in stock. He seemed to think they would retail around the NZD 550.00 mark. At that price I'm still very happy with my decision on Carpenters at NZD 750.00.
Next trip  we've planned for the Andamans............and I won't be sharing but I will be scouring the T&T forum for more tips.
No pics of GTs from the Fiji trip. no one wanted to put down a rod to pick up a camera. Three of us on the boat and we finished the trip with a triple strike which was kind of interesting for the skipper!!. landed all three though.   Now we are all totally hooked on popping and planning to take the techniques back to use on NZ kings.