Hi,
I'm in the process of planning my kit list for a trip to South Oman (not booked yet and will probably be in 2015). I'm not an experienced GT fisherman but I have spent a lot of time fishing in the tropics (mostly West Africa).
I'm starting from a clean slate as far as heavy rods go. My heaviest rods are a Smith Wrc 80 and a TR STK 76H, so not up to the job!
I've read a lot of posts on here but my big issue is that I live in UK, so not much opportunity to try different rods. I'm middle aged, short and heavily built (definitely need to get to the gym!). I think my profile dictates rods that are relatively gentle on the angler!
My plan is to run a stickbait rod and a popping rod. My thinking on this is that I can switch quickly if conditions dictate (or if tired from popping or busted up...).
Reels will be a 6500 Dogfight and either a Twinpower 12K with a JM 1600 spool, or a 14/18K Stella. I also have a Stella 20K but I'll probably have that on a jigging rod.
I've picked up on Ed Nicholas' comments on distance being important, so the stickbait rod will probably be an RF82LC or a Racepoint 200. I hope to be able to have an RP200 built for reasonable money so I'll probably go for that one.
As far as the popping rod goes I'm less certain of my options. Again, the Racepoint 250 looks like good value for a proven rod. The BH CCS 80 graphite could be a cheap option but I think that's more of a Tuna rod?
I can probably get to look at Temple Reef rods in advance, which is a big plus for me. Wondering about the GT Stick 80-10 or the reefer 711-10. I'm interested to see what the Big Bertie looks like too.
At the expensive end of the scale there's the Carpenter MH80H but it seems like a real mission to track one down, even more so if you don't want to pay a premium for living in Europe.....
So, would be really grateful for impartial advice for a short, fat old pom who doesn't want to remortgage the house for a heavy popping rod!
Cheers
Dave
