Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) > Tackle & Techniques
First popping rod
Bent Inge Bentsen:
Hi, I have booked a trip with Gamefishing Asia to the Andaman Islands in January 2016. The fishing will be a mixture of both popping and jigging. Except for a few hours in Panama I have never been popping before. I'm 175cm (5.7 feet) and weigh about 75kg. I will use lures of 120-160g, both poppers and stickbaits. Therefore I need a general purpose rod which handles both poppers and stickbaits. The rod will be matched with a Stella 10000 SWB. I know the gear ratio is not optimal for popping, but I bought it because most of the time it will be used for jigging in Norway. I'll probably buy a Stella 14000 or 18000 later if I will have more popping-trips. Brandon's guide to buying a GT rod was very helpful to read and I searched the forum to find out what rod to buy. Here are some suggestions by me:
- Ripple Fisher GT79 Reversal
- Ripple Fisher GT80 Reversal Nano
- Carpenter Monster Hunter 80H
- Carpenter DJ83MH
- Carpenter DJ83ML
- Carpenter Coral Viper 79/40
- Carpenter Coral Viper 79/35
- Black Hole Cape Cod Special 7.6 / 8 / 8.6 Graphite / Nano
- Saltywater Tackle Race Point rods
As mentioned I've got very little experience with popping so feel free to suggest other rods than what I mentioned. I've also found out that some of these rods are difficult to get, I guess its because of a limited production. Can I ask if a tacklestore that are dealer of f.ex. Ripple Fisher want to order a rod for me from the maufacturer (Ripple Fisher)?
Regards
Bent Inge
Courtland Babcock:
In my experience, which is a relative newcomer to GT fishing, you should stay away from the real high end stuff. Although, if you buy quality to start you'll get back the investment if you don't like the rod.
Being your size, you are likely not going to be an overpowering angler. I would keep the rod under 8' and don't watch any videos of Sami landing #300 fish in 5 minutes, that will not be you. A good rod would be something like a Black Hole 7'6" Nano. The nano makes the feel soft and somewhat fore giving as opposed to the graphite version. It can do stickbaits or poppers just fine and will be half the cost of others on your list. It is a PE 6 rod in my opinion which should line up well with the reel you have.
Although the Andamans serves up some big fish, it is the quantity and variety that keep you casting. Most of my fishing there was done with 100-120 gram poppers and I was as successful as the rest of the anglers.
After your first trip you will know what "type" of rod you are looking for and can move on to "higher end" more specialized products.
For the record, I have an "affiliation"(read: friends with Kilsong) with Black Hole USA but have many rods from Carpenter, Temple Reef, Black Hole, MC Works....the rod I mentioned is a good all around mid-level rod.
Mark Harris:
The first issue to deal with is the reel. Fishing for GTs with a 10000-sized reel is really not that easy. You can't get enough line on there unless you are going to fish PE6 and as a newcomer to this type of fishing, I would strongly counsel against you doing that. You need PE8 minimum unless you really know what you are doing.
The solution would be to buy an aftermarket 16000 (or 14000) spool and fit that to your 10000. That would give you enough capacity to fish PE8.
For the rod.. from your spec you want an all rounder to work 120-160 gram lures. If you can afford it go for a top quality rod. This will not only serve you better but also if you decide this type of fishing is not for you, then the better the rod, the better it will hold its value if you want to sell it later.
Given your spec I would look for a Carpenter Monster Hunter 80H as first choice. It may not be straightforward finding one at the moment though. You could also look at Ripple Fisher 79 Reversal to do a similar all round job and that should be easier to find.
Amr Kehila:
Hi Bent, you need to upgrade your spool so you can fish for GT properly as a beginner! I would get a SOM 16000 spool or upgrade to a 14kSWB or 18kSW/SWB.
Ripple Fisher GT80 Reversal Nano (I've owned the 79Reversal and its almost the same) or Carpenter Monster Hunter 80H are solid high-end choices.
However, you don't need to expensive, you could look at a Saltywater Tackle Race Point for instance, but i can't suggest a model...
EDIT: Seems Mark already beat me sorry for the double up!
Bent Inge Bentsen:
Thanks for all the replies! The Black Hole 7'6'' Nano looks like a suitable rod for me, and as you say it's half the price of some of the other rods. I've got a couple of Heru Cubera 150's and plan on buying some Orion Cono Cono poppers (160g), will this rod handle these as well? Or do I need the 8" Nano version to throw these poppers? How is the casting capability of the 7,6'' compared to the 8'' and 8,6'' ? I've used a Black Hole jigging rod for halibut, cod and coalfish for several years and are very pleased with it. The reason I added the more expensive rods was that they were recommended by others on this forum and that I want to buy a rod that is so good that I don't feel for buying a new rod after a couple of trips.
Gamefishing Asia recommends 80-100lb line for popping and 60-80lb line for jigging, therefore I was thinking to buy a 1500yd spool of Power Pro Super Slick 80lb and use it on both reels (Saragosa 10000SW for jigging). The diameter is 0,43mm which according to this https://www.facebook.com/MahigeerWS/posts/676602492364682 equals PE7. Do I need PE8 (100lb) for popping? And is PE8 suitable for jigging? The jigging rod will be a Black Hole Cape Cod 250g spinning.
I've read on this forum and on 360tuna.com that some people have had problems with aftermarked spools like SOM and Jigging Master, therefore I'm a bit sceptical. I guess if you suggest that I abolutely need more line capacity, that a 14000 SWB spool could be the solution. Will it fit the 10000 SWB reel without any problems/modifications?
Will the lower gear ratio of the 10000 SWB be a problem in popping? Or can I just reel a little bit faster?
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