First popping rod

[Mayur Panday]

Yes they do Bent,
See my Stella 14000 with SOM 16000 spool and my Stella 10000 with JM 16000

[Bent Inge Bentsen]

Sorry, my mistake. Does the SOM spool fit both SW and SWB? Are the JM and SOM spools equally good?

[Mayur Panday]

SOM makes spools for both, SW and SWB.
JM and SOM, both worked equally well for me so far!

[Bent Inge Bentsen]

Thanks for the info, I think I'll go for JM then.

[Michael Adolfsen]

Hey Bent,
Have you thought about Temple Reef?
Maybe ask Dan Konig a member here i think.
Super great rods but not as pricey as the over hyped Carp. (own one my self)and Ripple Fisher(again own one) rods.
Temple Reef Big Bertie are my new favorite popper rod , got a 50 kg GT this April with NoBoundaries.

Michael

[Bent Inge Bentsen]

Hey, thanks for the advice. Temple Reef GT 80-10 seems interesting, I'll definitely consider it as well.

[Mark Richie]

Hey, thanks for the advice. Temple Reef GT 80-10 seems interesting, I'll definitely consider it as well.

Hey Bent,

The GT stick series of Temple Reef rods are quite an old design. Despite being cheaper, I feel the Reefer series of rods are a much better and more forgiving rod on the angler. Something like the Reefer 711 will pretty much suit your brief however 150g poppers are pushing it a little too far. 125g-135g is the perfect popper weights. It will throw and work 150g poppers like the cubera but for the first 15-20m of your retrieve, use the vertical pop until you get the lure a little closer and then you can do big horizontal sweeps for maximum water displacement. It'll throw and work 150g stickbaits awesomely. Every time I throw out my red Nomad Dogtooth 150g, the fish are fighting each other to get a hold of it!

I subscribe by the 15% rule when it comes to lure weights. Subtract 15% off the maximum lure weight for the perfect stickbait size and then subtract 15% off that weight for the perfect popper size. Therefore a 200g rated rod will throw and work a 170g-175g stick best and still be able to pop a 145g-150g popper efficiently. However I only follow this rule when the rod is classified as a multi-purpose rod. Obviously a dedicated popper rod rated at 200g will be able to work a popper 175g+ due to it's inherently stiffer construction.

Rich

[Amr Kehila]

Hey, thanks for the advice. Temple Reef GT 80-10 seems interesting, I'll definitely consider it as well.

Hey Bent,

The GT stick series of Temple Reef rods are quite an old design. Despite being cheaper, I feel the Reefer series of rods are a much better and more forgiving rod on the angler. Something like the Reefer 711 will pretty much suit your brief however 150g poppers are pushing it a little too far. 125g-135g is the perfect popper weights. It will throw and work 150g poppers like the cubera but for the first 15-20m of your retrieve, use the vertical pop until you get the lure a little closer and then you can do big horizontal sweeps for maximum water displacement. It'll throw and work 150g stickbaits awesomely. Every time I throw out my red Nomad Dogtooth 150g, the fish are fighting each other to get a hold of it!

I subscribe by the 15% rule when it comes to lure weights. Subtract 15% off the maximum lure weight for the perfect stickbait size and then subtract 15% off that weight for the perfect popper size. Therefore a 200g rated rod will throw and work a 170g-175g stick best and still be able to pop a 145g-150g popper efficiently. However I only follow this rule when the rod is classified as a multi-purpose rod. Obviously a dedicated popper rod rated at 200g will be able to work a popper 175g+ due to it's inherently stiffer construction.

Rich

Bent; I've never bent a Temple Reef rod, but sources tell me that the Reefers are superior to the GT series design; if you are going with that brand.

Rich; loving the solid advice and effort you have put in to help new people out around here. Thank you for getting into it!

[Bent Inge Bentsen]

Thanks for the info Mark and Amr. It's definitely a lot of great rods availiable!

[Dan Hanon]

Bent,

Just get the Carpenter Monster Hunter 80 or Ripple Fisher GT80 Reversal.  Trust me, you will not regret the purchase.  Why spend $400-500 on a rod, only to upgrade later to a $900-1000 model?  Considering you're travelling all the way to the Andamans, it's a small investment upgrade.  Trust me, you will become addicted to this style of fishing!   Just my opinion.....

[Bent Inge Bentsen]

Thanks for the input Dan. Both rods you mention seems to be well suited for me and very popular. As I mentioned earlier I want to buy a rod that I don't need to upgrade after a trip or two. I tried jigging and popping in Panama a couple of years ago, so guess I've already started on the addiction We have great fishing here in Norway, but it can't be compared with the strength and speed of fish in the tropics.

[Martin Gundersen]

If you are near Oslo in the future, give me a call. We can hit a pond and test a couple of gt rods, reels and lures.

[Bent Inge Bentsen]

Thanks Martin, that would have been great

[Robert Woll]

Carpenter Monster Hunter 80H just appeared on the Plat.co.jp webshop. Will be sold out quickly for sure.

[Bent Inge Bentsen]

I have now ordered a Ripple Fisher GT80 Reversal Nano and a Jigging Master 16000 spool plus a lot of other popping- and jigginggear. Thanks to all of you for the good advice. I think this rod will suit me well.