Old school

[Alex Basford]

A question popped into my head. We all know GT popping and jigging requires the highest standards of tackle, anything less will blow up. I was wondering, back in the old days, before the Stella or Saltiga (or in their early days) what was used to pop for GT's? If older style eggbeaters were used how did they hold up? Or were robust overheads used? Or was popping and jigging just not that popular?

It's just that even with the technology out now you still hear of tackle failure, back then did reels blow up even more or were there reels that people back then thought were the be-all-end-all of reels?

 

[Brandon Khoo]

he he he 

it brings back very sad old memories, Alex
What used to happen was that noone was silly enough to go out there to throw Cotton Cordells at GTs. We threw them at queenies but unfortunately, every now and then, a GT would get in the act and completely obliterate you. I started off using a Shakespeare reel and Mitchell reel which I can't even remember the model numbers of. It was 6-10kg mono. I have no recollection of the first rods but I do remember when Ugly Stiks came out. I was one of the first clowns to start using expensive Japanese carbon fibre blanks. If I remember correctly, they were Dykohs or something like that. I still have a rod built on one of these! These were followed by blanks coming in from Composite Dvelopments and at one stage, I had a hexagonal carbon fibre blank made by McGinns on the Sunshine Coast. The reason why they were expensive was not just the base cost of the blank - it was because blow-ups were not uncommon!   

Gain Rogers from Northside Tackle in Brisbane was one of  the very few people who went with the new technology of carbon blanks and the new SiC guides. SiC has been round a lot longer than people think. Unfortunately, Gain passed away very suddenly.

We didn't have as many reels explode or break as many rods as you may think because it was 6-10kg mono and we didn't target GTs specifically. The blowout that did happen used to be the spools themselves. What happens is that the mono stretches like crazy and is wound back on under tension and then the pressure would pop the odd spool! I'm pleased to say that never happened to me but I saw it a few times on plastic spools. It looked really good. 

Can I say, the modern equipment today has made it possible to fish for GTs because they simply were not viable targets in the past. They were the most dreaded fish fishos used to encounter on the reef because they were destroyers of equipment. How do you think various varieties ended up with names like bastards?! 

[Brandon Khoo]

Jigging in the old days was even funnier - I refused to participate in this using Stingsildas and Penn Senators but it was a hoot watching it. It really was an ironman sport back then as the rods and reels were so heavy and they had such slow gear ratios. The rods used were basically game fishing sticks. The guys still hooked fish though and I saw some stonking doggies landed on 30 to 50lb mono. I did try jigging with a Shimano Speedmaster overhead when it came out but the drag was so weak in those days that it was nigh useless.

You know, while I never really did any jigging, I reckon the damn fish pull harder on the modern gear. I think it is because with 100m of mono out there, it used to stretch like crazy but you also couldn't go that hard with 30lb line.

With 100lb braid, you go real hard and the fish reacts to that. Also, with no stretch, the fish can give back as good as it gets.

I remember when the first of the Japanese anglers started coming out here in the mid to late 90s with high tech spinning gear and rods for jigging we'd never seen before. We used to laugh at guys wanting to jig with spinning reels and waited to hear of their gear exploding. It didn't explode and many skippers were amazed by the equipment.

We had our reels which we thought were the ultimates but things change. All the ultimate reels have been long consigned to the cupboard. The only resemblance a modern spinning reel like a Stella bears to its ancestor from 25 years ago is that the shape is the same. Young people take the technology of today for granted. Having used the spinning reels from that era, I am amazed continuously amazed by what the Stellas and Satigas can handle. they really are a work of genius.

[Angus Hulme]

I was in contact with Jack Erskine some months back, and in the course of our discussions, he mentioned that he and few of his mates used to catch heaps of big GTs on the big old Penn Spinfishers which he would modify with custom drags (still does in fact). Dunno what rods they used with those reels. I also remember seeing stories from John Mondora in ancient Modern Fishing mags about casting coke can size poppers for outer reef GTs 15 or 20 years ago. Some of the fish in the pics were pretty respectable too. They must have used mono too?

Cheers
Angus

[Jon Li]

I remember seeing Erko's Penn SS spool modification which incorporate a Twin Disk drag system similar to Shimano's new at the time SW series albeit a bit rudimentary in appearance , back in 2000 a company in Japan offered the same similar modification to Stella F series . I was tempted to do it but must send back the whole reel to Japan for such modification but late in 2001 which made he hesitated to do right away .

In April 2001 , a group of Japanese anglers came to Komodo and among them , one Mr. Fukui Kenzaburo who is one of Shimano field tester specifically for GT fishing equipments , he brought with him a few Stella SW series reels ( known later as FA series in the international market ) for final testings before the release of the reel in JDM , thus my Stella F series never went back to Japan and I went on to buy SW10000HG ( FA series ) in late 2002 .

Check this : http://www.mcworks.jp/tuning/bbph/bbph.html , there are a couple more companies doing similar works .

Jon .

[Chris Young]

We used to hang 850 penns off Gutsbutt ugly sticks and Sabres for spinning off the rocks with up to 15kg mono. I remember I used to change line a lot back then because of line twist etc

[Sachin Chaudhry]

Exactly the same formula here Chris when I started out. Caught more yellowfin popping then GT but it was all good fun.

[Zeck Lim]

I was using a Daiwa Tournament 5000 ZIT reel as late as this year when I went to the Maldives. This model was launched before the TDX were released. Sometime in 1996 I believe. I had used 17lb mono to pop GTs on my first trip in 1999. Used Avani GT PE6 on the same reel after that. The spool did not have markings for PE line capacity, only mono! Love that reel. :-)