Starting Out Popper/Stickbait Outfit

[Greg Burt]

The Saragosa is a 'truly' beefed up Spheros, the housing and spools [interchange] are basically the same but with the Saragosa having more drag washes giving it the 20kg of drag, the internal gears are Paladin which gives the reel a big lift in toughness. After 9 months of mainly 'medium' jigging I have seen no weakness.

[Brandon Khoo]

With the drag pressure the reel is capable of, you will easily manage 50lb braid. If you're willing to pick your time, you can buy very well second hand. For example, you may be able to pick up a Stella and rod within the budget of $1,000 you have set. I've seen Stella 8000s going for $600 to $700 as well as rods like a Saltiga TN80 for $350.

Is there something about the Saragosa you don't like?

Just looking around.. I think the Saragosa is ideal in terms of budget and value for money.

Think i could get away with 50lb Tuff Line?? as i will most probly be using it for heavy spinning also.
Thoughts??

Cheers guys

[Aaron Concord]

Hi Damien,
The Saragosa is a rare beast!
There are very few reels under $1000 I have seen that have the gears & drag pressure to tolerate GT fishing.

For a rod, either the Shimano GT special, Daiwa Muramura or some of the Daiwa Monster Mesh rods, if in stock, can still be great value and as an outfit, would be around $1000.
Casting weights would be more like 90-140grm to get the best out of these rods.

For braid, just for durabilty I'd go to Sunline Super PE in 80lb as a starter, though, just as there are more refined rods and reels, so too can the braid be nicer, such as Daiwa Sensor or GT Avani....it comes down to a whole package I guess.

I go for something in the PE 8-10 since most places I like to fish the GT's are cranky, large and live in horrble structure....
One thing is for sure. When starting out chasing GT's the learning curve is very steep indeed!

Aaron.

[Damien Phillip]

Thnx guys. Have no idea what i'm getting myself into here haha i do hope the learning curve is steep, just not costly haha oh well everyone here would have gone through it i guess.

Cheers for all the information

[Greg Burt]

COSTLY!! that's another story