please help on new rod set up

[Scally]

Hey folks,

Just grabbed a 7'3" spin 220cm 5-8kg 12-35g -2sec savage gear black II combo 4000 size.

I'm a novice and am looking for help setting it up for its maximum potential (sized) fish. Keen to target salmon, snapper, trout etc of decent size off rocks/beach.

At the moment im using 8kg mono with a small soft plastic but believe I may need a variety of bigger lures to target those species.

If I understand my rod specs correctly.. Should I be using max 35g weighted lures with say a 40lb fluorocarbon leader? Or is that cutting it too close? 

What would the max fish size target be with a set up like this? Do you recommend snap swivels and tying the leader directly to the main line? And are there any specific lures you can recommend for my set up/target species?

Cheers!

[Rebel]

Mate. I do a lot of rock/beach fishing.

I use at least a 10ft rod on the rocks. 12ft on the beach mainly for casting distance. I always take two rods with me. One for bait, the other for lures.

4000 reel is ok. I use 10 to 12kg mono. Leader up to 20kg.

I also use swivel clips for lures Saves cutting the leader.

I use bait & lures. You have to experiment. What works one day, may not work the next.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi Scally,

The size of your combo is not an indicator of how big a fish you can target. For instance, I sometimes use the same gear I target bream with to target small bullsharks up to a meter. 

The cast weight of your rod is a guide to how heavy a bait/lure you should be throwing about, so if the rod has a cast weight between 12-35 grams then a 35 gram slug would be suitable to cast. 

There is no definitive max fish size you can target with that setup, but 8 kilo mainline is a nice all rounder for smaller fish and larger fish. You will probably find that you need separate lures, baits, and hooks to target different fish, i.e. you probably would not use the same lure to target a freshwater trout as you would a snapper. To find out what lure/bait to use, I would suggest watching some Youtube videos or doing some research into fishing species in your area and how to target them. 

If you are fishing mono all the way through, you probably don't need a leader, but if you're fishing with braid mainline then learning a knot like an FG knot to tie your braid to a mono or fluorocarbon leader would be recommended. 

Snap swivels can be helpful to change lures quickly. 

Cheers Hamish

[Bob9863]

The set up sounds fine for what the outfit can handle, very heavy for light plastics.

30lb braid would help casting distance a lot.

[mangajack]

I have caught two threadfin salmon over the metre mark on 1-4kg rod with 1000 size stradic and 10lb braid.....not ideal but it had no problem bringing them in with some patience. I have lost plenty fishing heavier by pulling hooks.

I would opt for braid on your setup for two reasons....braid works better for plastics and it casts much easier....the down side is it is less forgiving for shock and abrasion than mono.....easy enough to learn to control though.

As far as casting wights go you will find what works for you in your specific locations...there is no hard and fast rule.....too light and you won't get much distance...too heavy and you are going to damage something. (most of the best land based spots do not need a long cast unless you are fishing a heavy shore break. Often times fishing rocks I would cast about 5 metres out from the rocks...that is where the fish are feeding.

[Rebel]

A lot of the guys on here use Braid.

If you switch to Braid, get advice, otherwise it will end up in tears.

Braid can be expensive.

I know a lot of guys who use Braid & then went back to Mono.

There is nothing wrong with a good Mono line. It still catches fish.

Cheers.