Spinning of SEQ Rocks, weight-rating of rod?

[Nrgised]

Hi all,
First time poster here after reading much good information from this forum.

I hope you may be able to help me out with deciding on the correct weight (kg or PE) class of my next rod.
Recently I have been spinfishing with slugs, stickbait and poppers around the rocky headlands of SEQ more often with my 7'6 5-10kg TD Black, but after coming short of a bust-up several times, I think I am giving in and looking for a longer rod.

The rods recommended to me differ from a 10'3 rated at PE0.8-2.0 (7-45gr), a 10'9 rated at PE1.0-2.5 (15-60gr) and a 9'0 PE2-4 (20-70gr).

1. Aside from the Longtail bust-ups, what size of fish will I find here?
2. What casting weight is best for those fish?

I would appreciate some direction to not buy too light or too heavy of a rod.

Thank you in advance!   

#Edit for clarity

[ellicat]

Welcome to the AFO forum, @Nrgised.

A tough one. My first instinct would be to go the 9' to enhance your ability to land some of the bigger specimens like Yellowtail Kingfish, Cobia, Spanish Macks, Mulloway etc that you are a chance of getting off the rocks around SEQ. But you will lose casting distance with the heavier and shorter rod.

The 10'9" rod would be my next pick. Casting distance and the ability to load up with a heavier lure should see you reach a bit further with a cast. The 10'3" would be the most fun to fish with, but paired with a decent reel should get you there mostly, but would be more difficult to control a fish from the bottom of the rocks once you get a fish close.

I think you could end up with a collection. haha

[Rebel]

Welcome to the Forum.

I do a lot of rock fishing.

I have two rods I  use.

10FT Penn Prevail 8-15kg. I use a 5000 spin reel.

11FT Dawia over there  110H. light weight rod & very strong. Top rod for spinning lures. I use a Penn Slammer 4500hs reel or a Penn Conflict 5000 reel.

I also use various baits & circle hooks

Cheers.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Welcome to the forum. I would recommend Penn Prevails as I have a couple of mates who have them and they rate them highly, the 9’6 is supposed to cast very well with heavier lures.

[mangajack]

For spinning off the rocks I would opt for 8-15kg in 8'6" to 9' and I would run 15kg 8 or 9 strand braid for the thin slick casting capabilities.

Longtails are not difficult to land off the stones if you can keep them from going around a rock..

Mackeral are straight forward and seldom a problem if you don't get bitten off in the first few seconds.

Jew are not difficult to land, more difficult to find and hook well.

Yellowtail kingfish can be quite difficult over about 80cm because they will run to rock. No chance of landing one over 1.2m in my experience......they used to be common that size in the early 80's before bloody NSW allowed fish traps for YTK....that screwed them within a decade.

Often times you will find bustups 10m outside your best casting distance....not much you can do about that outside of getting a bigger berley trail happening to bring the bait closer.

Avoid getting a setup with line too strong to break off, it is dangerous and not necessary...my heaviest was 24kg line and to break that I had to wrap the line around the gaff to break it...too damn strong.

[Rebel]

I fish in NSW. Travel around to various places.

I find a longer rod better than a shorter rod. Some of the places I go you need a longer rod.

Apart from the rods I mentioned I have a 12ft 6-12kg which comes in handy sometimes. I mainly use it for beach fishing.

Most of the guys here use braid. I use a good quality Mono line. 12,15, & 20lb. Never had a problem.

Fishing is about fun, relaxation & experimenting with new gear.

Cheers.

[Nrgised]

Thank you so much, this really provides some good direction.
I meant to respond sooner, but then seeing other responses come in, I decided to take some time to digest all this information and research a bit more.
 

@ellicat, I'm afraid you are right about that collection... it will be hard to find that magic wand for everything. To your third pick the light 10'3, I spoke with someone this morning fishing a 5-9kg (7-45gr) 9ft rod and the way he described being bossed around by the local GT's made me decide that I want it slightly heavier rod for the fish's wellbeing and the amount of tackle I would donate to the reef. It would be a great Tailor rod though!

Considering the advice and options given by @Rebel, @AUS-BNE-FISHO and @mangajack I am trying to understand how the 9'0ft PE2-4 would compare to the 10'9 PE 1.0-2.5?
Would there be too much overlap between the two? Or are they two entirely different rods? I am looking at the Daiwa Overthere (10'9) and Saltist hyper PE2-4 to be specific, whilst not disregarding the other options mentioned.

Ultimately, I think I will encounter or even target the bigger fish and wish I had picked the PE2-4, I am trying to understand what the best approach would be if I want to build a quiver.
I realised this morning that fishing off the rocks requires just a different approach i.e. different quiver of rods.

Ps I have a 5000XG Stradic spooled with 20lb to pair it with, or 2500BG MQ with 8lb for light beach work.

Again, many thanks!

[mzaakir]

Hey, ive been spinning SEQ rods for quite some time and heres my take on it.

Ive got through and tested many difference rods and reels rock fishing and this is what ive found,

- if your after something longer, daiwa demonblood 932 pe 2/4 is great, has a great look, heaps of power and you can cast really far. great cast weight and youll have no trouble getting lures out there and working them

- another great rod that is a bit shorter is the daiwa saltist hyper v2 M-OVER 80 pe 2/4, this is another great rod that has heaps of power and is great for casting on the rocks, sometimes that 8ft - 8ft 3 is all you need to get far out and is not too heavy or too long, it wont make you fatigued or super tired and youll still be able to cast all day without having too many issues.

- and finally its a 7ft 6 rod but probably one of my favourites off the rocks, daiwa supercasta. an amazing rod that can land tuna mackeral to snapper and jewies. its a 5-10kg rod as well if im not mistaken but casting that is so nice. Another rod ive found similar to the supercasta is the daiwa tatula 762 7-15kg. Beware its a 7-15kg rod but feels like a 4-8 or a 5-10 however out of all the rods ive used under 8ft the tatula casts the furthest by about 10-20m. Ive casted further with tatula than i have with some 8ft3 rods ive used. That being said overall i do prefer the supercasta

 

Reel wise, i do find longer the rod the bigger the reel youd want to balance out the weight. 5000 would be perfect for any of the rods but if you go with a 8ft 6 rod or over might wanna stepup to a 6k. Daiwa saltist mq is a great reel along with daiwa bg mq, and in shimanos range the stradics would be the best. 

 

SEQ depends where you fishing you might get some gts but arent that common. Therell be heaps of tailor and on some days Mack Tuna and Longtails. Along with that will be mackeral.

 

Hope this helps.

 

PS i havent read over it hope its understandable lol

[mangajack]

My preference in rods is outdated now....fibreglass...specifically a Snyderglass JS1029W extended about 14 inches, paired with a Abu 10,000ca reel with 30lb mono. Can deadlift 50lbs with the rod so swinging big snapper and average jew up onto the ledge is doable.

The spin setup was a Sabre Grafast blank about 9 feet and rated to 12kg....ran 10kg on a TSS4 to spin up the macks and tuna from the stones.

The rods might be super heavy compared to todays graphite rods, but they take the abuse and knocks very well and ask for more.

These days I would upgrade the reels but still use the same rods.....probably opt for braid backing, 5m of hollow braid and 20m of mono leader finger trapped in the hollow.

There is a tradeoff in the reels too.....high gearing is good for getting the speedsters on the line, but less so when you need to winch them in at times....overhead I would probably not exceed 6:1, spin 7:1.

[Rebel]

@Nrgised Most of the guys down here have 12ft rods. Nothing less than 10ft.

I always take two rods when I am rock or beach fishing. The most popular reel is a 5000.

Cheers.

[mzaakir]

21 hours ago, Rebel said:

@Nrgised Most of the guys down here have 12ft rods. Nothing less than 10ft.

I always take two rods when I am rock or beach fishing. The most popular reel is a 5000.

Cheers.

beach fishing people tend to use longer rods i find, but off the rocks and headlands in SEQ its more of a pain and hastle handing and casting long rods. I find off the rocks i dont need a rod longer than 9ft at any time, if you have a good technique casting then you should be fine

[Rebel]

@mzaakir There are some wild rock places down here. I noticed some guys are using 14ft rods on the difficult spots.

Cheers.

[mzaakir]

22 hours ago, Rebel said:

@Nrgised Most of the guys down here have 12ft rods. Nothing less than 10ft.

I always take two rods when I am rock or beach fishing. The most popular reel is a 5000.

Cheers.

you sure that SEQ tho theres alot of hectic rocks in northern NSW but not many in SEQ unless you go to an island