Bottom Bashing Rod

[nidrac]

Hey all,

I was just after some oppinions on what type of rods people would rather for bottom bashing. I recently had a shimano backbone 20-25kg which has lasted me about 3-4yrs untill it broke the other day. I never had any complaints about this rod apart from the fact that the butt was slightly too long and was a bit uncomfortable fighting big fish (well mostly the sharks that take my nice fish) I use it as an just an alround setup for fishing the reef as well as the shoals in 70m+ for nanny's and reds. The reel to go with it is a TLD20 loaded with 60lb braid. I was looking around the other day and I noticed the shimano jig sticks, and the main question is has anyone used them for standard bottom bashing before and what are they like or is it not worth the extra money?

Cheers Nidrac

[Massive]

my father uses the shimano t-curve deep jig 400 spin with a spheros 14000 for bottom bashing works great they make the o/h model to. its fairly light to hold and heaps of power in my books defiantly work the extra bucks

cheers Walter

[Horse]

I use a T curve 200 Jig stick/Torium 16/65lb braid for a lot of my offshore fishing but for floatlining or bottom bashing I much prefer my 7' Live Fibre 15-24kg rod with a TLD on it

[DazSamFishing]

I use a t curve 2 & 400. Both spinning set up. But yeah, worth the consideration.
daz

[griz066]

Just out of curiosity how did u break the backbone rod? I have one also and i agree they are a great rod.

[revs57]

G'day Nidrac,

I have two Wilson Live Fibre 15-24kg for my bottom bouncing stuff. Very happy with them. Will replace with another if anything ever happens to them

Chers

Rhys

[GBC]

18-24 live fibre for me - well outclasses the tld 25 I had on it.

[nidrac]

Griz,

We were fishing in about 50m of water on a patch of shoals catching some huge fish (don't know what they were... lost all 7 that we hooked to sharks before pulling the plug not wanting to waist any more decent fish) they were running the drag set at 15-20kg so i had to have it cranked right up when a shark hit it and headed under the boat... and not being able to get the rod over the edge in time due to the rail at the front of the boat which caused the tip of the rod to bend far more than normal.. i only lost about a foot off the end of it so i was going to try and stick a roller on it to see how it goes even if its just as a spare..

Horse,
Why do you prefer the live fibre for bottom bashing over the jig stick? is it just because it doesn't have as much flex in it?

Cheers,
Nidrac....

[Horse]

The longer rod just feels better to me when baitfishing especially when using mono. It gives a lot more control and an easier strike. I suppose its why most estuary bait fishos use longer rods. The short jig sticks can certainly put a lot of hurt on a fish easier but with braid in particular this will result in more pulled hooks and rig failures

[nidrac]

Cheers horse, In the type of country we fish in the shorter rods are generaly better because of that reason... your able to apply a great deal of pressure quickly and get the fish up quickly before the sharks are able to grab them... it just takes a while to get used to striking the fish and fighting them... everything just has to be smoother and more subtle....

Cheers Nidrac

[onerabbit]

they were running the drag set at 15-20kg .................................

Damn but you must be strong.....................

Muzz

[GPB]

My bottom basher [non floater] outfits are a T-C 200 Jig + Tekota 800 and a T-C400 Jig + Accurate 665 combos, I find the T-C as a short fast action rod is ideal for working the fish especially in deep water http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd207/bunzo51/Smileys/thumbsup.gif.

[honda900]

I have both a backbone and a tcurve, the backbone is a 15-24kg rod, the tcurve 200 is also a 15 kg rod, the tcurve has much better feel to it than the backbone.

I run my tcurve 200 with an abu 7000 as it is light works well as a bottom basher and a Jig rod.

Rod prefference is a funny thing, everyone has a different feel and preference from a rod.


Regards
Honda.

[revs57]

I'm hearing you nidrac, the 15-24 live fiber is nice and tippy so you get good feel, under presure the trip folds away quite quickly on the ZWS70XJ leaving quite a brute of a stick to get a large fish out of tiger country quickly - that is why i prefer it to the M10 - I know of quite a few M10 failures under the conditions you are talking about.

If you are looking for a shrter stoke rod with plenty of grunt in it, Penn have a reasonably new line of jig sticks between 5'6" & 6'

One line is branded the International Torque300, it is a 30lb rod 6' long - I run my trq 300 loaded with 24kg over it, it is an overhead rod - it still has a little flex but is a tough rod. The other is the spin jig stick the spinfisher SBJ 8000, it is a 50 lb Rod 5'6" long The other day I was using it to jig amberjack and kingies with 300g knife jigs on an 8000 spinfisher loaded with 80lb jigging braid- it was awesome, but a real broomstick, I must admit to sore shoulders today! Swano had the 30lb model matched to a ryobi safari - I pulled a couple of fish with it and it suited me a little better, just a bit more feel

Both Rods are prices in the $200 bracket, are high modulour graphite and use excellent componentry - could be an alternative to look at in a shorter rod - they compete in T Curve territory in spec without the $350 price tag.

Cheers

Rhys

[nidrac]

they were running the drag set at 15-20kg .................................

Damn but you must be strong.....................

Muzz


Haha nah mate i wish... only use drag settings that high so that when you get the sharks come through there is more of a chance of them cutting through the fish/line so the fight ends relativly quickly... this doesn't always happen though... got one all the way up the 50-60m before the line broke when it saw the boat... fight probably lasted 40-50mins shark was about 15ft+ took me nearly half an hour before i could stop my arms from shaking enough to re-rig my line... never been so sore in my life....

Cheers Revs, thats definatly something that i'll look into... i had a bit of a look at other brands but none of them seemed as good quality.. but i havn't seen them before... do you know what shops stock them?

Thanks, Nidrac.

[PennCasta]

15-24kg GForce with tyrnos 30 for the deep and 8kg moreton bay spin for bashing the bay.

[DigitalSI]

I bought a Gary Howard 7' 8~15kg Sabre the other day. Has an awesome looking Alps reel seat, excellent gimble butt and 9 runners. Absolutely stoked with it so I will be buying the 15~24kg version as soon as the budget allows. Price on the 8~15kg was $329 and $349 for the 15~24kg

[BigE]

Live Fibre 15-24 outside & 8-10 inside

BigE