Softies

[Member]

After reading numerous reviews on fishing reels and listening to a lot of commentators I have come to the conclusion that we are in great danger of becoming too soft! I refer to the constant harping about weight reduction in reels, baitcasters in particular. There is either a concerted effort by the manufacturers to compete for the title of the lightest reel, or the market is driving the reel engineers nuts trying to shave weight.
What happened to the men who went forth to do battle with fish armed with a reel that took a good grunt to get off the gound, let alone cast. I see all these ads on TV for machines that will give us miracle Ab's, maybe we need one that will exercise our wrists to stop them from becoming limp!
Recently I sent my Alpas and rod flying into a creek because it was so light it left my hand and I hardly knew it had gone until I heard the splash. The Japanese already have a reel out that is ultra light, and they don't recommend you use line heavier than 6lb because the spool might distort. What have we come to I ask.
JD 

[Member]

JD there was once was a time where a good reel also doubled up as a hammer and a half decent rod could be used as a pinch bar.... Man's gear for sure....

Was also a time when GTHO Falcon's and Toranas ruled the mountain.
I guess it's a sign of the times what with all this Quality Control, Political Correctness and such things..... in those days a "Fair Go" meant something, aussie made lures were in their hey day and it was a time where if you stepped out of line you got a kick up the arse or a clip around the ear, now-a-days you get have to go to councelling sessions with a freakin therapist. Colesterol was the Mediteranian guy down the road, email was a tying error, none of us had a macular, there was no such thing as a "student free day" at schools and the only green house gas was when you farted at the local plant nursery on a saturday arvo, a milk bottle was acutally a bottle and a person's word was good enough. Terms like GFC, LOL and ROFL never existed, I mean WTF?

I blame Allan Moffat for starting the rot about 1981 or 2...yep when he stepped out of that GT Falcon and turned the key on that rice burning RX bloody 7... it's all been down hill from there mate, fair dinkum. It's all Jap lures this, microscopic lines that, unleaded petrol for crying out loud, Political Correctness, Quality Control and you have to have a bloody Mission Statement to take a wizz and Reconcile with everyone you may have upset past present and future....

Back to the present,,,,,,,,,, the latest generation of gelspun lines, composite rod materials and lighter than air reels machined to precision tolerances is all designed to make fishing easier, and I guess it achieves that. And with prices coming down ever more, it puts this type of product into the hands of those who once could only dream of having quality gear. Yes we can cast further, flatter and present lighter lures...but do we catch any more fish than when $20 would fill the Monaro with super from the Golden Fleece? I really don't think so...........

[Member]

Sh!t Fitz, it sounds like you're channelling Harro.....................

As for the light reels, it's the yanks and the Japanese that are squealing for lighter and lighter reels, mainly because they don't understand the concept of having a balance point on the outfit where you hand is.  They're all fishing baitcasters with the handle on the wrong side and their hand behind the reel instead of wrapped around it. 
That new Daiwa T3 Air is an amazing reel and the lightness surely can't get any better, however there are a couple of downsides.  I was talking to a Daiwa guy who helped design this reel and he wouldn't let me order one from him because he knew I would load it up with 30lb Braid and chase Barra and Cod with it.  As far as Saltwater work, he stated that it was so susceptible to salt that he wouldn't even eat fish and chips in the same room as the reel.  It is designed for a specific purpose, finesse fishing for big Largemouth Bass in a certain lake in Japan.  It holds about 60 metres of 7lb Flourocarbon which should be heaps, because Largemouth don't run.  They're sort of like a Yella that may jump.  At around $1000 the T3 Air is not a reel that will sell in large numbers, however some of the ultra light guys might play with them with 4lb braid.  I ordered 4 of the yellow and red T3s instead. 
As long as an outfit is balance, I don't see the issue with a bit of weight.

[Member]

No one is making you use modern gear.
Get out there with your 3kg reel and fiberglass crowbar and see which one you prefer fishing with.

When I was 19, I had  an XB falcon coupe v8. Loved it at the time, you couldn't pay me enough to drive one around these days.

[Member]

When I was 19, I had  an XB falcon coupe v8. Loved it at the time, you couldn't pay me enough to drive one around these days.

I don't think I'm strong enough to lift the door so it would close these days.

[Member]

I suppose we could blame evolution, multiculture, multilinguist, and a few other buzzwords like Fitzy pointed out. I have admit to enjoying the use of Smokes, Alphas' and such, and yes they do cast further and once you use braid who could ever go back to lumpy mono. I just think that we do get steered a bit as Basser says by the Seppo's and the Japs (Oops was that politically incorrect?) But sometimes I just wonder if we all evolving into a bunch of limpwristed poor buggers who aspire to little more than having great ab's.So in the spirit of evolution I just scooped up a nice discontinued Sol to go with the other lightweights. Basser, it's highly unlikely you will be considered a lightweight mate.
JD

[Member]

All this new fangled gear is no good.
Got a mate who has been taking his bag limit out of the same spot every day every year for 20 years.
But as he has been buying fancier gear, he catches less and less. Now he has all that new fangled gear he hardly catches a fish there.

20 years a go his trusty fibre glass jarvis walker rod and reel killed em every day all day    

[Member]

Yeh mate my fishing partner is like that, or rather used to be. He would happily go out and chase Bass with an Alvey. That was until I turned him to the dark side of baitcasters. He now has 2 but is still leery about braid and graphite rods. Fishing totally different now to what most of us grew up with. Once you could catch anything with a bit of rough mono wound around a coke bottle and half an anvil for a sinker. Not any more. My wife still treasures a couple of those old cork handlines.
JD

[Member]

Watch Tony and Pete Robinson fish and you'll see what can be done with an Alvey.  I first met Pete when he was my non-boater in an ABT Bream round at Caloundra, he was using a 5" Alvey with 4lb Fireline.

[Member]

Sorry Dale but that sounds like something a person would do for a bet!!

[Member]

I did exactly that to see how it went, as I only fished with Alveys when I was a kid.

Got a 5inch with the built in drag, in one of mo tackles specials. Kayak special it had on the back when it arrived, so I thought I'm on to something here.

Special alright - What a disaster. You have not seen wind knots until you have seen braid on an alvey when you try and toss a 30mm lure!.

And the line retrievel rate, a month of sundays to get the line in!

Gave it up as a joke, put the braid on a couple of baitcasters, respooled with 8lb mono and put it in the kids bait fishing rack! They love it.

[Member]

Tony works for Alvey and Pete is his father.  They did some modifications so the line didn't need to run on their finger.  They make it look easy.

[Member]

I reckon nearly everyone's got an Alvey stashed away somewhere. I just donated an old 4" Bakelite complete with guide ring to Debbie Dare for the fishing museum. Binder I think the drag on an Alvey consissts of your knuckles. Most Alvey operators seem to have unusually shaped knuckles...Braid on an Alvey, mate Braid and Alvey are 2 words that should never be used in the same sentence.
JD 

[Member]

Ahhh. Alveys. Still my my Green 650c that was treated like dirt on eposed ledges chasing Goper on the South coast of NSW. Great days. And great gear in the right situation. I still think if I ever chased those blue hued bulldozers again I would use the exact same gear. On the other hand, I'll go toe to toe with anyone that tries to take my 1000 strad with 4lb braid off me that makes the JP creeks come to life.

[Member]

Dale, the Robbo's were also using a reel made for the South African market, extended reel stem, proper drag and all graphite, but geez don't they catch some ripper fish salties and fresh.

Brad