This month the story is going to be on what rods to use, what reels to use and what knots to use on different occasions. All of the knots that we will speak about can be found at www.aminatedknots.com. The main rods were going to talk about are ones you would use if you were estuary fishing.

Lets start with whiting rods, the whiting rod we use are long and soft. The length of rod we use for whiting is between 9 and 12ft. The reason we use such long, soft rods is because when the fish bites you can see and feel the fish without the fish knowing it’s hooked. If you don’t have long soft rods but have estuary rods they will work fine if rigged with light line and gear, if treated lightly. The bait we use for whiting are blood worms, beach worms, yabbies and small jellybean prawns. But you can use whatever bait that works best for you. Other fish we have caught with the long soft rods include bream, grunter bream, flathead, squire and mangrove jack. A good reel to go with the long rods is an Alvey but you could use eggbeaters and overheads. The line class we use is 6-8lb mono. The knot we use for whiting fishing is the single blood knot. We use this to tie the main line to the swivel, the swivel to the trace and the trace to the hook. The reason we use this knot is because it’s a strong knot but it’s easy to tie. Sometimes we use red tube or beads above the hook. This helps attract the fish.

Rods we use for flicking for flathead, bream, squire etc. in the passage are 6-7ft long and around 2-4 kg. The reason we use these rods because they are not really long. They are also light so you don’t get tired of hanging onto them, soft so you can see every bite but strong in the butt so you can handle the big ones. The reels we use for flicking are small spin reels but you can use any reels that suit you. When flicking we use jerk plastics with the fork tail because they have a great fast flicking motion threw the water. We also use plastics with the paddle tail because they look similar to little mullet and herring. The line class we use for flicking is 4-14lb braid. The knots we use include the double Uni knot to join the braid to the leader and the Perfection Loop to join the plastic or lure. Using this knot allows the lure or plastic a natural motion. We always try and use fluorocarbon leader because they say the fish can’t see it.

The rods we use for the bigger estuary fish like Mangrove jack, Cod and Bream are between 6-8kg. The reels we use are the bigger sized spin reels but you can use other reels that suit you. The knots we use are the single blood knot and the stinger rig on around 40lb fluorocarbon leader. We use 20-40lb mono or braid. The reason we use such heavy gear is so when you hook up near the snags or rocks you can rip them out before they get the chance to snag you but once you get them into the open you can back of the drag and fight them.

We hope some of these basic tips help you catch some more fish.

Happy fishing Jay & Jaret