♪ Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ♬

Since I started writing more than 25 years ago I've always remained laser focused on reels. I might occasionally mention a piece of gear or an accessory that I came across and liked, but otherwise I kept it strictly about reels. Naturally, I get asked frequently about other tackle involved in testing a reel for a particular review; what were the rods, lines, lures, leaders, etc., and I'd answer the reader individually while thinking that I really need to one day write an overview of my gear for everyone. The following is this overview, finally in ink, or I should say in pixels, after many years of being a mere idea in my lazy head.

Before you proceed,  please understand that this is not a recommendations' list or any sort of purchase guide. Instead, it's only a quick glimpse at what I personally use and do that you should read purely for fun and nothing else. I do not at all scan the offerings of other gear or make comparative tests between for example rods or braids in the same manner I do with spinning reels, therefore please do not take any of what you're about to see as an endorsement of any product or fishing practice. With that in mind, let's see what we have here....

I'll begin with rods because there isn't really much to see here. You'd think that a man who over the years owned hundreds of reels would have an extensive collection of rods, but in reality I perhaps own fewer rods than any of you at the moment. That's because I like chasing fish in big bodies of warm saltwater, and since most of the year I have none nearby I often have to fly in order to fish. Flying with rods has proven to be too much of a headache for me with the long tubes, padding, taking them to and from the airport, researching various airlines' policies on sporting goods and oversized items, which even if done properly I'd still run into employees unfamiliar with their own airline's policies every once in a while and we'd argue or they'd demand extra payment. This happened more frequently whenever the destination was a less developed country or a region not frequented by overseas sportfishermen, where I usually go to fish at a fraction of what I'd pay in popular fishing spots.

That's why, with rare exceptions, I quit flying with rods some time ago and thinned down my rod collection to almost nothing. Instead I now arrange for rod rental at destination, or if not possible I'd buy locally once I arrive then before leaving I'd see if the skipper/guide would be happy taking it as part payment or if a deckhand wants it in lieu of a tip or if the place I got it from would take it used for 50% off, etc. This though does not mean that I no longer appreciate the excellence of a quality jigging or popping rod almost as much as I do a refined spinning reel; over the years I enjoyed fishing great rods by the likes of Zenith, Fisherman, Carpenter, and once a Zenaq Tobizo that was lent to me for a day by a kind fisho from New Zealand made me weak in the knees with the beauty of both its function and build quality. Maybe if one day I relocate to where I don't need to fly to fish, like coastal Australia or South Africa, I'd get myself the new Type R version of that rod, which I've only seen in pictures but already salivating over....

Man, how hot is this! It's not the cost that's stopping me, at $1100 or so it's no big deal considering I've just reserved and fully paid for three 2025 Saltigas that would cost me landed after customs charges north of $4000, and if Shimano surprises us in the next few days I'll do the same. It just feels wrong and wasteful to get such a lovely rod then let it sit in a corner unable to use it locally, since it might be slightly out of place catching bluegill and bullhead in the lake next to the town council where nice old ladies walk their dogs in the morning and stop to check what I caught as a segue to gossip about the local "hussy" who left her husband of 40 years for the young Porturican new tenant or such nonsense.

Or maybe I should just give it a try? Nah, I need to be strong and resist.

Anyhow, because one never knows and there should always be backup plan for the original backup plan, my loyal Okuma Nomad travel rod is always ready to step in when prospects look gloomy

3 Short sections, comes with two different tip sections one medium and one heavy for versatility, and fitted with highly durable Alps components. Its size actually allowed me to sneak it on board a couple of times, once unnoticed and once noticed but explained away to the understanding gate agent, and it slipped comfortably into the overhead compartment in both instances.

A short sectioned travel rod might sound like a good solution for my dilemma, but I very much dislike sectioned rods and feel that I can't trust them in the same way I would a single piece or a butt + one piece which is a single piece rod in my book. Additionally, sectioned rods do not perform optimally for me because the joints don't let me get a sense of what the blank is doing, if I can even call 3 pieces a "blank". And no matter how much care the builder put in aligning the spines of the individual sections, I still can't feel that a sectioned rod has a genuine spine, and without a defined spine I'm unable utilise the full potential of a rod or even set the maximum drag properly on a rod whose behaviour under stress can not be predicted. For all of that, as well as a few other reasons that don't belong in this brief digression, such travel rods remain not a first or a second but a third choice when nothing else seems certain.

This obscure "Lemax" is another rod that I decided to keep for light-medium inshore jigging....

Supposed to be for 120-300g, but I found that anything over 200g is a bit of a stretch for it, which isn't a problem considering the use I assigned it to. I picked two pieces of this rod many years ago from Sardinia because it was truly cheap and felt good in my hand in the shop, and indeed it turned out to be an excellent value for what I paid thus I did not sell it. Well, it wouldn't have fetched real money anyway considering the unfamiliar brand. The other piece I had altered to accommodate a reel with an oversized foot, rendering it quite useless afterwards so I loaned it to someone and never asked for it back.

Not that "brand" rods are always deserving of their desirability....

This Okuma Longitude is a complete piece of trash that almost ruined an expensive trip; bought it years ago once I landed in Tunisia because my contact over there could only secure short jigging rods and I needed something to toss small stick bait. That stupid thing soon snapped near the tip reeling in an anemic Mahi Mahi that couldn't have been bigger than 2.5kg (~ 5.5lb). I decided to bring it home to try and salvage it, so I took it to the airport wrapped in bandage like a mummy perfectly ready to throw it away if they demanded even a single penny to check it in, but the dude at the counter couldn't care less handing me the sticker to wrap it around it myself then off it disappeared on the belt. I trimmed the breakage area and lightly sanded the edge then affixed a new tip guide, shortening it a bit but at least it's now useful, unlike when it left Okuma's facility.

Another piece that I wouldn't let go when I cut down my rod stash is this (almost?) vintage surf specialist

D-A-M (Deutsche Anglergeräte Manufaktur) Megalite Beach. Picked it mid 1990s at what used to be known as the CLA Gamefair, from a booth whose owner was as passionate as myself about that once legendary brand. This rod has a special place in my heart and I still use it for fun every once in a while to catch small species from shore in cold water, usually Pollack and Flounder, using mono since it was designed back when braid wasn't a thing and its guides' inserts would easily get grooved by braid. I can replace them with hard inserts but want to keep it in its original state.

Check this out....

Stripper guide appears broken!

Nope, I got you! It was folded down for easy transportation and storage but snaps back in place once needed. Sorry, I turn into a giddy child when I show off anything related to that nostalgic brand. The rod was made in Hong Kong I believe, but I can't tell for sure since very little documentation about it survives to this day.

And a final example from my rod inventory; this 6 metres (~20 feet) telescopic rod without guides. Not sure what brand was printed on it but now all markings have been rubbed off completely. Back in the day I used it to catch Carp on float for its reach and ability to clear the bank's heavy vegetation, but now I use it to catch tiny fish for live bait and its length allows me to cover a good range of depths just by raising and lowering it.

I have a wicked net throw and can get a day's worth of bait with three or four throws, but sometimes using a net feels inappropriate, if, for example, it's a weekend and people around me are fishing with rod and reel and don't need me to scare the fish away. That's when this rod comes out to snatch them tiny shiny ones.

I altered it as well, improving its reliability by replacing the original line attachment set up with a hook shank that I inserted then tied down with mono passing through the eyelet a few times for added strength.

Rods out of the way, time for the "consumables", which are items that get used up and need replacement on a regular basis. Many of the photos you're about to see were taken during my post-Covid shopping spree to restock in anticipation of resuming active fishing, therefore I might have forgotten a detail or two in the 3 or so years that passed. First though, on the topic of shopping, I need to digress for a moment because we're no longer living in a world where I would tell myself "stick to fishing and don't try to reinvent society", because nowadays no other entity around us, official or non, is sticking to their job and each is actively and relentlessly trying to reinvent society;

We all want to save money, therefore it's only instinctive that when we find fishing gear at a discount on a big auction site or the biggest online shopping portals we click and order without thinking twice. Fine if those discounted prices are all you can afford, but if you can spare a few extra dollars to do the right thing, then give your money to our own people instead of filling the wallets of people who are trying to harm our families and unravel our societal cohesion. Why would we finance sites that take down auctions and listings of books attempting to save children from physical and mental mutilation, who ban the merchandise of entities fighting to restore sanity and stop tribal divisiveness, or sites whose owners also own big journalistic outlets that print lies and celebrate degenerate filth non-stop and often liken us to toxins merely for being men who fish and hunt and see themselves as protectors and providers for their women and little ones? It's true that I often publicly bicker with brand representatives, or give a mouthful to a tackle store who sold me a display reel fondled by a thousand customers, but at the end of the day those are our own kind and we all belong to team sanity and normalcy. Please keep that in your mind next time you need to buy something, and try to check your local tackle shop first, then look into specialised fishing/hunting outfitters online second, maybe also look at the brand's own site since some sell directly, and make our adversaries your very final resort and only if you can't get what you want anywhere else.

Being someone who tries to practice what he preaches, unless the matter involves beautiful women, I made my way to one of these locations, which I've heard being referred to as "candy stores for rednecks". Unfortunately I haven't yet earned my redneck credentials but I'm working on it.

There was also an Academy Sports, another decent chain, nearby, but decided to hit Bass Pro first because I always found their fishing section to have a bigger selection than others.

What on earth is that thing swimming in the shop's tank? Looks like a Black Drum had a drunken one night stand with a Red Drum to produce this fella; no tail spots like a proper Red, yet no hump like a good old Black. Strange.

I fish with lures about 85% of the time, but as pseudo-journalist who's running a one man operation and needs to make every trip count in order to report on how a reel performed against fish, I can't afford to call it a day when lures fail to produce the encounters I'm seeking in order to push a reel to its limits. Therefore I'm always ready to switch to bait, which feels punishingly boring in comparison, but often has a better chance of producing when artificials don't. This makes hooks my most frequently bought pieces of tackle.

I usually construct steel shark rigs myself, but sometimes I come across ones priced at basically the price of the hooks alone so I pick them up. These Owner rigs are as good as they get.

Got a few packs of smaller ones too since this size is the one I'll likely be using more. "Offshore Angler" is Bass Pro's own brand name which they put on various products that they either pick from OEM offerings or have made to their specifications by Chinese contractors. It varies from one item to another, but generally the quality is quite satisfactory.

Tiny and medium stuff for baitfish and smaller beach/shore species that take shrimp or shellfish, such as Whiting, Spotted Seabass, Gilthead Bream, or Spotted Trout (merlangius merlangus, dicentrarchus punctatus, sparus aurata, and cynoscion nebulosus, respectively to prevent confusion).

Needed these to follow certain regional laws and regulations. Always study these if you travel to fish because fines can be really steep, and if your card is in a different currency you'll be hit on top of it with anything from 2%-5% FX fees. Don't ask me how I know. Outchy!

What I am about to say is absolutely dumb and unwise, and before I proceed I must reiterate that nothing in this article constitutes advice or a guide of any sort. I am only telling you what I do which includes some of the most imprudent practices imaginable. 

These hooks are my "bread and butter", and I'd seriously consider retiring from fishing forever if they ever get discontinued. After many years of trial and heartbreak with numerous hooks I now consider Owner's 4/0 Gorilla Light to be my most effective tool for tuna up to 70 or 80 kilos, which is the upper limit of what I come across most of the time. Larger ones are pretty rare in the context of what I do.

I might have described this before, but anyhow, whenever I'm in tuna territory and decide to switch to bait to avoid going home empty handed, I begin to throw dead bait in the water, usually sardines, and watch the bluefin tuna coming up to gulp them in swift precise "bow" motion up then back down. They don't seem to fight or go after the same fish, and once a bait hits the water it appears as if it's already been decided that it belongs to the one closest to it and no one steps on its toes. It is truly a sight to behold, and several times I wondered to myself if I was just romanticising some hungry beasts in my mind because of how beautiful they are, but that wasn't it. These were definitely intelligent creatures, or at least instinctually efficient in a way that appears intelligent to us humans.

Anyhow, once they get busy taking these slowly sinking sardines, I would stick my hook into one and throw it just like I did its friends, but this one would get ignored. I'd throw another free sardine right away and it's swallowed immediately, but when followed with a hooked one it's left untouched. Initially I suspected it might be the leader giving it away, either because they see it or because it affects how the bait moves once in the water, so I switched to thinner and more supple leaders, both mono and fluorocarbon, but the tuna still ignored the one with a hook and ate the free ones around it. Eventually, after exhausting various possibilities with no or very little success, it was downsizing the hooks that did the trick and yielded consistent bites. It's anyone's guess why this was the case, but my own theory is it had something to do with spotting unnatural bulges in the slim body of bait fish due to the hook inside.

Now that I knew the physical size of the hook that would not alarm those surface feeders, I went on a quest to find the strongest hook available within that size limit. That's how I arrived at this wonder hook, the 4/0 Gorilla Light, and stuck to it ever since. Next time you read in a review that reel ABC acted this or that way at the very high drag setting of XYZ, know that there is a 75% chance this particular Owner hook was involved. The other 25% of drag maxing instances would likely be on groupers, but thankfully these are so stupid they'd take a bait stuck on the tip of an oil tanker's anchor, therefore I don't have to risk my pricey Japanese wonders with them.

These are not Japanese though, despite bearing the same brand. The back of the packaging says so....

Materials from Japan? What is that supposed to convey? The material for the walnut stock on my Heym rifle is from Turkey, does that make the rifle related to Turkish workmanship in some way? What matters in the hook manufacturing is the shaping, sharpenning, treatment, and finishing. That's all done in the Philippines, thus it should've said "Made in the Philippines" and nothing more. Major Japanese brands build most of their reels in secondary countries and they mark them as such. Nothing there to be ashamed about, Owner.

These people should be ashamed though, because whoever now owns the rights to the historical "Mustad" name is in my opinion committing consumer fraud. It's the sort of thing I'd write a letter to the Federal Trade Commission about if I could find a working pen anywhere in my house, something I haven't managed to do since I last saw one in 2006 or about. You see the Norwegian flag at the bottom right corner?

Here is a clearer view of that flag from the back of the package, with "Individually sized hook wires" written above it, and "Made in Norway" written beneath it. Pretty straightforward and unambiguous claim to Norwegian manufacture, right? Except that at the bottom of the packaging a line is printed in a completely faded and unreadable manner stating "Hook wire made in Norway - Made in China". I did my best to make the text visible but it's not possible, essentially forcing me to guess what it says, so a customer in a shop has no chance of reading it before he buys. I believe the play being attempted is to somehow portray the two lines around the Norwegian flag as one informative sentence, to the effect of "Hey, individually sized hook wires and only these wires are made in Norway but not the hook". Absolute rubbish, akin to a product bearing a Swiss flag with a line atop of it stating "Winner of Quality certificate" and another beneath it saying "Made in Switzerland", then a text hidden somewhere else explains "The quality certificate is made in Switzerland but the product itself is made in a forced labour camp somewhere else". Shame on you, latest purchasers of the rights to "Mustad" name.

Wide gap hooks are indispensable to me. I find that they have a better hold on certain bait such as cut fish chunks and don't pull off easily after several casts/drops, due to their grip extending over a bigger area of the bait.

Picked some up in the store's brand as well, in a slightly larger size for live bait. The thin wire allows my bait mullets to live longer and move freer while on the hook.

Long shank ones can be good for toothy critters, such as bluefish, in case I don't have steel trace or don't want to use it for the sake of flexibility. Of course long shanks are useless if the fish gulps the bait deep, but still better than having no chance at all.   

More regulatory mandated hooks, these ones are perfect size to present soft shell crabs in a manner that reduces the chance of a fish biting it off without hitting a part of the hook.

"H20 Xpress" is Academy Sport's own brand, following the same business model as Bass Pro's "Offshore Angler". These South Korean made hooks allow for a natural presentation of soft plastics, and if the ground is rough the tip of the hook can be buried back into the plastic to prevent it from sticking into the environment, and the soft plastic would still look natural and not become bent.

And I always pick up some dirt cheap generics to test them in case I find a hidden gem here or there.

More generics, these ones though wanted us to know how special they are....

See? Have you ever seen an Owner or a Gamakatsu that was "striked more easy because of hook edge by hand"? And does any of your VMC or Daiichi have the advantage of "surface have print so that it can antisepticize and lure fish"? Yeah, I know that for the inexperienced ears "antisepticize and lure" sounds like the kind of thing that gets people invited to take a seat by Chris Hansen, but I'm telling you it's a fish-catching dream coming true, and a space technology first used by aliens in their probing of humans.

When braid began to take hold in the early 2000s, most of the braid available was not of a good quality. It had an abrasive surface, got entangled easily, and worst of all it suffered consistency problems even within the same spool, meaning that the line on a single spool would have weak spots that broke easier than the rest of the spool causing unexpected snaps. Not to rehash absurdities that are +20 years old now or tarnish line brands that have since been restructured or changed ownership, but I remember how fishermen used to go to chat boards and forums to complain about braid breaking causing lost lures and fish, having sticky finish/colouring, forming bird nests and entanglements often forcing them to discard large portions of the line, or its rough surface damaging their standard rod inserts. They would then get swamped by shills and individuals who gain financially from the manufacture and distribution of braid accusing the anglers of causing the problems with their poor technique, or saying it's the fault of the reels, or, laughably, calling braid damage to standard rod inserts an "internet myth". They effectively hammered everyone into silence in order to keep selling.

Being green and innocent like a young lass in a Jane Austen novel, I took the initiative to post a methodical and reasoned explanation supported by my own observations and tests, concluding that indeed certain braids were problematic and not yet ready for mass market. My post vanished that same day, and when I massaged the admins to enquire I was given a weird explanation that I don't own the copyright to some of the images I used to illustrate, and when I asked if I could post it again without those images the answer was an inexplicable "no" along with a reminder that moderating decision are final and subverting them is grounds for permanent ban. I later found that a brand that sold braid was a paying advertiser on that site and I concluded without a hint of doubt that I was censored on their demand. That was probably one of the earliest seeds for where I am now, as in the aftermath I remember wishing there was a way I could reach anglers independently from malicious control. It didn't cross my mind though that I might one day have my own site, since back then running websites sounded like an expensive and complicated venture that only companies and organisations can handle.

Well, I was about to type "but I digress" at the end of the previous paragraph, then it occurred to me that I've always told you about the bad, the ugly, and the scammy in the world of reels, and now that for the first time I'm speaking about other tackle in any details it's perfectly consistent that I'd make this "digression".

At any rate, back then I decided that one of the few ways I could obtain decent quality braid was to order Japanese brands that were still uncommon in international markets. It became a habit, and today I still do it even though braid has universally made leaps in quality, so much so that even some generic Chinese braids have achieved what I consider full reliability. It would, of course, be financially reckless of me to order braid alone from Japan when I can buy equally good stuff locally, but since I place several orders of reels and lures from that country each year I throw in a bunch of spools with each order.

Been my main casting line for consequential jobs for many years, and I've grown so familiar with its properties and behaviour I wouldn't want to risk switching to something else and potentially having to go through a new learning cycle.

I go up to 100# when I feel that things could go crazy, for example when in western Mediterranean May to July. I used to prefer hollow core for the toughest tasks, considering that it, indisputably, provides the most secure line-to-leader connection via splicing, and it can also be spliced into itself without knots if one needs to cut off damaged lengths or top up the line from a new spool, but I never really liked how it lays flattened on the spool and how it leaves it during a cast, so I just gave up on it and now this 100# Sunline Cast Away Monster Battle is my top tier surface line. Not at all saying that you shouldn't use hollow core. It remains a top choice with certain unmatched advantages, but just not for me anymore.

Jigging is much less particular, therefore I move between a few lines on my jigging setups, including this one which I only began fishing relatively recently and have grown very fond of.

It's 8 strands as well, and colour coded which is a requirement for any line I use in deep fishing in order to visually estimate where the jig is; most of my jigging is done near offshore oil rigs or over wrecks where snagging happens easily and frequently, so knowing the position of the dropping jig and closing the bail before it hits the seabed reduces the chances of jig loss and cut offs. Also, sometimes fish hit at a specific depth halfway through, so using the colour code I could return my jig to that particular depth range and keep it there instead of blindly overshooting it and dropping further to where there isn't as much action.

Had I been fishing only for pleasure with two or three personal reels, I probably would've developed a reflective awareness of my jig position based on the line level on the spool without needing the colour coding. But since I'm always fishing new reels and almost never return to any of them once I'm done reviewing or scoring it in order to move on to something new, I don't have a chance to grow familiar enough with a reel to forgo colour coded braid.

Depending on the frequency of colour change, some of the braids come with this....

A sticker letting the fisho know the order of the colours with numbers corresponding to the depth each indicates. Ideally this sticker is stuck on the rod for maximum visibility, but since the rods I use are seldom mine I stick it on reels instead when needed.

Another jigging import from Japan that I pick when a mid range strength will suffice. This 52# Unitika is colour coded as well.

For shore casting and light inshore work where the seabed is close enough and there's nothing to fear below, colour is no longer important so I'd go for something like this white 40# Unitika, which is more economical than similar coloured braids. Speaking of economics, years ago I came across excellent deals on Unitikas, so I bought enough spools of both this and the coloured one above to last me well into the early 2030.

Even more economically driven choices, I don't always discard braid that is no longer usable....

Like for example this 10 years old Varivas spool, which I first fished until the top ~100 metres became frayed, then I flipped the line and fished it until the 100 metres from the other end wore out as well, then I cut off those top 100 and connected them to the bottom therefore the fresh middle was now at the top, then I proceeded to fish that fresh middle, essentially getting three lives out of a single spool of braid. That wasn't the end though, as I still kept this fully "depleted" braid for instances when I need a very small length to construct a certain rig or a similar odd use. You'll see an example later on.

For leaders I use fluorocarbon almost universally, but sometimes I'd use mono if the target fish or fishing environment would let me get away with it. Fluorocarbon's advantages are, generally speaking, lower visibility and refraction underwater, good resistance to abrasive contact with things such as rocks or the boat itself right before landing a fish, but in my book its biggest benefit is its resistance to stretching compared to mono of similar diameter. Not very obvious when dry, but when lines spend time underwater and absorption happens, mono absorbs more and stretches even more than equally wet fluoro. Also, fishing line stretch is about more than mere percentage of elongation. The behaviour of the stretching is even more important in my view; mono begins stretching once subjected to any kind of pull, fluoro resists stretching upon sudden pulls then begins to stretch when the pull persists and becomes sustained. When used as a leader with very long braid behind it then a bendy rod at the end, the fluoro is very unlikely to come under persistent and sustained pull. It's going to receive multiple sudden shocks, and it will resist stretching due to these very very well.

This characteristic of fluoro is very desirable in deep fishing, because your upward movement is partially lost in the "belly" the braid forms 80 or 100 metres below due to underwater currents, whether that movement is playing a jig or pulling the hook firmly into a fish that just bit. A stretchy leader would waste even more of your upward movement, therefore fluoro makes things better in these scenarios.

Of course once fluorocarbon is mentioned the name Seaguar must come up, considering how that company actually invented fluorocarbon line in one of the very rare instances when a company's claim about pioneering something is not a lie....

Lower test Seaguars come on spools like these, while heavier tests, when available for a certain line, come in bags with large coils in them. Fluorocarbon has high memory and it tends to take the shape it was stored in and keep it, so wrapping heavy fluoro around a small spool would cause a "springy" nightmare.

The Inshore is a decently priced line that might not have the best knot strength, yet it balances that out with excellent resistance to abrasive contact that makes it a great choice for rough shore fishing conditions. I, for example, like to hub on rocks and concrete wave breakers that aren't easily accessible to annoying tourists and their loud children, but this gives the fish I'm landing some naughty ideas like running into the submerged rocks or concrete to destroy my leader, and the Inshore does a good job resisting that, up to a certain point of course. Not a bad trade-off for what it costs.

On the other hand, Gold Label disappointed me, something I alluded to when I walked into Seaguar's exhibit during my coverage of the 2023 ICAST show. It's touted as their "thinnest" fluoro, meaning it would have the same breaking strain as other fluoro lines of larger diameters. The above photo should explain better; the three spools are marked with 40# breaking strain, yet each spool lists a different line diameter where the Blue is 0.62 mm, the Inshore 0.57 mm, and the Gold an impressive 0.52 mm. Having spent enough time testing these line both on the water and on dry land, my opinion is that the Gold does not live up to the claim as it breaks at strains considerably lower than what's claimed.

Of course line companies like to tell us that our tests don't mean anything because we use knots and knots weaken a line, and instead they obtain breaking strain numbers on machines that grab the line without knots or squashing and break it at higher numbers. I personally believe this to be a deceptive practice no different than reel manufacturers claiming exaggerated drag outputs that they obtained on nearly empty spools with dangerously over-tightened knobs and sometimes even with bone dry washers. Are we ever going to use our reels in this condition and with empty spools? Same thing with line, because we have no other option but to tie knots in it, and if one gets around that by doing an FG or a PR knot that don't bend the leader at one end, the other end is still going to have a normal knot when attached to the swivel, hook, or whatever. They aren't expecting us to crimp 40# or 50# leaders, are they?

Notwithstanding, I came up with a way to test the Gold without any knots against other Seaguar lines of the same claimed breaking strain; I cut a good length of the Gold, wrapped both its ends around a bottle without any knots, then taped the line down on the bottle so it won't move at all, leaving only a free loop. I then passed a similar length of the Inshore through  that loop then wrapped both its ends around another bottle and taped it down as well. I pulled, the Gold failed, repeated several times with new pieces of line, same results, and with only a single exception the Gold kept failing in the general vicinity of the intersecting loops, nothing to do with the wraps on the bottle. It failed even easier against the Blue, all lines involved being manufactured, tested, and labelled with an identical breaking stain by Seaguar themselves. This leaves me with the conclusion that the Gold is not exceptionally strong for its diameter as claimed.

The Blue Label though is the real deal, it served me with extreme dependability for many years, and in my mind it is the best fluorocarbon money can buy at the time of writing this. It has a truly supreme combination of knot strength, low visibility, low stretch, and such resistance to abrasive contact it survived chance encounters with toothy fish better than any fluoro I used. It is expensive, but it's worth it in my book particularly if one is on a high stakes trip that already cost a lot of money to be on. With the fierce competition these days it's very rare that a single product would stand head and shoulders above all else, but the Blue Label is one of those rarities in my opinion.

Seaguar lays fluoro like this on the small capacity spools to reduce the effects of its high memory. Neat stuff!

Still in the realm of top tier fluorocarbon....

Heard good things about this Sunline fluoro, ordered a few 90# spools to try them out in my "open weight" rigs next time I test a heavy duty spinner.

Remember the springy nightmare I referenced earlier? Sunline wrapped that heavy fluoro on a regular spool, so it came out like this thanks to its memory. Not a disaster, just a slight annoyance requiring me to dangle it from the second floor's balcony overnight with a small weight at its end, then I'll probably wrap it in big coils and put them in an empty Seaguar bag.

The good folks at Sunline retained that heavy fluoro on the spool with this elastic fabric band. Never seen anything like that before, and it gave me a wild idea....

I'm now using it as a spool band for spinners that don't come with one. That beautiful band deserves more appreciation than being given a job that a lousy elastic band can do on a fluoro spool!

Some non-Japanese fluoro....

This German Platil fluoro isn't as costly as the top Japanese brands yet the quality and characteristics aren't far behind. The 17.5kg rating is utter hellucination. At this level I ignore the breaking strain figures and decide what's good for what job based on diameter. This one is 0.60mm, so it goes after the likes of bigger Cobia on one side of the globe and medium Spangled Emperors on the other side.  

This Portuguese made Hi-Seas fluoro produces a similar quality-to-price equation, and at 0.50mm it's mostly for smaller stuff off the beach where it's usually a smooth ride and no abrasive contact is expected.

Moving on to monofilament

A single spool with 10 years supply of this excellent mono. The IGFA designation means the line breaks at lower than the stated breaking strain in order for fish caught on it to qualify for IGFA record certification in a line class category; when one catches a record fish in a certain line class, pieces of the actual line used to land it are sent with the forms to be officially tested, and they must break below the specific line class number or else the catch is disqualified. I'm not concerned with records, rather I feel that these lines generally have more rigorous quality control since people will catch very special fish on them then send the line for official testing, and any unexpected issue could ruin a potential record and be scandalous for the brand. Also these lines tend to be quite faithful to what a mono should be without gimmicks; sometimes a brand would want to market a mono that's supposedly too strong or has better knot strength etc., so they would tweak the polymer with experimental additivities or try a different treatment, which might end up with unforeseen side effects on either the line's performance or its shelf life. In short, with IGFA designated lines there is less incentive to mess around since we already know the approximate diameter of the line, and we want it to break lower, not higher than comparable lines.

Anyhow, unless it's a vintage reel, I almost never spool a reel entirely with mono nowadays. Instead I mostly use this premium Sunline mono for leaders in open water at night, or as a cushioning topshot for trolling, or as a backing for braid where some of it goes first on the empty spool to clamp it tightly then I tie the braid to it and wind normally. When braid goes directly on the spool there is a chance of line slippage unless certain techniques are used, and despite many of these techniques working fine, I still rely on the proven mono backing when spooling reels that I know will be fished at extreme drag numbers.

Now that's the tweaked stuff. This Stroft GTM is certainly strong for the diameter, but it loses a bit of suppleness and stretchiness as a side effect. Its higher resistance to abrasive contact and lower stretch make it a viable alternative to fluorocarbon as leader in certain situations, especially when cost is a concern. Been a mainstay of my arsenal for more than a decade.

Actually it has such a good reputation that it's often forged and sold in regions where the population has lower purchasing power. I received more than a few images like this one from readers around the world asking me whether it's genuine or not. This forgery is particularly outrageous because instead of just reproducing the real thing like smart crooks do, these ones wanted to embellish and added horribly worded sentences such as "Reflection Line Makes Fishes Get Blinded" and "Monofil with Fluorocarbon", the latter of which should come as a surprise to Stroft Headquarters in Germany since they produce no such line. I should probably one day write an article about the craziest stuff fishos showed me from around the world. I have many years worth of gems.

More Platil, this time ultra thin mono for shy bait fish such as small mullet. Extremely tricky to catch on line and hook, but their high stamina and survival when used as live bait makes it all worth it.

And these are what I call "ghost fillers"; similar to the "seat fillers" whose job is to sit in place of someone who got up to deliver remarks or receive an award. Some of the cheapest line I've ever bought in my life, and it's readily available whenever I need to pick some in a hurry instead of waiting for a delivery. I use it to take up space on very high capacity reels before putting my braid on top of it, only in instances when I know I would never reach this filler mono during actual fishing, because it has lower breaking strain than the braid and if I reach it during fishing and it breaks there goes my entire braid fill. Pretty useful when I need to fill a "Mammoth" size reel knowing I won't be doing any Mammothian activities on the water that day, considering how a single spool of it takes up space that would've required roughly 3 or 4 spools of braid to fill. This both makes spooling quicker and easier, and it protects my braid stocks. No need to fill a huge spool with 600 metres of braid when I expect only the top 80 or 100 metres will be used, then that wet 80 or 100 will return to the spool with salt water that seeps into the clean braid beneath it. I don't need that mess.

Lures are such a curious thing; one one hand they require more work and are less productive than bait, yet on the other hand catching a fish on them delivers a completely different level of satisfaction and a sense of validation of the fisherman's skills that bait simply can not match. Both styles involve a blend of skill and luck, but in the case of lure fishing the percentage of skill in that blend is much higher than it is in the case of baiting. This gratification is probably what makes us tolerate the higher cost of lures, that they aren't as accessible as bait, and the fact that losing them is genuinely painful. I mean I lost a $120 Carpenter Gamma in Oman nearly a dozen years ago, to this day I feel like running to my bed to weep in agony whenever I recall that moment. I've never lost any sleep over losing a chunk of squid on a hook.

Anyhow....

A selection of 6 top water stick baits and poppers that served me pretty well in a wide array of settings. Since I must always prioritise productivity as outlined earlier, I tend not to try new things all the time and therefore I choose to keep stocking on lures that proved successful for me. For example I still have maybe 9 pieces of the brown rattling Shibuki at the top, almost as many pieces of the green Tailwalk Gunz, and I bought more spotted Halcos than I care to count. The small Heddon at the bottom is my "scout" lure thanks to its versatility; if I have no idea what's in the water I'll toss it first, and more often than not it will bring out whatever is swimming around. Its red headed twin sister is probably my deadliest top water lure of all time, but unfortunately it's not featured here since I ran out of it and need to buy more soon.

When the trebles on any of them go blunt or rust I'll usually replace them with VMCs, although I'm not sure what's going on with that brand today. When I got this pack I noticed that the "Made in France".they so proudly used to print was missing, which always means the exact same thing; Asia.

Had a quick look, and found this on their site, which remains there today as I type

No ambiguity here. Any reasonable person reading this would come out thinking that VMC makes their hooks in that French factory. But upon further research I found that they actually make them in Indonesia and The Philippines despite the claims on their website and active social media....

What's wrong with everyone? Seriously, what is the matter with everyone? Sad!

Back to the subject, before I move on from poppers and stick bait I need to share a personal note of affection; I consider top water fishing to be the highest form of technical saltwater fishing, and had I been catching fish solely for my own pleasure it would be what I do 90% of the time. Casting a popper or a stick bait certainly requires more skill than simply opening the bail and letting a jig drop, it necessitates strength as well as visual and muscular coordination in order to achieve distance with precision to land it where the action is, in many cases close to but without directly impacting reefs and natural formations. It also demands mastery of one's reel in case he's presented with a scenario requiring instantaneous tightening of the drag to stop a fish from running into corals or rocks, then once that initial explosive run subdues the drag could be returned to normal fighting setting without going too much or too little either way. Technicalities aside, there is no denying that being able to often watch the strike and maybe a few tail slaps is immensely enjoyable. My all-time personal best was a baited shark, but my dream is to one day set a new personal best casting stick bait to 450# class bluefin. Well, realistically speaking and knowing how tuna is easily double the fighter any shark is, I don't believe I can fight and land it from start to finish on my own, which is a strict requirement in order to consider it my own fish, but it doesn't hurt to dream anyway.

A selection of 6 divers, with working ranges from barely below the surface to several metres down. I usually don't cast these because I'm not good enough to send these lighter lures far enough, so I mostly employ them for trolling. In most cases if it's early morning shallow divers work well, but as the sun rises and heats water fish begin to abandon the surface so I change to deeper divers. I have not gone out on a dedicated trolling trip in a very long time and I have no real desire to ever do that, instead I now troll these divers during normal cruising such as heading out of the dock or travelling between spots. It mostly yields oily species good for both eating and cutting up for bait, such as Mackrells, Bonitos, and False Albacore.

A selection of 6 jigs ranging from 60 to 250 grams. Jigging is not as poetic as surface casting, but it has the special mystery of reeling up a complete surprise every once in a while. When throwing poppers I pretty much know all likely takers, with few exceptions like when exploring new waters, but I can't remember the last time I went jigging and did not hook at least one unexpected fish. Anyhow, my bigger jigs are not specifically for bigger fish.I personally work the 80-100g ones best, which is more important than size, but conditions sometimes dictate a switch up to the heavy 250 or even 300g ones. For instance when I go beyond 80-90 metres deep and can no longer feel the weight of a 100g jig, let alone get it into an effective pumping rhythm. The heavies become a necessity then. I also switch to these big ones when nothing is hitting and I'd try to seduce fish visually using the larger glow of the bigger jigs. That's not necessarily at night, even during the day the sun doesn't penetrate the ocean as much as one thinks, and it gets dark pretty quickly at moderate depths.

I always have extra assist hooks in case of a cut off. 

On this subject, jigs are by nature more susceptible to getting snagged and lost than other lure types, and I would say I lose them at 5x the rate of other lures. Thus I learned to buy the absolute cheapest jigs I can find that meet my two very basic requirements, namely a finish reflective enough to entice fish and a bit of glow which I can test in a shop by pointing my phone's flashlight at them then sticking them under my shirt to see if they'd glow. Those cheap jigs could sometimes be constructed extremely poorly, literally in back alleys by locals supplying them to shops directly, meaning I can never rely on their structural integrity thus I'd take a vital precaution....

I make sure to attach suspect jigs to my own trusted split rings, then the assist hook goes into my split ring as well completely bypassing the jig itself. I never rig the tail or back rings on cheap jigs because those rings could be made with very weak wire or even with small pieces of scrap wire that aren't connected inside. By rigging the suspect jig in the manner shown in the photo above the jig can for all I care blow up to pieces when a fish strikes, and I'd still be reliably connected to that fish.

Remember when I said earlier that I keep braids that can no longer be spooled for other uses?

That's one of those uses. I pass the worn braid between my fingers until I find even a metre that's still in good condition, then I cut it and use it to create these "sacrificial assist hooks". I made them specifically to be weak so that in certain scenarios when the risk of snagging is high and there is no serious fish at stake, I replace the normal assists with my sacrificial ones and this way if I snag and have to break there is high probability that my sacrificial assist will break and I'd only lose the hook but not the entire jig. A major disadvantage of my silly setup is that the braid of my assist hook easily gets entangled with the leader while playing the jig. It's a compromise that comes with its own issues and I have to decide each time whether or not its benefits outweigh the risks. Need I remind you again not to try any of the foolish stuff I'm doing?  .

One of my favourite shore jigs. Unlike the flat type, this style can be cast from land and retrieved with firm upwards motion to keep it clear from the seafloor. Jack Crevalles in particular seem to hate it and they hit it with such force it almost feels like anger instead of hunger!

And a selection of 6 randomly shaped spoons and shiny blocks and spinny things that go zoom zoom in the water. The blue and red triangular things do very well in trolling, while the shiny thing with the dangly red thing is good for scouting beaches when I have no clue what's out there. Looking at these, one must ask himself some deep questions; such as if fish are so stupid they fall for these weirdly shaped objects just because they shine, who do I pay $$ for realistic looking stick baits then try to make them swim like a wounded fish? I mean fish are either stupid or smart, but they can't be both. Right?

Ayhow....

Small Catfish and Black Drums seem to love these soft baits on jig heads when I slow pitch them. Saw people taking Snooks on them as well, but wouldn't happen to me.

The jig heads by themselves bring out the artist inside me and inspire me to create stuff like this....

If you look closely you can spot the piece of lead that I split open and wrapped around the shank to give it heft, then I tapped into my non-existent fly tying capabilities to tie that sad excuse for a bucktail. As terrible as it looks, it proved irresistible to groupers that hang around in shallower water, such as near bridge pillars. If you want to buy these I'm charging $87,000.00 for each. It's true that the material is worth about 2 bucks, but my artisanship is what you're paying for and I valued it at exactly 86,998.00 dollars. That's US dollars by the way, in case you were thinking of scamming me by offering the amount in Australian or Canadian dollars then pressuring me to accept claiming it's my fault for not specifying the currency. Ha!

And these spend most of their lives in the car trunk since they belong in the freshwater tackle box. Bodies of freshwater are always a drive away, fishing them is pretty relaxing, but it doesn't give me the same excitement as saltwater. I have several pieces of each as well since they do work and I'm not passionate enough about the genre to explore others. I took some decent Largemouth Bass on these.

And yes I do test freshwater reels regularly for my Top Picks' red table and it's actually the easiest job in the world. You just don't request them enough, and whatever you request gets my time and resources. I'm writing for you, not for myself to look at it later and feel awesome, although to be honest I am unquestionably awesome.

That's a freshwater lure, I guess? Don't know, I received it as a welcome gift when I ordered something from a Japanese shop for the first time. Looks like a small version of the flying thing that Godzilla keeps fighting in Tokyo's skyline, then it defeats it and walks away in what supposed to be a happy ending, totally ignoring the fact that they just knocked down half the buildings in the capital, probably killing 8 to 9 million people. But I digress. I think I'm keeping this lure at home because I honestly don't want to eat or even see the kind of fish that would eat something this ghoulish. If you want it it's yours for free, but you have to buy one of my handmade bucktail jigs first and you'll get this one free of charge with it.

.

And a few miscellaneous items to wrap it up....

Swivels with coastlock snaps for quick swapping of lures in jobs that aren't very demanding, but they have no place in heavier rigs where the slower but infinitely more dependable split rings do the job. Shout solid rings now face intense competition from excellent offerings by other brands, but they served me faithfully for a very long time so I'm sticking to them. Solid rings have countless uses but I mainly use  them as an intermediary between a split ring and the line since it's not advisable to tie line directly to a split ring, and I also use them when I fear that an object could cause line chafing so I slide a split ring onto that object then a solid goes in that split ring and I can then safely tie the line to that solid. Ignore the AFW bag at the top; I placed a field mix in it to keep them dry on the water, and I genuinely don't know why it's photobombing this picture. I must have thought it was something else.

And here are my rusty.. I mean trusty split ring pliers, which are theft-proof. How? Well, their cheapness and the abundant rust spots on them make them undesirable to thieves. In the past I carried nice titanium ones, but a dude on a party boat borrowed them at the end of the day and he must have slipped them in his pocket ready to use the "oh I forgot" defence if I remembered to ask for them back. But I did not remember, and they were gone. People are really weird and pitiful.

Something that I wish never rusted though is my hard-working folder, which I just retired because it's literally falling apart. I also no longer feel comfortable sticking it in fish since I'd basically be introducing iron oxides into their flesh via the rusty blade. Since 2011 this knife has helped me kill hundreds of fish instantly and painlessly, bleed them, or quickly check their stomach contents to see what they've been eating and adjust my bait or lures accordingly. I would've given it a respectful sea burial while playing Adagio for Strings on my phone, but that would be polluting the ocean with the plastic scales. If you want it it's yours for free, but you know what you need to do first.

This is my new partner. A cheap but well made Boker Magnum Law Enforcement. It's a good match for a fisherman who'd always be holding something else and has one free hand, as it has a stud for one hand opening (red arrow), a liner lock for one hand closing (blue arrow), and a seatbelt cutter (green arrow) which is brilliant for cutting braid by pulling it across its blade without the need to open the main blade. (Apologies for the photo quality since the knife is in another residence, and I had to crop this from the background of a photo in one of the reviews. Will replace it with a better photo when I go home).

My gimbal also falls within the cheap & practical category, since it has to go into the checked luggage when I fly and I need to keep things that go out of my sight as unattractive to crooks as possible. I've had things stolen from my checked luggage before. Anyway, that gimbal looks filthy and neglected, but it actually isn't. It's covered in fish blood that got absorbed into the cheap plastic and I couldn't scrub it off. I have proof....

There you go; blood, not grime. You'll see the full photo in the near future by the way. Been doing some interesting stuff that I have a feeling you'll enjoy hearing about.

Grabbed some sinkers as I wrapped up my shopping extravaganza, but little did I know that they would drag me down a journey of enigmatic intrigue....

Well, I'm being too melodramatic here. They just have some curious text at the back. What "parts" are there in a chunk of lead?

Oh wait, almost forgot

I got this thrown in one of the boxes coming from Japan. My Daiwas perform best with their original "Ultimate Tournament Drag" grease, and wanted to get some just in case the silly sausages at Daiwa decide to restrict it too and demand that we send our reels in for simple drag maintenance.

Speaking of maintenance, I better finish this article because as I pulled items to photograph I discovered this box of German, Japanese, Swedish, and British cuties from my permanent collection, and they seem overdue for full maintenance and lubing. Better get to work. 

I hope this was a fun read. For many years you came here and only saw the reels, now you've seen the gear that support those reels on their mission to show me what they're capable of, which I then turn around and report to you to the best of my abilities. Next time you read a review you'll have a better idea about what went on in the background, and I hope this would make the reviews an even more interesting read for you.

My tardiness in publishing this article means that you'll likely be reading it as you're about to begin your holiday, and whether to you this holiday is a celebration of the birth of the Lord & Saviour who gave us life and everything we love in it, or just a chance to enjoy the festive atmosphere and the gathering of family and friends, I wish you a merry Christmas and a wonderful start of 2025.

Cheers

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Alan Hawk

December, 21st, 2024

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