Mission possible: Catch a GT!: 2013

When you are looking at your rod's casting weight you should be aware that some manufacturers refer to the weight of a rigged lure (e.g. Carpenter, Smith) and some seem to refer to the weight of the lure excluding hooks and all (e.g. Ripple Fisher). In the first case, it is important to know how much your hooks and split rings weigh. Hence, I ordered some different hooks and weighed them. Here are the results:

Triple hooks:
Owner ST-76TN 3/0 8,9 grams
Owner ST-76TN 4/0 12,7 grams
Owner ST-76TN 5/0 18,9 grams

Single Hooks:
Owner Jobu 9/0 12,3 grams
Owner SJ-41TG 13/0 9,8 grams

Split rings:
Kazax 180-300lb 1,7 grams
Owner HyperWire #11 1,8 grams

And since I was already weighing stuff I also weighed two of my lures (Heru Wahoo 125 and Gunz 120 Sinking) and I noticed that both of them weighed about 7 grams more than indicated by the manufacturers. So be aware that what you buy is not exactly what you get.

Let's put all that together and assume that I rig my Heru Wahoo 125 with a baker rig at the belly (consisting of the two Owner SJ-41TH 13/0 hooks plus one split ring) and one single assist hook (Owner Jobu 9/0 plus one split ring) at the tail then the rigs alone would weigh 35,3 grams all together. Consider that (plus a split ring and a swivel on the nose of the lure) and your (supposedly) 125 grams lure suddenly weighs about 170 grams!

Why am I telling you all that? Well, my rod supports 200 grams casting weight so I thought let's buy a Heru Wahoo 150. But then I though twice and decided to get some terminal tackle first and weight it and that was a good decision. Because, if I rigged the Heru Wahoo 150 then it would weigh about 200 grams and while that might be just ok usually the maximum limit is not the comfort weight. So in case you don't have a Ripple Fisher rod (that apparently refers to the lures weight excl. terminal tackle) then you might want to consider the terminal tackle's weight before buying lures.

I will buy some more different hooks in the future and update my list accordingly. Hope this helps. Tight lines!

UPDATE: There's a list of hook sizes and weights here in the Hammerhead website and another list here on Gamefishing India's Blog.

Donnerstag, 28. Februar 2013

Jigging rods

After having written about popper and stickbait rods before, I also did some research on suitable jigging rods (for jigging for GTs). Please notice that in the meantime I have updated this post and I have replaced many rods by lighter versions. For most cases jigs from 200gr to 300gr will be perfect (also for dogtooth tuna) and most rods were to heavy for those sizes. For exactly that reason I have also removed the Carpenter and Fisherman jigging rods. Even though they are highly recommended, only the lightest models work such jigs and those models may be slightly too "weak" for GTs.
All models listed here are for spinning reels (not for conventional reels). Which one you prefer is mostly up to your preference. So here we go:

Manufacturer	Model	Lure Weight	PE Class	Rod Length	Transport Length	Rod Weight (gr)	Max Drag (kg)	Price
HOTS	Fake Lez 63H	280	4-8	6.3	192	-	-	55,650 YEN
MC Works	Southern Blue Akabara 556	200-400	5-8	5.5	168	300	13	850 USD
MC Works	Southern Blue Akabara 535	150-300	5-6	5.3	162	-	12	~50,000 YEN
JiggingMaster	Three Kings 53S-L	250-400	4-8	5.3			33	623 USD
Ocean Tackle International	Fathom Blade 300S	225-300	4-8	5.4	-	-	10	310 USD
Ripple Fisher	568	320	6	5.6	171	-	-	56,000 YEN
Ripple Fisher	SELFISH 597 Vertical Model	180-240	6	5.9	180	261	-	58,000 YEN
Shimano	TCurve Revolution Offshore	200-400	6	5.2	160	-	-	300 AUD
Smith	AMJ S52EX	400	4-8	5.2	159	280	14	39,900 YEN
Synit	Venom V350FT (Blank)	200-400	4-6	5.4	165	120 (only Blank)	14	only custom made, price on request
Synit	Kaha KH300	200-400	5-6	5.3	162	-	14	only custom made, price on request
Valley Hill	EXP-53XS The Deep Quaker II	250-480	6-8	5.3	-	313	-	630 USD, 45,000 YEN
Xzoga	Taka-SA 350-56	350	5-8	5.6	174	-	15	419,00 EUR

You might wonder why I did search for jigging rods but the answer is simple. Casting heavy lures the whole day is tiring (I know that from pike fishing) and jigging (even though physically demanding by its own means) is a different type of movement and allows me to relax some parts of my muscles. Furthermore, you can reach different species and why not fish something else than GTs?

All you experts: please help me improve my rod list. In case you feel there are important rods missing or some don't fit the list, just let me know.

Sonntag, 3. Februar 2013

Chosing a (popper and stickbait) rod

Searching for a nice rod has always been one of my favorite parts of preparation. Actually chosing (i.e. deciding for one) is not that easy though. There are multiple selection criteria and you never get it all in one package (unless you take the price out of the equation). My decision depends on: technical parameters, quality of the components, feeling, design, reputation, price. The technical parameters (lure weight, rod length, max drag, PE class, transport length) must be suited for the task and they are the most important criterion. But since I never fished for GT before (not even any other tropical species) I can only rely on other people's experience in this case. In order to do that I browsed internet forums (such as Big Game Board, GT Popping or 360 Tuna) and read through recommendations of fishing guides (such as Andres Expeditions (German) or Green Fishing (French)). From all those different sources I tried to collect information about the typical lure weight, the required line strength (that reflects in the PE number of a rod) and the typical rod length. Here is the result:

Manufacturer	Model	Lure Weight	PE Class	Rod Length	Transport Length	Rod Weight (gr)	Max Drag at 45° (kg)	Price
Carpenter	Monster Hunter 80H	250	8-10	8.0	167	430	13	75,000 YEN
Carpenter	Coral Viper 79/40	200	6-8	7.9	168.5	385	12	75,000 YEN
Carpenter	The Blue Lagoon 80/40	240	8	8.0	170	400	13	75,000 YEN
FCL Labo	UCB81 Extreme	180	8-10	8.1	177	380		800 AUS
Fisherman	GT-GAME-T	220	8	7.6	151	-	-	101,600 YEN
Hammerhead	Faube 77M+	180	10	7.7	167	385	11	-
HOTS	GIPANG 79XH	230	6-10	7.9	-	-	-	51,975 YEN
Patriot Design	World Combat GTZ Black Mafia 76	230	8-12	7.6	-	515	17	95,000 YEN
Race Point (by Saltywater Tackle)	Race Point 250	180	10	7.5	-	395	16	700 USD
Ripple Fisher	Fanta Stick GT79 reversal	120-180	10	7.9	-	390	-	887 USD, 895 EUR
Ripple Fisher	Final Spirit GT79H	170-220	12	7.9	-	395	-	887 USD, 63,000 YEN
Ripple Fisher	Ultimo 79MH UG Swim	160	8	7.9	-	357	-	63,000 YEN
Shimano	Kaibutsu Surface Monster	250	-	7.8	147	-	-	350 EUR
Smith	WRC-Komodo Dragon	300	12	7.6	162	430	10	82,950 YEN
Smith	WRC-Tokara60	250	12	7.6	-	420	13	610 EUR, 74,550 YEN
Temple Reef	Reefer 711-10	170	10	7.11	174	410	14	690 USD
Xzoga	Taka Pi 7708	450 (officially), ~150 (in practice)	8	7.7	-	410	20	414 USD, 419 EUR
Zenaq	Fokeeto 80-10	230	7-10	8.0	175	-	423	-

Notice / Update: in the meantime I have removed and added some rods. The ones removed were either rarely recommended in expert forums or no GT rods. I've added some rods like Racepoint or Temple Reef but for those I couldn't find a lot of reviews / feedback in the internet.

The next thing I did was analyzing all that data and deriving average numbers. Why? Well, I do not trust one single person's opinion (since there is a lot of hidden advertisement). But when you aggregate all those people's opinions than you get a quite reliable look at the essence. And here it is:

The average popping rod is 8 ft long (244cm) and it is optimized for lures weighing up to 190 grams and PE class 8 (which means 100lb braided line). It should be able to support a drag force of at least 10 kg (22lb). It consists of two parts: the handle and the main rod, where the main rod part is longer, around 175cm in average.

What I couldn't find out from reading through internet pages is the feeling of the rod. This is the biggest drawback of my research and here in Germany there aren't a lot of shops where I could touch those rods. That's too bad, since the feeling is a very subjective quality, I believe.
Speaking of design: well, interestingly, the cheaper rods look fancier (in my opinion) where the more expensive ones almost look alike, very simple. But this is understatement, guys. Apparently, it's the feeling that sets them apart. And honestly, I haven't fished for GT yet but from freshwater fishing I can confirm that this is the most important aspect. So I trust the experts here.
Speaking of reputation and price: the more expensive, the more praise. Interestingly, I noticed that there is a difference between the information that you find in global forums and country-specific forums. Apparently, some manufacturers focus their marketing on single markets (e.g. OTI (on USA), Xzoga (on Germany), Tenryu (on France)) which raises my suspection but you may think of that what you will. One thing is safe to say though: Fisherman, Carpenter, Smith and Ripple Fisher are the most praised brands, and the most expensive ones. Carpenter and Ripple Fisher introduced quite a lot of innovations over the last years, where Fisherman and Smith rely on models that were mostly introduced some 10 years ago (but still get praise).
Now, let's talk money finally: all these rods aren't cheap exactly. (Notice: the prices that you find in the table above are subject to changes.) Usually, I start with a medium-prized rod. Only here, there is none. Another approach is to look at availability. Many Japanese rods aren't available outside of Japan or their price is considerably higher in US or EU internet shops. I compared Japanese prices to US or EU prices using X-Rates and I identified only one EU shop that resells Japanese rods at a reasonable price. I'd advice you to do the same before chosing a rod. The best thing you can do for sure is to buy rods in Japan (if you happen to go there or have a friend travelling there).

There is a very useful guide (by Brandon Khoo) to buying popping rods on GTPopping.com. Read it!

Have fun deciding for yourself.
Tight lines.

Mittwoch, 30. Januar 2013

Introduction

Hey there, I am passionate freshwater fisher with a new mission: catch a GT! In the following posts I will share with you what I did and what do in order to achieve that goal. First let me introduce myself. My name is Robert and I am from Berlin, Germany. I am currently working on my PhD thesis (in engineering and computer science) and I will gift a fishing holiday to myself upon completion of my thesis. Quite a good motivation, btw. That means that I will actually only be able to catch my GT by mid-2014! So be patient with me. In the meantime I will prepare that holiday trip by researching the following topics:

What equipment do I need?
Where should I go to catch a GT?

Of course, there will be more topics popping up and I hope that some of you will enrich my research with your valuable knowledge.

Thanks for your interest and tight lines!

Mission possible: Catch a GT!

Mittwoch, 3. April 2013

Videos (to get you hooked)

Dienstag, 19. März 2013

GT fishing destinations

Sonntag, 17. März 2013

Hooks and their weights