Looking for a project this year to have a bit of fun with next year  nationals  in mind and I thinking after having a blast and a few tears on rat kingies on 3 kg that 4kg may be the go with a dedicated set.

A few questions with where to start.

I am thinking I will go down the over hear route (something about bail arms and a extra complication read another thing for me to stuff up), not sure on reels  yet but like to hear what people are using currently to target Snaps, Kings, Albies and the odd Shark (Not marlin ).

A question are duel drags of any benefit in this line class or do they feature more in the bigger line classes (up to 10kg).

What brand IGFA line ?

Rods what should I be looking for in a rod- loading, length, configuration (rollers, Sic, spiral or conventional)

And what connections at the sharp end are people using ?

As far as reels go, if you can find a TLD5, I can recommend that for both 3 or 4 kg mono. I used mine for many years in competitive light tackle comps and their drags (lever) were excellent for that environment. Kingis, sharks, big mulloway/jewfish and plenty of couta. They are now probably almost 20 years old and still work flawlessly (thanks to a good service from Jeff Murray when needed). We used Double X and Triple Fish IGFA mono in both 3 & 4 kg and they were testing consistently and close to specified limit. Provided the drag is good, your knots become your weak point if you aren't burnt or rubbed off. I always used double leader and trace as close to the maximum permissible IGFA length. Like BigFishBob, we fished ceramic guides.

Reels - If only interested in overheads then lever drag is the only way to go, you know what drag you have all the time. I use Shimano TR1000's awesome drags (I played a YFT about 35-40 kg on 6 kg on one of these for over 3 hours with about 3 kg of drag before finally busting off through impatience on my part (fish was within 10-20m of the boat for 2 hours and I just couldn't get it that last bit). The drag worked perfectly the whole time. Another option worth considering is a Shimano Tynos 8 single or 2 speed (don't think you actually need a 2 speed) they have fantastic drags as well.

Yup the little SL20's punch well above their weight thats for sure, I will get the full service ( and maybe even learn to cast it properly to ).

We use TLD20's for all our light line stuff from 2-6kg. The spools are half filled super tight with 50lb mono then taped off with electrical tape and filled with the light line over the top. The 4 reels we use have had the drags worked on my a shop in florida but. Even at 3.6:1 with the larger spool we can still get a lot of line back and have super smooth drags.

Thats not a bad idea Keith and cost effective as well - the TR 1000 LD is around the $200 mark give or take I think.

I have an Abu Ambassadeur 6500 C3CT Elite that would be a wee beaut 4kg outfit, been tweaked from SwordfishSteve to be like a swiss watchUsed to be a UK long distance casting reel, reckon it would be a cracker on 3-4-6kg.

Moocha wrote: reeldeal wrote: I would have a look at Avet, They have 4 reels in that class, SXJ 350yds of 4kg, SX 450yds of 4kg, MXJ 500yds of 4kg, MXL 600yds 4kg, all with max drag of 14lbs, and all in single or 2 speed, all lever drag. Also there is a south florida drag arm for using lighter line weights, giving you finer adjustment through the drag curve, great for light line tournament fish. Its a less aggressive cam.  SXJ is the size of the Trini 10 That sounds promising Cam, for chasing fish game (short of Marlin) on 4kg what are the thoughts on comfortably required line capacity ? like the sound of that South Florida drag cam, is it an audiable click adjustment ?

Hi Mark,

had a little Avet MX turn up today in the mail, thanks Cam, will give it a good turn as soon as possible.

well I have decided to fit the AVET MXJ up to an Ugly stick I have it is a custom built job and has a beautiful action for light stiff, the reel is fitted with light braid so that will be a bit of fun, as soon as the weather settles I will go and play silly buggers.