Went out The noisies and first cast a little 32cm snap  ne and out going tide made it a little bit uncomfortable,next tried billy goat point and got hits but no hook ups,but the sb was being stripped from head, happened about 5 times. Now what braid should I use? was using mono but think the weight of the mono was not getting sb down quick enough.So carried on aroound to boulder bay where I landed a lot of 29cm fish,but lost another 5 sb.This time I anchored due to wind against tide,then it happened when time to retrieve anchor,bow went down chain jumped off gypsey put hand down knelt on winch button and hand in way now have 8 stitches for my trouble.And my crew totally useless. Will definatly give it another go.

thanks steps

PJ - depending on the time of day you either drove way too far or not far enough. 

x2, keep it up PJC. It's a great string to have to your bow.

carry a tube of instant bonding superglue and put a couple of drops on the jig head to help hold the softbait on, just be careful not to glue your fingers to it aswell.  a glued on Zman can do 5+ trips & 100+ fish easy before it needs replacing

Proof that soft baiting is dangerous!

www.trademe.co.nz/sports/fishing/salt-water/soft-baits/auction-1465807388.htm

to go set by shimano I think $125 ish,have to drop hint to wife.

 We have shimano rods/ reels, okumas that have been religated to crew gear....be it stray line or soft bait..
 And when upgraded , modestly .. dont have deep pockets...to little more better gear, both the SB and stray lining improved dramatically. Even then definately not in the all out soft baiting ideal, mid range pricing.
 Min I would go a shimano oc 4000  ( I use for by got to stray line now) on a obsolete okuma  braid concept 6/ 10 kg rod. For rod with the 400oc would go okuma nano matrix for SB.
 The shimamno / okuma x factors, extreme, catalinas dont quite make the grade for sb.. fine for stray line thu.

I would not go to okuma bait runners thu.. had heaps issues with several... ideally for soft bait reel and over budget the shimano thunus
Ideal thunus is a around $300  on special $270  and nano matrix around the $170... then throw in  the j braid another $60 ..

 Its taken 5 or 6 yrs to just get to the gear we have now....

 Sb s well it is far to easy to get carried away...
Start with a pack of 4" (small) and types that have "glow" on the label... a dark speckled and a brighter orange/ green sort of colours.
 Then build from there..
a pack 3/8 and 5/8  3/0
 And good to go to around 25meters.

We dont use a sea anchor very often at all.. bit lazy...if the sb doest hit them the bait will....in saying that , definitely get the fast drift and the SB  fish in the bin drops dramatically...

And I dont care what anyone says " smelly bait over SBs"
The bloody gulps and pastes bloody stink... more over fresh bait on the board all the time.

Xmas is coming....

Everything said above

Up to 20 metres, a ZMan paddle tail in New Penny, loaded with secret sauce....my usual starting point.
Up to 3/4 or 1oz. if 30 metres.

Rod action is a soft bendy tip to impart movement, stiff butt to lift the fish.

Big fan of Sufix 832 braid, 10, 15 and 20lb.
Spend more on a reel and you get a much better drag, very important with bigger fish that pull some line. I had a reel with a drag that was not smooth. Lost a few when it jerked tight, got it upgraded to Carbontex and serviced and landed a 20lb on 10 lb braid and a PE 0.4-1 Veritas rod.


Some of the cheaper Shimano reels are ok, but the drag will get hammered by bigger fish.

pjc wrote: will get an assortment of heads an S/Bs next week.  What type of braid,so many on the market and what line strength is common?