Hi there experienced fisherman,

I’m new to the fishing game without anyone to guide me so I came to this forum for some advice.

I’m looking to get into fishing however after doing some research online I am getting slightly confused.

I have come to the conclusion that I will be doing land based fishing from the rocks (no surf casting) and I am looking for some advice regarding my first rod and reel combo.

My aim is to catch some beautiful medium sized fish that would occasionally be eaten as well. (Think snapper, blue cod, trevally, tarahiki. Etc)

However I don’t think I will be going for any big game fish like kingfish, marlin and such.

I just want to fish from shore in my spare time and have some fun and ideally catch a dinner as well.

After researching the milllion types of rods out there I think I am most likely need a 8ft rod since anything smaller seems to be for boat fishing and bigger seems to go into the range of surf casting. (correct me if I’m wrong)

Is it true that if I am looking to catch these fish I should be looking for a rod with the strength of 10-15kg? Or would 8-12kg or 6-10kg be better?

I have come to understand that the line strength should match the rod strength. (correct me if I’m wrong)

However when it comes down to reels I get confused, there are so many different reels, overhead, spinning, jigging etc.

And then also the numbers, 2000, 4000, 8000 and onwards. They seem to refer to the size of the reel but I don’t really understand how this comes into play when going for a certain type of fishing.

I have learned that I should probably be using a dropper rig setup.

Can someone give me a bit of clarification and if possible a recommendation for a rod reel combo with line that would be good for the above mentioned fishing I’d like to do?

Thanks in advance for helping out this newbie.

Kind regards
Stan.

No complicated rigs for rock fishing, just a hook and maybe a swivel and perhaps a small sinker. Anything else is just asking for snags. Monofilament mainline is fine. Use burley to increase catch rate. 

don’t stress too much about exact rod length, anything 8-10ft should work fine.