I am almost a complete newbie - I've been out fishing occasionally with a mate on his boat, but he's done all the hard work of providing a rod, finding the choice spots, etc.

 

I finally decided to have a go myself, and my mate kindly gave me an old rod and bought a reel which my wife gave me for my birthday. I took it out on the kayak, and caught a fish (yay!) but lost the rod and reel overboard (d**n).

 

So I am looking for a new one (which I will tether to the yak - once bitten and all that). Because I am a newbie I don't feel I can justify spending a huge amount of money, so am looking around the $150 range. Because I'm fishing from a kayak, I don't want a long rod - I imagine 6 foot would be the longest I'd want to go for. I'm fishing around the Wenderholm/Waiwera/Whangaparaoa area, targetting snapper. I've only ever used a spinning reel, so would prefer to stick with what I know. The models I have seen are the Shimano Alivio 10000 Spinning Reel with Eclipse 6ft rod 8-12 kg, and the Penn Powerspin 6001 TBM 6ft rod with Powerspin 8000 Reel. Would you consider either of these good for a novice to learn on for a few years? Or are there other rod and reel combos in my price range would would be better?

 

Many thanks!

 

Many thanks for that Steve, I'll look around those three brands.