Was going to bring a grappler PE8 rod and Saragosa 18000 and thena 80lb monster mesh jig rod, spare braid.  Is TAS line oK??

what lures?  

5 night live abourd trip

Currently i was thinking about buying the new 2020 Saragosa 18000 and a grappler stick bait rod, run PE 8 line. 150lb leader

The boat is Dropcast live about 5 nights.

I think the rod and reel you have planned should do the goods.  I have generally taken a couple of 8000 stellas with me with jigging master 16000 spools.

I think I had JB 100 lb braid and 130 lb varivas trace.  I have not been dusted as yet but the drag on the reels has been well cranked up and I have only caught one really decent GT (which started of in about 7 metres of water, got the boat driver to drag me out deep ASAP).

Lures - I have tended to move away from the heavy cup faced poppers to stick baits which are easier to work, especially in the tropical heat.  You want enough weight so you can cast them into the wind as the vessel is quite often down wind of the structure for safety.  A few cup faced lures such as Heru Cubera in 130, 150 or 180grams are good.  Heru skipkack also good, less noise but easier (= less tiring) to work and good to cast and a few stick baits.

Make sure you have good strong rings and I have also used extra strong treble hooks.  A lot of people prefer singles, but I have stuck with trebles Owner  and ST76 and have still have had the odd hook straightened.

If you are going to be spending some good coin on the trip my main piece of advice would be to get your gear together and get out to the local park or beach and get as much casting practise in as you can.  You want to get as much distance and accuracy as you can and getting this practice on the first day of your charter is not the best time.  Make sure your braid to trace knot (FG) is sorted so you can easily retie this knot when at sea.  I tend to run a heavy ball swivel at the end of the trace and use a heavy split ring to attach this to the lure, makes it easy to change the lures.

I've done a lot of popping for kings back in the day, my fitness and grip is pretty good as I train 3x week grappling BJJ etc and although not used to hours and hours of casting have caught a few game fish/swords this year.  but great idea to go and get the casthing back up to speed

Farmer - I was wondering about trace as some other I have spoken to are using 200lb and that seems so huge .

I have also been told to bring spare braid incase of being spooled, its hard to believe 300m with 22kg of max drag would be in danger??

Those Heru lures look good.

I have also heard of squashing barbs?  Safety etc.

keep the advice coming

Make sure you change out the rings and hooks for something sturdier.

The same reel will work on either rod.

I have some 200lb trace as well as 130lb trace over in Aitutaki but don't think I have ever used the 200lb.  I think if you end up with jonah on the end of the lure and it takes you into the reef you will probably get dusted regardless of whether it is 200 or 130lb.

Looking at a couple of old videos I noticed another thing I take over is some casting gloves - good to save the hands from the braid when casting all day, I also take over a good pair of pliers for the split rings.

I have one 16000 reel spooled with 100lb braid and a spare spool 10000 size also spooled with 100lb braid.  I also have another two 16000 spools spooled with 50lb braid which I use for trolling and live baiting around Aitutaki.  We have access to a small stabicraft boat over there when we go over for our annual trip.

I have not bothered squashing barbs on the hooks but the charter skipper may have some preferences around what he wants happening on his vessel.

This fish was on a stickbait

This one was on softbait gear

The beauty of stick baits is that you can let the rest of the crew do the hard work raising the fish with the noisy harder to work poppers and you can then sneak a dirty little stick bait in behind their lures and catch their fish.

We generally fish on the sheltered side of the island and have an offshore wind blowing us away from the reef.  That way if we do hook up to something reasonable it does not take very long before we are blown out to several hundred metres of depth.  

We have caught a few reasonable GTs and Neopolitan Wrasse on the lighter gear there over the years.  We are usually targeting smaller Mu which is a good quality eating fish.

Dropcast's base is 5 min down road from me. He does well on the LoB trips - because he is fishing away from home - which is fairly hammered by other charters day trips. 

200lb mono leader is common. Because lots of those fish have sharp teeth and live in gnarly country. I had a Sargossa 1800, but that got knackered and I now use the 20,000s. Good reels capable of most what you need. But usually you will be putting max drag on most stuff. Firstly to pull them out of the rough stuff, and then there are the ......sharks. Lots of the good spots also hold sharks and it is often a race to see who gets the fish.

Good luck, should be a good trip. I should be there at same time.

Regards

Alan