Print Page | Close Window

casting and sinkers

Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Saltwater Fishing
Forum Name: Hints,Tips and How To's
Forum Description: Rigs, tackle, baits, angling techniques, tips and hints & your DIY projects here
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=30704
Printed Date: 08 Jul 2026 at 1:26pm


Topic: casting and sinkers
Posted By: Narcosis_prince
Subject: casting and sinkers
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2008 at 9:18pm
Hi, i am having trouble getting my casting sorted, i have aquired both a 12 foot and a 15 foot rod neither of them can i seem to cast very far... i know my technique needs work but wondering if there maybe sinker weights come into play?  



Replies:
Posted By: smudge
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2008 at 9:30pm
You need to have your mono, rod, reel and terminal tackle 'matched' to each other to get good results. The best set ups wont perform unless your technique is sorted. Hopefully someone in these forums is a casting guru and can offer you some help because I can't!


Posted By: Carbine
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2008 at 10:18pm
If your really keen to get into it there are surf casting clubs around and i think some have distance days might be a good time to watch and learn and pick up some tips. One thing i found was dont buy a lemon and expect to be distance casting anytime soon, there are heaps of different distance righs out there that hold the bait by the sinker so when it touches down it releases normally which helps with less wind resistance which means more distance.

When i started i was lobbing 4oz teardrops with a full heave only 60ish meters it was pretty frustrating but slowly learnt things and tried different rigs and each helps abit but the main one is the gear and tenique a rod that loads up properly helps normal cheapies are a waste just spend some time and money on a nice surf rod and reel. When i was thinking of line weight i was using 10kg but it was to big for the beach so went down to 6k and got more distance and had no worries winching in stingrays and eaglerays not many snapper but i was trying.

If you youtube there are vids and some tips on tenique that might help but again with a normal rod it would shatter some of these guys can do 150-200m no worries.

Overall i would say go down to the local surf casting club meeting and introduce yourself and go from there. As the old man said fish your feet first i use to try and get distance but got my best land based fish at stanmore bay in 5m of water 15m off the rock i was on so distance is not everything. Oh and google earth some spots and find some contour to fish and read some of the older pages in the walk about section heaps of points have been raised overtime and lots of great advice given.

I got bored of land based so copped out and got a boat lol so yeah im a sell out LOL

Cheers tight lines


Posted By: Uncle
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2008 at 10:29pm
One of the simplest things that many overlook is the ammount of line on the reel.
The spool should be filled to within a millimeter of full if optimum distance is to be achieved.
 
In my experience, many store bought combo's fall well short of that.


Posted By: Badfish
Date Posted: 05 Jul 2008 at 9:29am
As carbine said clubs are great for all aspects of surfcasting IMO. Youtube has a lot of vids to help you with casting technique. Can't go past what smudge said either, you set up needs to be balanced to achieve the best out of it, but without a doubt some set ups will perform a lot different to others no matter how good you are.

-------------
http://www.legasea.co.nz" rel="nofollow">


Posted By: Narcosis_prince
Date Posted: 05 Jul 2008 at 6:10pm
ok so next question! how do you balance your gear? currently i am using 10bl braid with 4oz sinkers...


Posted By: smudge
Date Posted: 06 Jul 2008 at 12:54am

When fisherman talk about balanced gear it means making sure the reel, rod, line, sinker and terminal tackle are suited to each other. Some rods aren't designed to cast a heavy sinker others are. I don't have the knowledge to recommend anything in particular. Make sure you use a mono shock leader when casting with braid... as has already been said, good gear and good technique are both necessary to get distance.

 



Posted By: sooshee
Date Posted: 06 Jul 2008 at 4:21pm

Narcosis, what Smudge said is right- try and fish sinker weights that are within the rod rating (this is usually printed on the bottom section of the rod). I'm not a guru but one of the basic things taught to me is to swing the rod back to "load" it and power forward just as the rod wants to spring back. Too light a sinker will not load your rod properly while a sinker that is too heavy will cause the rod to lose power on the forward cast.

Make sure you have a shock leader to go with that 10lb braid (40lb mono should suffice for 4oz sinker). It will be more comfortable to cast with as it will allow your to put some power into the cast without braid cutting into your finger.

You will also lose distance with bulky baits too.
 
Cheers, and let us know how you go.


Posted By: 45kg_puka
Date Posted: 13 Jul 2008 at 10:57pm
mono, rod, reel and terminal tackle 'matched' to each other naaaa get a long distance casting reel fill it with 15kg line use 4oz topedo sinkers stream line your bait eg: dont use big hunks of bait. and your away laughing dont beleieve me try it. im doing 70 80 mtrs some times more if i need to hit that gutter further out, mind you i do have a 15ft rod with medium action to it.




Print Page | Close Window