hi jw

yes you can cast a tld but sometimes its very hard if the popper you are casting is light. I have a TLD 2 SPEED 20 and the spool is quite heavy making it hard to cast light lures with mind you its not what i got it for.

 I have also heard that the daiwa sealine lever drags and very good and castable

TLD's are designed for light game fishing and the spools are built strong - and heavy!  Reels like these are castable but you must be a good caster to control those inevitable overruns, don't like the idea of unpicking a backlash while my $30 popper is lying amongst the rocks!

Been looking at the new Progear reels, these have awesome free spool with a one-piece Alloy frame. Apparently the Yanks use them for live baiting for Tuna , casting & jigging etc.  These reels are around jigmaster size and look bulletproof and also look nice.

How about Daiwa SLX40, great casting reel with good capacity and drag.

If you really want a truly versatile, all-round Kingi reel, I'd say that it'd be more important to have a reel capable of Live baiting and speed-jigging, they'd be the 2 most common forms ofkingi fishing. popper casting is a little more iffy.

For a high speed jigging reel, and also one good for general live baiting or indeed general fishing, reels like the Penn 555GS or whatever they are are great. Certainly speed jigging with a tld is hard work. Or, diawa sl50sh is another excelent reel. Live baiting with reels like these is every bit as easy, if not more so  than using lever drags really.

As for casting with poppers, well, unless you are a real gun, do not do too much casting, and as Scarpie says, don't mind picking birdsnests out of your line while your popper settles snugly into a rock, i suppose an overhead reel would be fine, but if you are going to be getting right into casting, cast after cast, aiming for max distance with minimal trouble, yuo really do have to have a spinning reel. The Mitchel Nautil 7500 (the black one is the high speed model) is an excellent reel for this, very solid, great line cap, great handle, infinite antireverse etc etc.

If you are going to get into kingies mainly on livies, only a little speed jigging, but also want something  that can handle really big fish in deep water, you could load a Penn Formula 10LD up with about 1000m of 50lb braid, and then you have an excellent all-round reel. The Penn Formula10LD is the same as the two speed version, but only (obviously) a single speed... makes no difference really to the perfomance having the single gear. it is a smaller spool than the Formula15LD, (narrower) but otherwise identical,is solid, and is really comfortable to use.

Oh, in case i am accused of bias? i gave away my shim tld30 in favour of a Penn Formula15ld (yes, gave), I also have stopped using my trusty Penn Senator 9/0 in favour of the Formula10ld for hapuku fishing, and for trolling gave away 2 shim tld25s to the guys in the solomons so i could use my new Penns ( Form 15LDs and  245LDs (updated 45gls) i got from Smart marine) because i was tired of the cheapie plasticky feel of the tlds.

Hmmm... seem to strayed a little off topic, sorry.

  You can cast anything really, but it is a LOT easier and predictable in performance to use casting reels for casting jobs. For live baiting and speed jigging, lever drags are by no means always the best option. For a start, lever drags are not quite quick enough for Kingies, a decently sized high speed jig reel, like the SL50SH or Penn 555GS will out-catch kingies speed jigging most of the time.

   Also,  a lever drag reel in freespool is often far too free running, and can lead to small back-lashes if the line stops flowing suddenly (like if a fish hits a dropping jig etc) A star drag reel can have a little more control over your line in this instance, as the spool tensioner on the side of the spool keep just  the lightest little friction on the spool, making for easier use all in all.

So, if I were forced to have only one reel to do all the kingi fishing possible, livies, speed jigging and a little poppering? the 555GS or SL50H.

cheers, Stu.

JW,

i seem to remember an article in fishing news (quite a while back) of graeme sinclair tagging and releasing a marlin on a penn 9500 spinning reel while fishing off striker at the three kings so they can obviously handle big fish.

b.m

It looks to me you really need two reels other wise you will be compromising casting with strength. hows this instead buy a SL50SH, TSM4, SLX40 / 50SHV  or similar spool with 15kg use for casting poppers ect.. And then go for a cheap live bait reel like diawa sealine 900H, penn senator (their is a red one cant remember what the model number is has a higher retrive). or similar and spool with 24kg for live baiting.

Of course you may have to buy another rod but you can never have to much fishing gear..

Just another option.

Hmmm, those spinning reels.... I have used a fair selection of heavy-ish popper casting reels over the last few years, as i love poppering and have spent at least 4 weeks a year in the Sollies. I have used Penn 8500s, Fin-nor Ahab 20s, TiCa Dolphin 9000, TiCA Taurus, Shimano Tss-4 and Mitchell nautil GV7500.

Comparing the fin-nor to the Penn Spinfishers is like chalk and cheese, the pennbeing the loser big time in this comparison. For a ultra-solid, super sexy spinningreel, really, the fin-nor ahab 20 is unbeatable, builtlike the proverbial brick outhouse, it is a pleasure to use... but HEAVY! oy vay! Still, it is a dynamite reel. Sadly it is also now unavailable in NZ.

So, not wanting to go back to the Penn 8500, (which was relegated to my "loaner" pile), and wanting to look for something strong enough to handle all day every day poppering for GTs etc, i tried some of the TiCA reels from kilwell. The dolphin 9000 I tried was a nice reel, certainly nicely light, and had a very nice action, but was really too light in the construction to handle big fish.. the reel stem flexes when under load. However, at the same time i was picking up the dolphin, I also bagged one of the TiCA Taurus reels that i spooled up with 20lb fireline. This was an AWESOME reel performance wise.

  It is a solid-as reel, no flexing or bending when under load, a good quick retrieve, great drag, really brilliant... but with terrible anodising that just fell apart and started corroding within a week up in the islands! Apparently this has been rectified nowbut Kilwell have not seen fit to replace their stock of this very expensive little reel. Can't say as i blame them. Beaut reel though.

So, moving on from the TiCAs, i finally grabbed a Mitchell Nautil GV7500 and a Shimano TSS-4 (which I got from Smart marine)

Comparing these two reels is also interesting. The mitchell frankly wins hands down. In 2 weeks of constant solid poppering (prettymuch all i do, can't be bothered trolling most of the time, i'd rather be actively fishing!) i used both reels a lot, the mitchell is every bit as quick on the retrieve as its larger spool hauls line at a lower gearing as fast as the shimanos smaller spool at the higher seed, so that advantage is wiped. Also, by having the lower gearing, the mitchell is easier to use when hauling heavyweights or even larger poppers thru the water.

   The biggest difference though is the handle/grip. The TSS-4 has a standard small plastic knob, which is adequate I suppose for occasional fishing, but nothing nearly as good as the ergonomically moulded soft plastic grip of the nautil. I assure you, after a few hours constant casting, you really do notce the difference.

Add to this the infinite anti reverse of the Nautiland the sealed waterproof body and drag, and you get a very very nice unit. In my opinion, beats the TSS-4 easy. Indeed, i gave the TSS-4 to the resort for them to use for their customers, keeping my Nautils (I went and bought one to add to the first) for myself.

So, if i were to rate these reels for poppering?

without doubt, the Fin-nor Ahab 20 is the best, a real Rolls-Royce of spin reels. Next, the nautil for heavier, lie 30-50lb, line, maybe the improved TiCA Taurus for lighter gear. Next, the Penn 8500 or 9500 SS reels, which are indeed nice reels, then the Shimano tss-4.

Now lastly i must say I have not used the Shimano Stellas (too rich for my blood) or the thunnus's, although I have seen a thunnus used in the sollies and it worked just fine. As I have not used these myself i cannot comment on them.

Well, anyhow, those are my thoughts on the relative merits of those spin reels for poppering use.

cheers, Stu.

yeah um id take a look at the rod ya gina put ya reel on first off,something ova seven foot, medium, light action, be good, unless u wanna try casting with a sceptre, not to long for the boat either. Ive found the penn 555 on a seven foot berkly to be a great combo roks, and boat, load it up with 24kg, youll get busted before u get spooled, can bak it with braid if u like, good grunty reel, good line capacity, and good casting control, youll neva stop a big determined kingi on it but, nor would an 80 w with 37kg.

used and abu 10,000 for 12 years, pretty good reel , dont no if they still make them like they used to though, its a two speed that, automaticly drops to the lower gear once fish is hooked , great for jigging , beautiful for casting, but 15 kg line would be its maxs, not built as grunty as the penn 555. caught a 30 plus kilo yellow finn on it, 10 kg line handled it piece of piss, good line capacity to.

dont get an egg beater, cause thats what youll be doing with it beating eggs.