New toys - Sail fish tackle

I had wanted for the longest time to fill up this gap in my tackle collection. Amongst all my rods and reels, none was suitable for big game fishing, the likes of TP boat fishing or Rompin sail fishing.

I had researched quite long, and almost settled for a Shimano Blue Rose coupled with a Shimano Ocea Jigger 4000p. But after thinking about it, I very much wanted a lever drag reel, not having owned one before. But lever drag reels are limited, and the good ones cost an arm and leg.





I walked into Riverland this evening and asked for some recommendations. They took out a Shimano Tyrnos, an Okuma Titus, Shimano TLD 2speed and Avet. To my surprise, the Tyrnos was just around the $350+ region. Quite affordable, comparing to a $650 for a jigger. Okuma I wasn't too sure of the brandname, but actually it looked quite good. The feature was that it has a lever wind, not a common feature for such a reel. TLD looked too blackish for my liking. Avet design wasn't my style, but it was also expensive at $500+. I asked what could be paired with a Tyrnos and I was shown a Daiwa Monster Mesh, a Loomis rod and something else. The Monster mesh caught my eye as it was quite thin for a PE 6 rod. The look and design was quite nice too. And price was attractive, at $257, almost the same as my jigwrex.



So I settled for this combo which I felt was quite good. Tyrnos looked like a Torium except for being a lever drag version. Capacity was very big, and it didn't have a lever wind. I later found out that it could spool in 500m for my 50lbs braid. Not having a lever wind, I would need to get used to. Also, cheap also meant that it was a 1 speed reel, compared to a 2speed reel for some. As for lines, I was shown some, and the boss recommended a good line from Japan. The colors were nice but I didn't quite know how much I needed. Ended up that I had to reel in 500m of lines, and that was 5 spools of 100m at $36 each. Wow, that was alot and really broke the bank for $188 just for the lines. *faint*





But no choice, just had to bite the bullet for now. Big fish meant big equipment and big money needed to be invested. After this, I am all geared for the coming Rompin Trip. Now I only need to add saltwater and stir, and that phone call.

Monster Mesh


Top guide


SIC Guide


Specs


Butt joint


Gimbal


Fuji Reel seat


Guide wrap


Whole setup




Reel on rod


Tyrnos specs


Front plate


Front plate closeup


Rod clamps


Gear ratio


The most expensive lines. I could use it to hang myself


Model number


Brakes


Lever