The New Year is here and there are quite a lot of things I Want to do a little differently this time around.
I have too much fishing stuff. I have a perfectly good excuse – It’s part of work. However, over the years, I have accumulated a lot that I don’t find use these days. I could be because the type of fishing I do has changed, or more likely, after using them a few times, I got myself to buy something better to do the job.
Reels of these types stay
How often do you realize that you bought something that doesn’t really do the job you bought it for? Quite a few times if you actually have the habit of looking for a better mousetrap, like me. The problem with “Trying things out” is the fact that you end up buying a lot and not really get the right one…ever. Things do work well for some time, but at the end of the day, you get what you pay for. When do you realize that – guess what? You have spent more than enough to buy a really good one. It happens a lot – most especially with Rods and Reels.
Need to trim the number down to the ones that are most useful
There are two sides of the spectrum – going too expensive for the use and actually under utilizing rods and reels, or going too cheap and ending up with a lot of cheap stuff in your “collection” down the line. I don’t know with you, but for me, I expect to use all my gear, as they’re tools that help me with my job, I expect them to give me their money’s worth and they should do exactly what I expect them to do without failures or headaches.
Possibly the most useful reels in the lot
As lures and line are more expendable, we have to consider those as well as the terminal tackle as “consumables”.
Rods and Reels are a tricky business and no matter what your brand loyalty may be, there comes a time in your life when your “collection” might just be a useless heap of rods and a senseless pile of reels that you won’t ever get to use – I know, I’m there right now.
Believe it or not, the reason why it’s like this now isn’t even because I wanted to buy most of them – back in the day, I founded a forum that a lot of people back home followed. In that forum, I get requests from people that don’t have the budget to buy top-shelf reels – the funny thing is that down the line, these people were able to buy the right reels – after a few years of doing the research for them, the purpose of the whole thing became moot. Which brings us to one very good point – Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you would be able to save money by buying cheaper stuff to do the job. There’s a defining line between gear that can do the job, and gear that can do the job and last a long time.
Most of the Penn Reels will have to go
Here’s an example –If we don’t nitpick the finer details, there is very little performance difference between a Shimano Stella and a Twin Power, most people will buy reels like Penn Conflicts, which are good reels, but they just don’t last longer than a Twin Power. US brand reels are made “tough” as their advertising claims, but after going through a few Penn Conflicts, I realized I had spent enough to afford a Stella. The next reel I bought was a Twin Power and I haven’t looked back since.
Rods are the same thing, you buy a lot of low-end stuff and top end stuff, but now that all my rods are “work rods” I have found the balance of cost and value and surprisingly very good rods for well under 1,000 AED.
What I’m trying to say is simple – look for the balance of value and look into what you want to do with your gear – Twin Powers are half the cost of the Stella and it can do what a Stella can do, It lasts longer than a mid-end Penn reel and it’s lighter than the most expensive Penn Spinning Reel. This is the reason why I don’t see myself owning a lot of Stellas. It should be noted though that I should have really started early and invested in them without buying all the other reels that now take up a lot of space.
There are some really good ones there, but most will go on storage and out of the way
Rods are the same thing – people tend to go overboard and say this rod is better than the other – it’s funny when someone who doesn’t even know the dynamics of the rod tries to justify why “it’s the best”.
I have lost the interest to buy rods that are over 1,000 AED – and I don’t think I’ll be in a hurry to do some buying anytime soon. I have found some really good rods in the rods we sell in Asia (for Rapala/Storm). After testing quite a few of them for the waters locally, I have chosen a few to import and sell to our dealers – I have found that they do the job and really, they don’t break the bank – paired with good reels; you have combos that would sit side by side with brands from Japan and you won’t even notice the difference.
There’s a few here I need to dispose or send home
So here’s the thing – This year, I want my tackle collection to shrink down to about 20-30 combos from the present god knows how many. The key to this is really just keeping those that need to be there and for the reels that are sup par with my new standard to be disposed of.
The result will be worry free fishing and a lot more fishing time and less fiddling and fixing. ■
Happy New Year and Tight Lines!
Kit
Our fishing pro who shares his experiences and expertise with OutdoorUAE through his regular column. thefishingkit@gmail.com
Words + Photos by: Kit Belen