The spin doctor

Like many keen amateurs, when it comes to my hobbies I spend a lot of time drooling over product catlogues, websites and manufacture information.

Hours are spent trying to decide where to best spend my hard earned cash in pursuit of my next new gadget fix.

The selection of gadgets, gizmos and sparkly things is fascinating, but while I love innovation, I still have a budget (and a wife) to consider - so there is usually more drooling and dreaming than purchasing going on!

The challenge with these restrictions is; how to get the best value and use out of each purchase? When it comes to fishing rods and reels I have discovered that over time my arsenal for any given fishing trip will include at least one, if not all, of my spinning rods and reels.

This may not seem strange if you're a trout or carp angler, but when these trips could involve being connected to a back-breaking yellowfin tuna, sailfish or cobia, it makes me realise how far the modern spinning reel has come.

Newcomers may not realise that the spinning reel we use today is a far cry from those available 10 years ago: this is in contrast to some overhead reel designs that haven't changed much in the past 20 years, and still work exceptionally well.

In fact the spinning reels of old where usually relegated to the lowly status of "beginner's reel" and sold as a package deal with a rod that would never do justice to the reel or the angler.

The reason that spinning reels where, and to an extent still are, regarded as a beginner's reel, was the way they where manufactured.

Poor quality drags, low retrieve speeds and flex in the reel body, all combined to produce a reel that any self-respecting saltwater angler wouldn't be caught dead with.

Despite all these manufacturing drawbacks, it was the lack of line capacity that prevented them from becoming mainstream saltwater tools. Unless a reel could spool more than 300m of 15kg test line, they where useless when connected with a big fish.

So what has changed? The arrival of woven fused spectra or braid lines, alomost doubled the capacity of the spinning reel overnight and forced manufactures to revisit the way they made spinning reels.

With manufactures now paying attention to the spinning end of the market, materials and tolerances improved, delivering a reel type that can do it all - well almost!

What I love about a well set up spinning outfit is that it will help you catch more fish with less effort and less money. Let me give an example:

Recently I started my morning by rigging up a sabiki multi hook rig to catch some live bait at the channel markers. Once I had enough bait, I started heading out to the area I plan on fishing.

On the way out I came across a school of tuna and queenfish feeding on small bait, so I quickly tied a metal 40g slug and cast into the school of fish. After 30 minutes the school goes and I have a couple of nice tuna.

When I got to my ‘secret spot', I wanted to live bait , so tied on a steel wire trace and a live bait to see if there were some Kings around. It didn't take long and soon I was fighting a 10kg kingfish, followed but some barracuda before it went quiet.

Heading home while watching the fish finder, I spotted a huge mass of fish sitting on the 20m contour line, so I quickly marked the spot and anchored up-current, this time rigging a single hook and running ball sinker with a strip of fresh tuna as bait. The fish turn out to be sherri and quickly go into the ice box.

All this on one outfit? Yep! And that's what I love about the new generation of spinning reels - the versatility.

From bait rod, to casting rod which can throw a small slug out of site, to trolling rod and to bottom fishing rod, you would be hard pressed to have any other style of outfit match the number of tasks a spinning outfit can do.

Sure other outfits will handle certain jobs better, but they aren't as versatile and when you have a budget or just want to reduce your load, then a spinning outfit is a winner.

Every major manufacture is now making a range of spinning reels suitable for saltwater use and you don't have to break the bank to get top performance - if you want too then there are some models hitting the AED 3,000 mark!

Spending around AED 400-800 provides a well built reel that will last; just do yourself a favour and spend at least as much on your rod - if not more. But then that's a story for next month! Until then - tight lines.

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