Tackling Up

The hardest thing about fishing a new area is the not knowing. Not knowing exactly what you’re going to catch, what lures work best and what terrain you’ll be fishing off.  This is even more prevalent for an area like Djibouti where minimal people have fished it before so there’s almost no information on the fishing tackle needed.

Our aim is to target big giant trevally off the shore. Aside from that there’s the possibility of barracuda, coral trout, grouper, napoleon wrasse and snapper. Fishing from the side adds the extra challenge on having to pull  the fish over the reef towards you in order to land them. You need good quality line and leader that can take the abuse of rubbing against coral and rocks.

Rods and Reels

Its a toss up between taking enough setups not to be under gunned but you don’t want hundreds of rods to lug around all day long.

I’m taking 5 setups to cover all possibilities.

• 2 x lighter tackle sticks - 30lb gear for throwing buck tail jigs and smaller lures for fish up to 15kgs.
• 1 x Heavy 11ft GT Stick - 50-60lb setup for casting big lures a long way and can handle a big fish.
• 1 x Extra Heavy 8’6′ GT Stick - 100lb setup for big fish off deep drop-offs where casting far isn’t required but you need to muscle to keep them off the reef.
• 1x 14ft Rock & Surf rod - For the times when you need to cast over 150m plus gives you the option to slide a bait if the fishing is slow.

Light Tackle

• Rod - Assassin Ocean Spin 10kg-15kg Fixed Spool Offshore 8ft
• Reel - Diawa Saltish with 36lb Sufix performance braid

&

• Rod - Assassin AMIA 1 x Heavy Fixed Spool Shore Game 8ft
• Reel - Shimano Stradic 8000 with 27lb Sufix performance braid

Heavy Tackle

• Rod - Assassin Spin Master Shore Game 11ft 2 x Heavy
• Reel - Shimano Stella 10 000 with 90lb Spider Wire Braid

&

• Rod - Cape Cod Special 8’0″
• Reel - Shimano Saragosa 20 000 with 100lb Tasline Elite braid

Rock & Surf

• Rod - Pentagon HMG Medium
• Reel - Shimano Trinidad 30

Lines and Leader

A good quality braid goes without saying but when fishing is clean, blue water its very important to use a good quality fluoro-carbon leader too. I firmly believe you get more pulls when using a fluoro leader. Its just slightly harder for fish to see and hence makes the lure more realistic. This is particularly important for light tackle where fish are more wary and spook more easily. When fishing these monster 200g poppers for GT it probably doesn’t make to must difference as there’s enough noise and splash for the fish not to worry about a little piece of line protruding out the front.

Braids

When deciding on a braid things to look out for are;

•  8 or 12 strand braid which is smooth and supple for casting
• The line strength to diameter - the thinner the line for a particular strength the better. Here you get what you pay for, the best quality, more expensive lines are thinner.
• Color of the line. This is a personal preference but I like white or light yellow lines. For one colored lines aren’t as supple and smooth and often the color ‘leaks’ off the line.

My favorite lines makes are;

Tasline Elite is a very good line. Its a kiwi brand that only comes in white and is great quality.

Spiderwire Smooth Stealth. Again is white and has a great strength to diameter ratio. That said I have found it doesn’t do well around the reef. It touches a rock and its gone.

Sufix performance braid. Good quality and find it lasts well.

Leader Lines

When fishing over reef and rocks I like to use a 0.8mm leader on the 30lb setup and then either 1.2mm or 1.5mm on the heavy gear for GT. I use about 2m of leader which give extra protection again the reef and the fishes tail hitting the line.

Brands I used were;

Fisherman  - Super Stealth Shock Leader - 220lbs

Varivas - Shock Leader - 170lbs

Double X - Super Shock leader - 80lbs