What is a good Kelp Rig?

[Ted Budion]

one reason for the relative unpopularity of reels in the UK might be related to the predominance of small Euro type guns...had problems with the gun sinking even with a small reel attached.

Bill, if you use a small euro band gun with an American-type, the gun will sink without shaft. You must use, guess what?, euro reels too!

 

[Ted Budion]

one reason for the relative unpopularity of reels in the UK might be related to the predominance of small Euro type guns...had problems with the gun sinking even with a small reel attached.

Bill, if you use a small euro band gun with an American-type reel, like Riffe, Pelagic or JBL, the gun will sink without shaft. You must use, guess what?, euro reels too!

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Bill, if you use a small euro band gun with an American-type reel, like Riffe, Pelagic or JBL, the gun will sink without shaft. You must use, guess what?, euro reels too!

Even I can figure that out in a general way, but what is a Euro reel? Are the Omer reels Euro reels? They come in different sizes- surely the 30 qualifies as a Euro reel, but certainly the 100 does not.

Anyway, a guy from Forida who came out and dove with me last summer had a size too big on his Aimrite Hawaiian rail gun, because it sunk.

 

[Mako]

Bill,

I think the 30 and 50 qualify as "euro" but the pelagics do not. The Rob Allens work too but mostly what is meant by that is a neutrally-buoyant plastic or resin reel.

-Mako

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Thanks Mako. I was not even aware that neutrally bouyant reels existed.

 

[Mr. X]

Bill,

I think the 30 and 50 qualify as "euro" but the pelagics do not. The Rob Allens work too but mostly what is meant by that is a neutrally-buoyant plastic or resin reel.

-Mako

Although the Rob Allen reels are made of "zero corrosion" stainless steel , "100 grams lighter than any others" and have a capacity of 70m (& 50m), apparently.

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Although the Rob Allen reels are made of "zero corrosion" stainless steel , "100 grams lighter than any others" and have a capacity of 70m (& 50m), apparently.

I had one until I lost the gun that it was mounted on, but then that gun was not a fair test of whether it was light enough for a small Euro gun.

 

[Mr. X]

I had one until I lost the gun that it was mounted on, but then that gun was not a fair test of whether it was light enough for a small Euro gun.

Wow Bill...I was gutted when I lost my Rob Allen weight belt yesterday:waterwork. A nice gun & reel like that ... lucky you have others! Maybe I will stick with the gun->float-line->float rig for now!

Did you like the reel?

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Wow Bill...I was gutted when I lost my Rob Allen weight belt yesterday:waterwork. A nice gun & reel like that ... lucky you have others! Maybe I will stick with the gun->float-line->float rig for now!

Did you like the reel?

I liked it fine, although I only shot maybe three white sea bass using it. The reason I didn't replace it when I got the replacement gun was that I wanted to use thicker line, and it wouldn't hold enough. The two different lines you see in the photos are 2 mm Spectra. There is about 180 feet of the white stuff, so that is how much of the yellow stuff I ordered. It turns out that one brand's 2 mm is not the same as another brand's 2mm, and as you can see, it would probably have held over 200 feet of the yellow stuff. However, it only held about 90 feet of the 3 mm line that I prefer, so that is why you see that different reel on the replacement gun back near the start of this thread. I was able to get 148 feet of the 3 mm on that one.

Many people are perfectly happy with the 2 mm line, and for them it would probably be a good reel. I just have decided that I want something thicker and easier to grab.

BTW, the loss of the gun was only indirectly attributable to use of a reel vs. a float line. The gun was floating about 20 feet from the boat and the shaft got dropped overboard for reasons that are too embarrassing and would take too long to relate. Since the gun is ballasted to sink with the shaft in it, the shaft took the gun down and I was never able to find it. Of course had I been using a float line, the gun would have still been floating, but more likely would have been slung over my shoulder on the way back with the fish and would have already been in the boat anyway, and the shaft might have been recoverable if I had a float on the rear end of the float line. In this case, I had been diving in the kelp, so would have been using just an egg float, but maybe that would have enabled me to spot the end of the line, even if it didn't reach the surface.

I guess I'm stubborn, but I still use a reel. Its just that I now have one stupid mistake that I'm not likely to repeat.

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Oh what the hell. Its raining and blowing a literal gale outside, so I might as well tell how I came to lose the gun in case someone else may benefit.

I had stoned a white sea bass of something over 30 pounds. The tip must have gone through the spine, and the fish just rolled over. I grabbed the line and pulled the fish to the surface, where I noticed that the slip tip was barely protruding maybe a half inch from the far side of the fish. The tip could not easily toggle as it would have if it had been completely on the far side, and pulling the fish up did not seem to have been sufficient to pull the shaft adapter back out of the tip. I was not concerned though, as pulling the fish to the surface had not budged the shaft and tip.

I have what turned out, at least in this case, to be a bad habit. Since I am not going to reload and try to shoot another fish before taking the previous one back to the boat, I don't bother to string the fish or remove the shaft and tip from it. I just grab it securely and swim back to the boat with the gun, and often a bunch of kelp all wrapped in the shooting line, trailing behind. I have tuna clips on the end of lines hanging over the side of the boat, and in this case I attached the fish to one of the lines, went around to the swimstep, and climbed in. I leaned over the side and grabbed the fish and lifted it into the boat, and the shaft and slip tip slid right back out of the fish and then pulled the gun down. I don't understand why it didn't slide right out when I originally pulled the fish to the surface, but anyway it sure slid right out now.

There are a few things that I could have done that would have prevented the loss. One would have been to string the fish, then carry the gun in my hands back to the boat and clip it to one of the lines. Or even without stringing the fish, after attaching the fish to a line I could have pulled the gun over to the boat and attached it to another line. However, I didn't have enough imagination to forsee the shaft falling out of the fish while the fish was pulled into the boat.

I now have that much imagination.

I've attached a photo of a fish of similar size taken the week before. Since you can see the gun with the reel in my hand, this is obviously not the offending fish.

 

[Mr. X]

I guess I'm stubborn, but I still use a reel. Its just that I now have one stupid mistake that I'm not likely to repeat.

I didn't mean to criticize reel use -- just don't think I'm ready for it yet. Mind you, the float-line clutter did contribute to me dropping my belt yesterday:head ...I had just got in (the water was shallower than I expected) & I was uncoiling line when the swell lift me onto a rock barrier, hidden by water & weed, just below the surface -- I ended up half crawling (more weight on the belt) half swimming for maybe 20 feet

[re. line, I used to do a lot of rock climbing. I found rope & accessory cords vary tremendously in actual diameter vs. specified diameter. Loose vs. tight outer mantles was probably the main factor -- which also effected handling properties, size & weight. Some 10mm ropes are thicker than some 11mm ropes, others thinner than a 9mm rope -- significant as 10mm ropes are used singley & 9mm must be used in pairs.]

Nice fish, by the way.