Hey mate good starting out option that will at least give you a chance would be a shimano saragosa 1400 and tcurve-15-24kg rod loaded with 80lb braid. Stick to R2S dumbells but upgrade the trebles and split rings. Find out how to do a twisted leader and away you go. Im sure jay and kasey would also be able to help here. Any quereis feel free to pm me

Darren
Deckhand and member of the Gotone Woodvale team

got to admit the river2sea dumbells worked well for me ... cast a bit better than the halco roosters ... used a few pencil tpye ones too .... but i prefered the shimano gt special rod for the extra lenth and casting.

But extra coin!!!

Deckhand and member of the Gotone Woodvale team

I'm also new 2 popping, looking forward to hearing some more reply's.

anyone keen on selling old gear feel free to jump in with a price

Ill sell ya a tcurve 15-24kg cheap.

Deckhand and member of the Gotone Woodvale team

Kelvin, my stock of Xzoga PE5 popping rod just arrived. Should be one available at Tackle Shack to look at soon. Mind you it's only PE5 so suitability will depending on the size of the GT's you're targeting.

Hey DOUSH, how does that rod perform for ya?? what ya got it matched to??

Cheers

PE5 is too light, on a budget I'd go with the Saragosa 18000 with PE8 braid on a GT Special.

Cheers jay and the rest, now the hard part of looking around and getting a good price.

PM Sent to you aswell Doush

I fished the monties with it. Had a stella 10k with PE 6 Varivas (84lb). Check my photo gallery for photos of it loaded up and resulting gts. All gts were caught on the 15-14kg tcurve.
Deckhand and member of the Gotone Woodvale team

Im now the proud new owner of a Saragosa 18000F!!

Now for that rod...

Darren,
If there is such a thing as a popping-focused trip for the monte's I'd be interested.

Nah not as this stage, maybe in 2010.
Deckhand and member of the Gotone Woodvale team

Thanks Darren. I think it shouldn't be too hard for me to organise a crew of 6 members who only want to throw poppers and ignore the reds and billfish, given enough notice.

Sorry, back on topic.

Sheldon, I suggest you do not skimp on the rod - it really is an integral part of your equipment.

Chugging-style poppers are the easiest way to get into it, with stickbaits and pencils usually requiring certain conditions or very specific techniques that may seem daunting at first.

As mentioned, the humble R2S dumbell is a good place to start, as it is pretty light and cheap enough to continuously lose. Eventually alot of people upgrade though as the downside is that it has a tendency to die after a few fish.

For terminal tackle, you want split rings that are 300lb minimum and some of the heaviest trebles you can find. For small (120g or so) poppers I don't think there is anything out there that can beat the Owner ST-76's, both in terms of strength and price. Unfortunately they only go up to size 5/0, which is a little bit small for some of the bigger poppers (I'm talking about 170g and above here).

The next biggest task for you would be to become familiar with some sort of braid to leader connection. As simple as it sounds, this is the biggest headache that I usually have.

Anyway, one step at a time - I still strongly recommend the GT-special. I was skeptical at first but after seeing what it has tamed and speaking to its testers, I'm quite sure that I can recommend it with confidence. With exchange rates the way they are now, you will be hard-pressed to find something equivalent for that kind of price.

Cheers for all that info Kasey! its much appreciated and i'll be definatly taking all that onboard! Ive been practicing my albright knot, so hopefully it should hold up. now just need top wait for some good weather to get out, oh and for work to give me a bloody saturday off

Cheers heaps again, ur all champions!

Sheldon

Forget the Albright, it's just too bulky when casting a heavy leader. It will catch on your guides and make casting a nuisance.

Learn how to tie twisted leaders. They're not that hard and once you've got the hang of it you can make heaps quite quickly. They attach to your braid via a bimini/cats paw variation and it's smooth and almost retains 100% strength.

Once you progress you may like to consider the FG or PR knot if you'd like to use single strand. For someone starting out I'd highly recommend the use of a twisted leader.

Ahh ok cheers jay, i'll hunt around the net and start tying up some twisted leaders.

There's plenty of info out there but let me know if you need me to point you in the right direction.