with the stella don't quote me but I think the FE is intended more for freshwater/lakes fishing.  The only other piece of advice I can offer is By the best you Can afford, you really do get what you pay for with fishing gear.

HTH

Ben

4000 (or perhaps even 3000) is pretty big if you're just chasing bream/whiting/flathead/etc? What line rating do you want to run?

I'm hoping that it won't be too much overkill for the smaller stuff but still able to target some larger fish also.  I've just purchashed a saragosa 14000 with 2 spare 18000 spools, this way I have a spool of 40lb to fit it with my 13.6 live fibre for off the beach and rocks, a 50lb spool to go on my venom pe 2-5 jig stick and a 80lb spool to pair up with a t-curve 400 for fishing up in Cairns.  Having all those bases covered, I'm looking for a good light to medium set up, I do already have a t-curve tournament 6-10kg stick with a chronarch 100bsv but I find it a little short in a few areas I fish and need a little bit more length and I'd like a good egg beater, so what would you suggest??  I'm thinking of running 8/10lb braid and maybe having a spare spool of 20lb.

if you are looking for a rod to handle whiting, bream & flatties, but also handle some larger stuff (I assume you are meaning the odd tailor, skippy etc) I would suggest you make sure the rod has a decent double grip handle at the bottom.

I previously had a little flick stick perfect for the smaller species (whiting etc), but it only had a very typical small bottom handle. Really just for single handed casting. The double bottom grip will give you better casting ability and also help to play the larger fish on a smaller/lighter rod. Just something extra to grab onto when casting or playing a fish.

My current rod (no brand - graphite prototype) is a 2-4kg 7ft with the double bottom grip. Still super light to carry & cast for the small stuff...... & great fun for the larger fish. Recently had a double header of 2 HUGE buff bream. The extra length in the handle really helped out with dragging them up & over the reef. I was quite dissapointed when I found out what the fish were. I thought I had a monster skippy on!!! Dam!

This size rod easily accomodates a 2500 or 4000 size reel. I usually use a 2500 for whiting etc and the 4000 if I think there is a chace of larger fish.

so the fe's are ok with the salt water, no issue's there?  What's the biomaster like, anyone used them yet??  or the rarenium ci4??

Check out the Diawa heartland  3000 (just up from the sol)  you get two spools so you have your options covered. I own two of these reels one in 2500 and one in 4000 I cant recomend them highly enough. 

Ben  

do you guy's think a stella 5000sw with a spool of 10lb braid on a tcurve T series spin 722 snapper 3-6kg stick would work.  I'm thinking if I went this way I could then also get either a king mac spin 8-12kg or a bluewater spin 10-15kg stick and load a 2nd spool up with 25lb braid, what do you think of this plan?

gee's this is tough, I'll keep researching.  Would you think the saragosa 14000 would go alright on the tcurve gt special pe3-8 running 50lb, that might cover my heavier without having to hold my 13.6 live fibre all day.

I'm really stuck here, I realise that I may need to buy two rod's, one to cover the lower kg and another to cover the mid kg, will two reels be my only solution too??

when I say bream fishing, That's just time that'll be spent teaching my kids and just kicking back, no full on target.

For your 8-10lb to 20lb outfit you could probably get away with a Nitro Magnum butt 4-8 kilos 7 foot 6 inches long for distance. you could go a Stradic or Rarenium CI4 4000,Sustain 4000FE, Twinpower 4000FC or Stella 4000FE in order of quality and price and yes the Stella FE is approved for saltwater use. Keep in mind you'll need to buy spare spools for all of these except the Sustain if you want to run 10 and 20lb lines.

thanks for the responses and advice, after hours on here last night I'm starting to think I'll save my money from buying a stella and get 2 outfits.  I'm thinking for a lighter set up the saragosa 4000 or stradic ci4 40000 on the tcurve T series spin 722 snapper 3-6kg and for a bit heavier I'm a little stuck still thinking that I could get the GT Special and pair it up with my gosa 18000 or buy a bluewater spin 15-24kg and get a gosa 10000, anymore thoughts  now I'm narrowing it down?

if you go stella id go for a 3000 or 2500 fd stella i had one i sold recently and that was one of the sweetest reels ever

Ryan T from Oceanside matched me up a Tsunami Air Wave and an Okuma Flame 20 reel. Fantastic match and great fun. Last week I was catching storm Gars in the surf and I haven't had so much fun for a long time. It's a great setup for tossing small hard bodied lures.

I think I've finally settled on my rod and reel selection.

For my light work bashing around the estuaries and shore line, I like the tcurve T series spin 722 snapper 3-6kg rod with the stradic ci4 4000 loaded with 10lb.

My meadium choice has come in with the tcurve bluewater spin 10-15kg rod with a saragosa 10000 loaded with 40lb for off the rocks and breakwalls.

For the heavy work off the breakwalls and rocks I'll go the tcurve GT special with the saragosa 18000 in which I have a spool of 50lb and a 80lb spool.

The guy that I'm getting if from has given me a killer deal on the light and medium combo's so I figured I'd get the gt rod with the money I saved and put the reel I already have on it.

Before I call him back with my card number, how's this looking?

ok so I'm still wondering if these will all work the way I'm hoping, anyone, or are you all out fishing.

sound like nice oufits mate except a 4000 is still big for bream, whiting ect fishing, would think something in the 2000/2500 would be more than enough. sounds like your sold on shimano otherwise i would suggest looking through the daiwa range. your medium choice also seems on the large side of medium, what are you targeting, would be thinking an 8000 size reel with 30lb would be sufficient as you stated you have 40lb 50lb and 80lb covered on the larger gosa. you can always buy more rods and reels later anways.

I agree, I think I will add a saltwater 5-10kg that I can run the 4000 on also.  I recon all areas will be covered that way.  If I find the 4000 a bit much on the 3-6kg I can always buy a nice 2500 down the track.  The guy I'm getting such a good deal from is a shimano dealer and his Mum who owns the store is a customer of mine so I'll stick with the shimano gear.

I ended up ordering all of the above and the barra flats 6-10kg to fill that gap, should be good with the stradic ci4 4000

good call mate, thinking about a ci4 4000 myself now matched to a shimano trevala tvs70ml or tfs69ml.
 

I got all my gear today and I'm stoked, all I need now is a three hour drive to the closest salt water, lol.  I was very happy that the 6-10kg Barra Flats 782 comes with the fuji/split eva and not the cork like the catalogue states, finally an error in my favour.  The tcurves are nice rods but the pride of joy outta all of them has to be the Venom 250, love it.  I took the 3-6kg snapper 722 rod fitted up with the stradic CI4 across to the lake this afternoon for a few casts and I tied on a smaller lure that I've never been able to cast too far and this combo sent it rockin, a real smooth reel, love it too.  Thanks for the advice for my new outfits, I'm heading up to Port Maquarie in a couple of weeks and plan on getting as much time using them as possible.

Cheers

Danny

.

I've been away on a trip with all my new gear and had fun, loved the rods and reels, thanks for the help.

I had a good fish with all the rods and tried a few with different reels and found all of the selection to be very nice to fish with, my favorite while fishing outside was the Venom with the saragosa 14000 filled with 50lb.  I fished the venom with the saragosa 10000 and 40lb and loved it but the ideal hand grip for me had the bail arm catching my knuckles a few times (that hurts after a while).  I was amazed with the power of the stradic CI4, so much grunt in such a light reel, it worked well with 10lb on my lighter spin stick and was great with the 20lb spool with the medium rods.  On the third day on the charter the swell was up so we rolled around a bit and I found the 10-15kg Bluewater spin with the gosa 10000 and 40lb braid was a great set up(a bit more length to work with).  Off the rocks I put the gosa 18000 with 40lb braid on my 13.6' live fiber and it cast well and with little effort, I cast a few lures around for 3-4hours one morning at sunrise off the bottom of the lighthouse with no luck, the fish seemed to be off the bite while I was in Port Macquarie, the warmer currents moving down took it's toll and fishing was a little quiet both on and offshore, we still caught fish but nothing too special.  We had a good run on Pearl Pearch on the third day, we drifted over a school and the the boat landed everyone a good feed and some.  Me and my mate were both using braid which ment we were holding bottom while the other 6-7 people on the charter used the boats rods that run mono, it was a messy/tangly sight behind us as we had a ball landing heaps of not so great fish up the back of the boat.   I did however, on the first day out on the water manage to catch my first Jew fish, it was only 75cm but it's my biggest jewie and it was the second fish caught on my venom, the first was a good eating size snapper, soon became my favorite rod lol.

Here's a couple of pic's