Resurrecting the old!

Have you ever had an old rod/reel combination that is still functional, catching fish, yet you still upgrade to the newer lighter and more technologicaly advanced gear? I do, I admit I’m a tackle junkie but I still have a bunch of Daiwa outfits I used when professional guiding in Hervey Bay, I just can’t get rid of them and most of these have caught hundreds of big fish, longtail tuna, queenfish, Spanish mackeral and big golden trevally just to name a few.

I recently was looking through my tackle room and dug out a couple of old DAIWA SOL 701 HFS spin rods, they are 7 foot long and rated to 20 pound line, the old 4000 certates had seen better days, cranked a million miles of line , always abused but still working although in need of new drag washers. These were my workhorses and were in service day after day in the busy season and never let me down!

I tried one of the rods with a new DAIWA BLAST 3520 PE and wow it felt great, a big hyperlon ball handle to grasp, magseal bearings, well balanced and it felt ready to fish, so I mounted two and spooled them up ready to go. I took my son Jackson up the top of fraser island for the day for a test, the fishing and results were great and we caught longtail tuna, queenies, spotty mackerel and a few nice mac tuna, oh yea and we got busted by a big Spanish mack that looked over 30 kg !

The new reels felt fantastic, that big handle was a breeze to grab when in a hurry and for my 13 year old son it was easy for him to use which is a big plus for me. So if you have an old rod hiding away in your garage or tackle room, think of mounting up with a new reel and resurrect the old!