Versatility is the key: Black Label/Freams Combo – Mark Bargenquast

I had a client in the boat the other day and he asked me if I had to choose one outfit to fish for anything that was within a mid price range what would I buy? My answer was ‘that’s impossible’ nothing will cover everything.

Well this got me thinking and if I had to chose one outfit to fish for ‘anything’ it would certainly be the DAIWA BLACK LABEL 701 HFS V2 rod and a FREAMS 4000 reel. After using the outfit now solidly for a couple of months I now have developed plenty of respect for this combo.

The rod is 2.13 meters long (or 7 foot on the old scale) and is rated from 4 – 9 kg line, I have been fishing 20 pound braid off it now and have really redlined it on several species with no hint of failure.   The rod has a supple tip that is capable of casting a light jig head a long way from the boat when fishing for spooky snapper on shallow reefs.

It has enough butt power to fight big longtail tuna when they go deep and circle under the boat and the outfit is light enough to cast vibes to barra snags all day without angler fatigue! The FREAMS reel is very capable, with a retrieve ratio of just over 5:1 it’s a fast reel if necessary and has mag sealed bearings for longevity. The drag is faultless and even when fished nearly locked it is super smooth and silky.

It’s now mid winter and I’m back in Hervey Bay from a month guiding in weipa so its time to chase a few big winter barra and snapper, I went out yesterday and landed a mid 80 cm barra on the outfit, as usual it felt great! Early this morning I threw a plastic on the same outfit and caught a nice little south east queensland snapper, only last week I had the same outfit in Cape York and tied on a Daiwa Emeraldas nude squid jig and sight cast squid…….what a versatile outfit!