Fishing

You've just purchased a new fishing rod, and the excitement of heading out on the water is coursing through your veins. As you inspect your new gear, you discover something peculiar. The guides — those little loops for getting your line from the reel to the tip of the rod — appear to be installed upside down. It looks 'wrong', and you wonder whether it's an accidental slip-up from the manufacturer.

I'll admit it. Despite working in a fishing store and having spent a fair amount of time outdoors (including doing weather forecasting seminars with MetService), I still get hung up on what some of the regularly used terms mean. So, as a sneaky way of educating myself about it (which is really what this entire website is about) - I wanted to research some terms and put together an introductory article for you here.

We recently took on a new Fishing Drone brand at work, and I could snaffle one of the units for a quick play over the weekend. Being based in the service/returns department - unfortunately, I often only get to check things out when they are broken, so it was nice to get ahead of the curve and play with something new and work as it should!

Fishing finds its true allure somewhere between the rhythmic sunrise over the horizon and the gentle ripple across the water's surface. But lo and behold, I remember when I first set up my fishing reel — a jumble of line, confusion, and more than a few choice words. If you've been there, you know it means more than simply threading the line and winding it up. And, of course, not to forget the greatest puzzle of them all - "How much line capacity does this reel have, anyway?"

I grew up around boats. As a kid, we had a batch up in the Coromandel, so many weekends were spent with my parents,...