Fishing Tackle Basics: Rods, Reels, Line, Hooks and Sinkers

Walk into a tackle shop for the first time and the wall of gear makes fishing look far more complicated than it is. Strip it back and almost every fish caught off an Aussie jetty, beach or estuary bank comes on the same seven things: a rod, a reel, line, a leader, a hook, a sinker and a swivel. Those are the fishing tackle basics, and they matter more than any lure or gadget. When one piece is mismatched, say a reel too small for the line or a hook too big for the bait, the whole outfit fishes badly.

This guide covers what each piece does, what size to buy and why, and how they come together for the five places most of us fish: estuaries, beaches, rocks, jetties and boats. Once your outfit is sorted, the fishing rigs guide shows how to put the business end together, and the fishing knots guide covers the connections that hold it all.

What Rod and Reel Should You Start With?

Buy the rod and reel as a matched pair. Too heavy a reel makes the outfit tip-heavy and tiring to cast; too light a reel won’t hold enough line or drag for the fish the rod was built for. The rating printed above the handle (2-4kg, 6-10kg and so on) is the line class the rod is designed around, so start there and pick a reel that holds at least 150m of that line. For a first outfit I point most people at a pre-matched combo from a tackle shop.

Spinning Reels: The Default

A spinning reel (also called a threadline or eggbeater) hangs under the rod, and line peels off the front of a spool that doesn’t turn when you cast. With nothing spinning to overrun, tangles are rare, and one outfit will throw a bait, a float or a light lure. Reel sizes are numbered by the maker. They aren’t identical between brands, but they’re close enough to shop by:

• 1000 to 2500: estuary bream, whiting, flathead, herring and garfish on 2-4kg (4-8lb) line.
• 3000 to 4000: the all-rounder for jetties, breakwalls, bigger estuary fish and small boats on 3-6kg (6-12lb) line.
• 5000 to 6000: surf and rock fishing for salmon and tailor, and boat snapper, on 6-10kg (12-20lb) line.
• 8000 and up: big mulloway, kingfish and heavy rock work.

Baitcasters

A baitcaster sits on top of the rod and the spool itself spins on the cast. That buys accuracy and winding power, which is why lure anglers chasing bass, barramundi and mangrove jack love them. The cost is the overrun: if the spool spins faster than line leaves it, you get a bird’s nest. Learn on a spin outfit first. The Gold Coast canals mangrove jack guide shows the kind of fishing where a baitcaster earns its place.

Overhead Reels

Overheads sit on top of the rod too, but they’re built for winding, not casting. Their home is the boat, dropping baits onto offshore reefs or trolling, and they’re a poor pick land-based.

Alvey Sidecast Reels

The sidecast is an Australian design and still a common sight on surf beaches and rock platforms. To cast, you turn the spool 90 degrees so line spills off the front like a spinning reel. To retrieve, you turn it back and wind it like a centrepin, one turn of the handle for one turn of the spool. With very little inside to break, they cope with sand and salt better than most reels. Alvey’s own advice is to run monofilament on its casting reels and to put a small swivel in every rig, because each cast puts a little twist in the line. If there’s an old Alvey and a 12ft surf rod in the shed, you’ve got a perfectly good beach outfit.

What Do Rod Length and Action Mean?

Australian shops still sell rods by the foot. As a rough guide:

• 6ft6in to 7ft: estuaries, boats and kayaks. Short enough to work lures accurately and control fish near the boat.
• 7ft to 8ft: jetties, breakwalls and estuary banks, where extra length helps steer fish around pylons.
• 9ft to 10ft: light beach work, rocks and long breakwalls for salmon, tailor and snapper.
• 10ft to 12ft: surf beaches, where you need to cast a 3-5oz sinker past the breakers and hold the line up off the shorebreak.

Action describes where the rod bends. A fast-action rod bends mostly near the tip, which gives the crisp hookset you want with lures and braid. A moderate action bends deeper into the blank and soaks up the lunges that tear hooks out of soft-mouthed fish like whiting, herring and garfish. Many rods also print a casting weight in grams, for example 3-15g. Stay inside it and the rod loads properly on the cast.

Mono, Braid or Fluorocarbon: Which Line Should You Use?

Monofilament (mono) is a single strand of nylon. It stretches, which cushions headshakes and stops hooks pulling from soft mouths, so it’s forgiving for kids and beginners. It’s cheap, knots easily and handles rubbing reasonably well. The trade-offs are a thicker diameter for the strength, memory (it comes off the spool in coils), and stretch that dulls the bite in deep water.

Braid is woven from many fine fibres. It’s far thinner than mono of the same breaking strain, so it casts further and cuts through current, and it barely stretches, so you feel every touch. The catches: it hates rubbing on rock, oysters and teeth, fish can see it, and loose loops form wind knots. Braid is often labelled with a PE number as well as pounds. PE 1 is roughly 15-20lb (7-9kg), but strength per PE number varies between brands, so trust the label.

Fluorocarbon is used mostly as leader. It’s denser than mono, so it sinks, it handles abrasion better, and it’s less visible in clear water.

How Heavy Should Your Line Be?

Match line to the fish and to the country you’re fishing. Clean sand lets you go light. Oyster racks, pylons and reef demand a heavier leader no matter how small the fish. These are sensible starting points:

How Long Should Your Leader Be?

The leader is the last section of heavier or tougher line between main line and hook. On braid it takes the rubbing from teeth, rocks and pylons, hides the braid, and adds a little stretch. As a starting point:

• 1 to 2m for bream, whiting and lure fishing in clear estuaries, where fish get a long look at the line.
• 60cm to 1.5m for bait rigs in the surf, off jetties and from boats.
• Longer and heavier around rock, reef and pylons, where the leader does all the rubbing.

Join braid to leader with an FG or double uni knot. Both are in the fishing knots guide.

Which Hooks Do You Actually Need?

Hook sizes run in two directions, which confuses everyone at first. Plain numbers get smaller as the number gets bigger: a size 12 is tiny and a size 1 is much larger. After size 1 the scale flips to the “aught” sizes (1/0, 2/0, 3/0 and up), which get bigger as the number rises. The patterns you’ll see on the wall:

• Suicide and octopus: short shank, point turned in. The workhorse bait hook for bream, snapper and mulloway, and the one used for snelled two-hook rigs.
• Baitholder: barbs on the shank stop prawn, worm and squid sliding down. A good general estuary and jetty hook.
• Long-shank: easy to remove from small mouths and good for threading worms. The classic whiting, herring and garfish hook.
• Circle: the point turns sharply back towards the shank. Don’t strike. Wind steadily and the hook rolls into the corner of the jaw.
• Gang hooks: open-eyed hooks linked in sets of three or four to hold a whole pilchard straight. Standard for tailor and salmon.
• Jigheads: a hook with a moulded lead head for soft plastics, sold by weight in grams or fractions of an ounce.

Circle hooks deserve a closer look if you release fish. NSW DPI recommends non-offset circle hooks for bait fishing because they mouth-hook fish more often than standard J hooks, and deep hooking is one of the main reasons released fish die. Winding instead of striking feels odd for the first few bites, then it clicks.

What Sinkers, Swivels and Snaps Should Be in Your Kit?

Heavy sinkers snag more, spook wary fish and pin baits unnaturally to the bottom, so go as light as the current allows and step up only when the bait won’t hold. Ball sinkers are sold by number (00, 0, 1, 2 and so on), but the grams behind each number differ between brands, so read the weight on the packet.

Swivels and Snaps

Swivels stop line twist, join main line to leader, and act as the stop for a running sinker. Like hooks, the numbering runs backwards: a size 10 swivel is smaller than a size 4.

• Barrel swivels are cheap and fine for most bait rigs.
• Rolling (crane) swivels turn more freely under load, which matters with spinning lures or an Alvey.
• Snap swivels make lure and sinker changes quick. Buy decent ones, because a cheap snap is often the weakest link in the outfit.
• Black or dull swivels belong on any rig near tailor and mackerel, which hit anything shiny and bite through the line above it.

A soft bead between a running sinker and the swivel stops the sinker hammering your knot on every cast.

What Starter Kit Suits Where You Fish?

Estuary

Go light. Bream and whiting in clear water are line-shy, so drop to the lightest leader the snags allow and step up only when you’re getting busted off. The Clyde River black bream guide runs leaders as fine as 3-6lb for that reason, going heavier around oyster leases and timber.

Beach

Rod length matters most here. A 10-12ft rod gets your bait past the shorebreak and holds the line up off the sand. I carry a few sinker weights on every beach session, because the one that holds changes with the swell and sweep. The Bunker Bay salmon guide shows a typical WA surf setup.

Rocks

Off the stones, abrasion is the enemy. Run a heavier leader than you would on a beach, and a rod long enough to steer a fish around the ledge you’re standing on. Breakwalls work the same way: pink snapper at North Mole are fished on 9-10ft rods and 20-30lb leaders.

Jetty

A light 7-8ft outfit covers herring, garfish, tailor and squid. The Perth metro herring guide covers the float rigs that work off WA jetties and groynes. On a high jetty, take a drop net, because lifting a decent fish several metres on the line is how leaders snap and rods break.

Boat

Short rods are easier to handle in a boat, braid shows bites in deeper water, and a spread of sinker weights lets you match the current as the tide changes. Snapper at Shoal Bay shows the lightly weighted approach that works for boat snapper in Port Stephens.

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How Much Should You Spend on a Starter Outfit?

You don’t need top-shelf gear, but below a certain floor cheap gear starts costing you fish:

• Spend on the reel before the rod. The drag (the clutch that lets line slip under pressure) lands fish. Cheap drags stick and jerk, and that’s when light leaders pop.
• Buy from a tackle shop. Staff will usually spool the reel for you and tell you what’s biting locally.
• Put money into hooks and leader before lures. They’re cheap, and they’re the only parts that touch the fish.
• Buy one outfit and fish it a lot. One good all-rounder beats three cheap specialist rods.
• Look after it. Rinse rod and reel with fresh water after every saltwater session, and back the drag off before storing the reel.

Prices change too often to quote here, so ask the shop what a reliable entry-level combo costs this season and budget from there.

How Do You Set Up a New Fishing Outfit?

Most tangles, wind knots and lost fish in a first season trace back to loosely spooled line or a drag set too tight, and both are fixed at home before you go.

What Else Belongs in Your Tackle Bag?

These are the items you miss most when they’re left at home:

• Long-nose pliers for removing hooks and closing gang-hook eyes. Tailor and flathead are not fish to unhook with your fingers.
• Braid scissors. Braid is hard to cut cleanly with a knife, and biting it is a good way to chip a tooth.
• A measuring mat or ruler, so you know a fish is legal before it goes in the esky.
• An esky with an ice slurry to keep your catch firm and your bait from turning to mush.
• A head torch for dawn and dusk sessions, when a lot of the best fishing happens.
• First aid kit, sunscreen and polarised sunglasses. Polarised lenses cut glare so you can see into the water, and any glasses protect your eyes from a flying sinker or hook.

Licence and gear rules differ between states, and between salt and fresh water. Some states require a licence for all recreational fishing, some only for boat fishing or particular species, and several limit how many lines and hooks you can fish. The fishing regulations guide links to each state’s official rules, and in WA the DPIRD fishing rules lookup confirms limits by species and area.

Your Questions About Fishing Tackle Basics

What is the best all-round fishing rod and reel for Australia?

Should a beginner use braid or mono?

Do I need mono backing under braid?

What do the numbers on a fishing rod mean?

What size spinning reel do I need?

Can I put braid on an Alvey reel?

Why do tailor keep biting through my line above the swivel?

Are circle hooks better than J hooks?

How do I stop line twist on a spinning reel?

Should I buy pre-tied rigs or tie my own?

The fishing rigs guide walks through the eight rigs worth learning, with component sizes for each.

Line classes, hook sizes and sinker weights in this guide are starting points. Local conditions, and the advice of your nearest tackle shop, will fine-tune them. Fishing rules change, so confirm licence requirements and bag and size limits with your state fisheries agency before you fish.

Explore more fishing spots, read up on target fish in the species guides, or move on to bait, techniques and fishing basics.