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Light tackle is a relative term, of course: 10kg breaking strain line is considered light when targeting kingfish, but would be unthinkably heavy when fishing for trout; 37kg line is heavy for snapper fishing, but for marlin and bluefin tuna, which can weigh in the hundreds of kilos, it may be considered light tackle. When I was younger, I regularly fished 1kg and 2kg monofilament line on light spinning gear, not only for trout, but for kahawai and kingfish too. For snapper fishing, my go-to line class was 4kg, which ensured plenty of bites and entertainment when catching the normal run of school snapper. However, when I hooked a big one it was quite a challenge to successfully land the fish.

I’m not so much into light tackle fishing these days, mostly because modern fishing gear is