but not had any direct use of them myself.

yeh people reckon the Tcurve is a good value rod. the Nitro's get very good reviews. the raider range are good for the price

I like the Sol myself and the 2500 would be a good match especially with a spare spool......

No experience with the Fin Nors.

I'd put a vote in for a daiwa sol 2500 and a saltwater rod although I would also say agree that a nitro innovator is probably a good choice, he can get it replaced cheaply under their insurance policy.

I'm thinking I might go a Viper for exmouth next year.

i have a Stradic 3000FI and love it and matched up i have a Daiwa tierra 6-14lb 7' rod, awesome setup up. its got a nice tip on it, high quality graphite, nice guides. id got the Stradic 3000FI because it is very smooth and the benefit with the 3000 over the 2500 is the 3000 has a larger spool so you can fit extra braid on it, good 7 kg drag.

I Love It!!! great for light to heavy, well not to heavy like the sambo's i hooked up in cervantes on it.

hope this helps, itll be around $400 and then you can buy some quality braid to put on the spool!

are pretty well regarded although I have never used one myself.

Whatever reel you do get, I'd get a spare spool and have one with 20-30lb for out wide, and one with 8-10lb for estuary work.

If it was me:

Shimano Stradic 3000 (come with spare spool) $250

Shimano Raider II Snapper LT (2.21m, 2piece, 4-7kg, 7-21g lures) $140

Line - I'd get 2 different ones so the colours are different, then use a artline marker to note what it in on the inside of the spool. 25lb Sunline Super PE (green) and 10lb Daiwa TD sensor (orange).

Auslobster

A mate of mine has me selling a Daiwa Saltiga 70S if you want it. Sale fell through twice, but still have it. Only used a handful of times.

 RRP is $649 - mate wants $350ono. Like new.

If you're interested let me know.  

For a slightly cheaper option, look at the StarloStix Tournament Mid or MaxSpin.(3-6kg,4-7kg) with a Stradic 3000.

a better way to go, nice tip on them and lovely to use, the starlo stix have cork grips so with the quality braid you will get extra feel, nice braids: Fins, Daiwa braids, Yamatoyo Famell, bass hard, Varivas and YGK.

I vote for the Starlo stix with a 3000 stradic.

anconda innaloo had a fuego 2500 going out for 160 down from 400. Then maybe look at a diawa sol or salwater rod to match.

Ben 

Just teach him to use overheads properly, hehe. Though, a good combo for him to use would be a good thing anyways.

I really like my spinning combo, the certate 2000 and bosco 6-12lb. I know Connor was using it at one point, but I cant remember if he hooked up on anything (it was salmon in the bay from what I remember). Super light and great fun to use. Got a fair few decent fish on it too (no snapper yet though).

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Rods: I've got three main casting rods about the size you want that would suit reasonably well (matched to the right line class).

Bosco- really light, I quite like the grips too. Its comparitively soft and slow though. The action makes it great from out of a boat as you can really put a bend into it and it deals with it great which is good for keeping pressure on fish that run down  (sambos, snapper, etc). It bends quite a bit at 4lb, but you can keep loading it up though (again, keeping the pressure on by keeping the bend in the rod). Suprisingly works well for light jigging (60g max though). For flicking lures out, its probably not super ideal just because it cant handle too heavy weights (though 1/2oz richter plugs, 20g twisties and SP jigheads are good, but a lot of poppers push it, though 90 roostas are fine) and not as punchy as the other rods (this is a positive and a negative, depending on the situation). Not that stiff a butt for turning fish quickly (again, a postive and a negative, depending). Though, due to the curve type, it might make sense to go a heavier rod, as it will still bend right at the 12lb line drag pressures, but handle heavier lures. See bends here and here. If you can remember the reasonably long fight on the salmon in the bay where it engulfed the lure, that was the combo. Got some great fish on it, and when you do its a really fun fight. One of my favourite combos.

Daiwa Saltwater- light rods, nice and punchy. The grips are stupidly designed as rotating the grip to screw down the reel seal scratches the top of the reel seat . Though, if you dont swap reels around its not much of a problem (you can do it carefully and not damage much). That being said, I havent really had the problem on any other SW rods, so it could just be that my reels are too small or theres some gunk under the grip. Its not really something that would stop me from buying the rod as they're great otherwise. I'd put it high on the list of priorities. Whats good? Pretty much everything else. Light, grips are good and comfortable, pretty crisp, flicks lures out well. I dont think it would excel chucking light SP's around though (you would get a lighter models though), but good with lures. I have the something to 17lb one and it has a lot of grunt and chucks out 30g lures no problems. Its probably underrated a bit, you can really push them. 7' is good for chucking lures, but not too long as to be annoying for bottom fishing (shorter is better, but still fine for an all-rounder). The one piece construction is good too (only a problem is transport is an issue). Action is very fast, and it feels very different fighting a fish to the bosco. The bosco is forgiving and yielding, the SW feels hard and powerful. You can really feel it putting pressure on your hands when fighting a fish, and the butt feels stiff and powerful. I dont think the first is actually all that bad in fighting fish, and in some ways better, but some prefer the feel of the later (and it does feel like it has some stump pulling power). The only problem is that after a few fish, your arms would be a little sorer. The question is would you care or not? Perhaps not :p.

T-curve. I have a barra style 20lb baitcaster, and the older style so a little different. Not sure if they changed the blank much for the newer versions. Didnt do a lot of casting with mine, but it seems to work well. Bends a fair bit, but I was pushing it quite a bit. Its good to know that it can deal above and beyond what it was stated for. It bends well, and has a good curve (hence the name?). Not as fast or quite as crisp as the SW, but slightly more 'forgiving' perhaps. The actions could vary (seeing as i'm comparing baitcasters and spinning rods). Probably a pretty good option for a rod I would say though. 

I also have a tierra (older style with the cork) that is pretty reasonable. Bends a bit more, which is good, but it still has a more parabolic action than the bosco. Been superceeded by the SW though :p. Not that its a bad rod, its a good all rounder, i've just specialised a bit more.

The starlo-stix tournament pros seemed like reasonable rods as well. Light and good action.

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Reels. Well, I love my 2000 sized daiwas. Awesome little reels. They are light, smooth, and all round good reels. I prefer the 2000 size for a few reasons. They're lighter, I like the I-knob handles better than the T ones and they handle those lines fine and without maxing the drag and they still have more than enough capacity. You'll fit 300m of 12lb braid no problems on the spool. I figure why go heavier and larger if you dont need to :p. Though, I love using ultra-light gear. The 2500 size would probably be pretty good as well though. If you arent a fan of the handle knob, there are lots of replacement knobs available (e.g. the I-knobs, the metal ones, or even the nice eva round ones). A heartland or a sol would fit the budget well. Larger sizes would work as well, but if you're chucking lures around continously for fish in the cut, or heaps of placcies at dollies, then a lighter reel is probably worthwhile. If you want to run another spool of heavier line, then a larger reel might be required of course. The stradics and sustains to me dont feel as good as say the sols. They're still smooth, but have more winding restistance. Models below them, and above them dont seem to have the same 'problem'. Maybe its the higher gearing? Try them out and feel them to know what I mean. The twinpowers feel good though. A little bit up in price, but might work depending on the rod choice.

I tend to stick to daiwa and shimano on the reels though. Yet to be wowed by other brands (at least in spinning). 

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I think rod wise it would depend what you want to do more of. I.e. what kind of rod curve and rod length suits. Guessing 7' would be the ideal if its mostly for chucking lures around. If theres a reasonable amount of snapper fishing, and SP's then maybe a softer rod will suit a bit better. If you know what you want to chuck around (well, what Connor wants to chuck around), then it would make it a bit easier on the rod selection. Some rods suck for light SP's due to the tip, and i'm guessing you'll coaxing Connor into using a fair few SP's. Some slightly softer rods have that softer tip, but still can chuck out heavier minnows and poppers by using more of the curve.  The slightly softer curve would work well for snapper and keeping the line tight on the dollies too. Perhaps the SW, although its a great rod might not be as ideal as the t-curve in such a case.

Not sure if there are any specific preferences Connor would have that would affect rod choices (well, apart from it being spinning, hehe).

I'm sure you know most of this anyways John, but I figure someone else might get some benefit out of it.

Oh, and I am in no way an expert :p.

Tolstoy out.

(edit: holy crap, thats a lot, apologies to all . Damn addictive tackle)

with a bit of grunt would be an Abu Garcia Soron.

I agree on the Starlo Stix.

Thanks everyone...have taken all this onboard, appreciate the help! I suppose I'm leaning more towards the lighter side of things...the bigger fish will be targeted from the boat and the species involved are regarded as "clean fighters" so can get away with lighter gear which will still be comfortable during long shore-based casting sessions.