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Recommend me a conventional boat rod

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icarussound

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I quit being a musician, & did pro audio for several decades, now I fish 30 hours a week. Final nail for this life change was selling my much loved, but unused the last 2 years, handmade German and Austrian mics for a fair amount. So I bought a fishing kayak and have left over funds for another rod. I actually have a good inshore rod but figured I should add a dedicated heavier rod for the big ones.

 

I’ve  no experience with conventional rods & reels. Looking to spend $200-300 max. By big ones I mean in the 40-80 lb range...maybe. I’m in SE Florida. Tarpon, Cobia, Barracuda etc.

 

My current (spinning) inshore rods are MH 8’ St Croix Avid, H 8’ Tidemaster, and MH 7’6” Legend tournament - that last one is what I’ll be using for now. Kayak is 12’ Hobie Outback.

 

or maybe I don’t need a conventional rod?

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Shimano TMC-76H Teramar southeast casting rod will fill the bill. Reasonably priced and well constructed. 7’6” is a  little long for boat use though. They make a 7’ MH version (TMC X70MH) that you should be able to find if you look around. The line weight ratings on this rod are very conservative. 

Edited by hookmeup
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This might not be the popular piece of advice but I would consider honing in on what you're looking for with this set up before dropping good money on it.

 

If you look at the recommendations above you'll notice that they cover a wide variety of styles from general purpose trolling and bottom fishing (mojo salt, connley kingfish) to casting (teremar) to vertical jigging (trevala) and slow pitch jigging (charter special). While some of these rods can be used for multiple purposes, I think that the recommendations cover such a wide range because the desired function of the rod you're looking for is not clear.  I think with time on the water and conversations with locals your techniques will become more focused and then the traits you're looking for in a rod will become apparent.  

 

With the rods mentioned in the OP, I think the legend will be fantastic for throwing lures at spanish mackerel, bonita etc. It would likely work well for light jigging as well. 

 

I think the two tidemasters have the beef to handle some of the larger species but the length could be awkward in a yak, especially when landing fish.

 

The above mentioned are of course graphite so I'd be careful with high sticking which is sometimes hard to avoid in a kayak with a long rod. 

 

What I don't see, is a dedicated trolling rod, jigging rod or bottom fishing rod and the ideal rig for each of these techniques will vary.

 

For a trolling rod I'd look at a 7 foot glass rod with a soft tip and some beef in the butt  and I'd pair it up with a lever drag. With the soft tip and a light drag setting you'll be able to cushion the blow from a fast running palegic, then you can easily increase the drag with the lever. 

 

For jigging I'd go with a narrow framed star drag reel and thin blanked jigging rod around 6'6". This rig will be lighter in hand then most trolling rods since you'll be actively working jigs. 

 

The bottom rig could likely be filled by the jigging or trolling rod but I generally prefer star drags here since there's no loss of freespool if you lock the drag to pull a fish off structure. 

 

If you were intent on getting a rig now, I would suggest an ugly stik tiger (medium or medium heavy) and a penn jigmaster. This admittedly is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from your legend inshore and it's about as far from glamorous as you can get, but it's tough as nails and can handle trolling and bottom fishing duties. The whole rig will set you back less than $150 and can be upgraded down the line.  

 

A mid priced option could be a shimano TLD 15 lever drag or Daiwa sealine x (40 or 50) Star drag on a connley kingfish rod. I touched on this rod in your previous thread. This rod has LOTS of power but has a soft enough tip to soften the blow during the strike and keep the fight fun with some of the smaller fish that you come across. The whole rig would be just under $300.  It's also worth noting that connley rods are wrapped in west palm beach so they are in tune to the type of fishing you'll be doing. They were very knowledgeable and personable when I spoke to them before I bought mine.  

 

These combos would be a staple for drifting/ trolling goggle eyes, blue runners and artificials but would also perform  well for bottom fishing.  

 

Good luck with what ever you decide

 

 

Edited by youngsalt
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Thanks youngsalt for another thoughtful & helpful post. My legend is a great rod, I’ve caught plenty on it, but have yet to bring in a really big fish on it, 17 lb snook is the heaviest this one has seen. The 8’ inshore rods have seen 60 lb sharks but I’m guessing they will be too long,  I’ll take one out as a second rod when my kayak is ready to see - should be Monday hopefully. Probably the heavy tidemaster for trolling?

 

Someone here said a conventional rod might work well since I can lean it on the kayak if I need to, fighting a bigger fish,  can’t  do that with a spinning rig.

 

You’re right of course I should try all this out first before investing in anything new.

 

which crowder rod did you get for kingfish? Conventional or spinning? I’ll be using lures only so it would be useful to know what weight these can handle. The legend comfortably goes up to 1 1/2 oz, my tidemaster goes to 3 oz - the heaviest I throw off the beach.

 

FWIW I’m not worried about my reels, I have a VR 150 and a VR 125, both can handle pretty much anything I’m likely to catch.

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4 hours ago, icarussound said:

Thanks youngsalt for another thoughtful & helpful post. My legend is a great rod, I’ve caught plenty on it, but have yet to bring in a really big fish on it, 17 lb snook is the heaviest this one has seen. The 8’ inshore rods have seen 60 lb sharks but I’m guessing they will be too long,  I’ll take one out as a second rod when my kayak is ready to see - should be Monday hopefully. Probably the heavy tidemaster for trolling?

 

Someone here said a conventional rod might work well since I can lean it on the kayak if I need to, fighting a bigger fish,  can’t  do that with a spinning rig.

 

You’re right of course I should try all this out first before investing in anything new.

 

which crowder rod did you get for kingfish? Conventional or spinning? I’ll be using lures only so it would be useful to know what weight these can handle. The legend comfortably goes up to 1 1/2 oz, my tidemaster goes to 3 oz - the heaviest I throw off the beach.

 

FWIW I’m not worried about my reels, I have a VR 150 and a VR 125, both can handle pretty much anything I’m likely to catch.

Yes, a conventional rod will keep the line off the gunnel if the rod rubs against the yak. 

 

I use the Connley kingfish 7' 20-50 conventional. I think the 50 pound rating is generous though and it's more like a 20-40 pound rod. I also use a shimano tallus conventional rod rated 20-40 and it's actually stiffer than the connley. In terms of what it can handle, there's no weight rating but if trolling, it can handle anything you would want to put on it. I've trolled ribbonfish and bumper shad which weigh only an ounce or two and I've gone up to whole live skipjack (ladyfish) and bluefish that have weighed over a pound!! Not fun pulling that much meat around but the rod can handle it. 

 

They also have the kingfish light 15-50 and the general purpose plug 15-30 that might be better for strictly pulling lures. I have not held either one so I can't say for sure. I will mention that I enjoy using the connley for bottom fishing and trolling but it would be a poor choice for casting and retrieving, too heavy and bulky. In the realm of trolling it's not excessive by any means but for casting there would be better options including some of the rods mentioned above in some of the other posts. 

 

I'm super jealous btw. When I fished in Florida, we were into dolphin and kings about a mile offshore. In Texas I'm busting through three sandbars and 300 yards of surf and after paddling 4 miles offshore we're still in 50 feet of water. At least our weather is somewhat predictable, somewhat. 

 

Looking forward to some updates if you do make it out on Monday! 

 

 

 

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Check out crowder.  Shop should be close to you.  Great rods durable and great actions (at least the ones i've used)

Not high tech but high quality and are great tools to pull on

 

The Teremar sticks from shimano offer tons of options.

 

And the game type J and ocea pluggers are pretty sick in the high end 

 

The daiwa proteus rods are like the teremars but come in different actions.  100% worth a look as well.

 

And yeah...black hole makes a damn good stick too.

 

I think Hellray is in your area if you want a custom

 

Edited by scoobydoo

"Panacheless is no way to go through life"

Tims

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