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I wanted to know what people think of using poppers for stripers and opinions of type (sinking/slow sink/fast skink), color, etc. fishing in the surf primarily daytime.. thanks in advance...

What I find better is those inexpensive Gorilla gloves for about $5 at Home Depot, they are thin, snug and tuff...

I think finding a quality rod builder is more important than the location as rods can be shipped no problem, but having a rod built based on your specific arm/hand measurements & based on the specific reel you will use is more important in my opinion. I use Kris Kristufek with Lakelady Rods in MN www.ladylakerods.com 218 251-2626; he has built over 8 custom saltwater rods for me. He does incredible work, every rod he finds the ideal spine, builds it based on your specific arm measurements, and the reel you will be using for the rod so that the rod performs perfectly. He is building me 2 custom tuna rods, a jigging and a popping rod using Japanese Hamachi carbon nano blanks.

Quality cork will not be an issue. I researched the real only reason why you do not see as many is the cost of quality cork, cork is durable, easy to clean, repair and last; only possible argument for non cork is if you cannot hold the rod and need to use the rail? If that is the case maybe you are too frail to fish tuna? I am having a tuna jigging and popping rod built with cork split grips, should be done either end of this month or next month....

Century makes great fishing rods and they make 3, 4, & 5 piece travel rods as well as a good selection of two piece rods that are in the 7' range. I would choose one of those as first choice, then St. Croix for a step down.

There are 40 waste water treatment plants that feed the Bay Area and they only deal with solids and bacteria but NOT Nitrogen and Phosphorus. As everywhere in the world is going to start suffering from Global Warming, then the only way to solve this is find ways to get those waste water treatment plants to add a way to lower Nitrogen and Phosphorus; it is possible but nobody ever thought there was a need and until they are forced to, they will not do anything. There are many things even us fisherman will see more of such as our local waters being impacted so if you want to get on good fish you will often need to travel to fish which means 2 piece rods. Rod blank companies are so short sighted they cannot even see that, so getting a waste water plant to spend extra money is not going to be easy.

I have a gold VS150, gold VS250, silver VSB250XP, and two silver VR75's. What model would you consider for more Tuna and pelagic fishing? I have a custom Rainshadow Tuna Popper with silver reel seat that I am using the VSB250 XP, an 8' rod for pelagic plugging set up for the VS250 with gold reel seat. I was thinking of building a new jigging rod for Tuna and pondering if I should get one of the new VSX for that or use my VSB250XP on the new jigging rod and be frugal and use the VS250 on my Tuna Popper and not bring 3 rods? If I do splurge what would you buy?

Thanks for posting this! I agree we should raise the min size, have slot limit, and 1 fish per day is good; we need to help Striper populations survive!

I have the original bail less VS 150, 250 and the new VR75. FYI, the VR75 which is the same body as the VR50 but just a larger spool is great. I use in on my 9'3" Century Weapon & a similar Rainshadow rod. They fixed the issues that the generation 1 had on your VR50 but I still love my old VS150 as it is light and bullet proof. The VR75 is a tiny amount heavier (I believe .1 to .2 oz) heavier than the Gen 2 VR50 but I have a bit over 400 yards of 20lb Max Quatro braid on it and love on those rods and will be building the lighter 7' weapons and using it on those as well. It sounds like the new VSX is an updated version of the original VS but the new VR's are not bad for the price but if price is no issue I can see the VSX being a good option...

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Good quality brands in my opinion do not have much if any noticeable advantage of 70/30, etc. and even today a high quality 2 piece vs a one piece is not much different. The reality is global warming will force more of us fisherman to travel to find quality fish. More brands need to wake up and realize one piece rods will start to be the less desired.

They started going downhill when they stopped selling their Titanium blanks which were great and sold for around $600. Since then they stopped making those higher quality blanks and made the mistake like Fenwick and others did, assuming that they would do better with no high end blanks and go to cheap rods that sell for under $100 and $200. I had a guide in Alaska break the tip of one of my Titanium blanks and while that was over 7 years ago they had no replacement equivalent to that quality and I stopped buying their rods. I have switched to Century and Rainshadow blanks.

Great fish! I can see your smile in the photo I was all alone when I caught my striper this week so I could not get a shot of me holding the fish, That is a great photo to be proud of. We caught our stripers on the same lure, although in my opinion any minnow looking lure is what they were hungry for as I found minnows that looked just like the Calissa in his belly....

I am new to Century Rods but just got their 9'6" Weapon which they make in spinning and casting and that is the best 9'6" I have used and I highly recommend them. They are more expensive but they to me are well worth it. https://centuryrods.com/products/the-weapon-2-piece?variant=42471870169306

I had an hour after work today to plug as I wanted to put some more time with my new Century 9'6" Weapon with my Van Staal VR 75 and I nailed this 25" Striper on a Calissa. That was a blast as he had a several strong bursts where he spooled line out Thank you Oscar! I love the feel of those two Century rods! Inside his belly there were 2 six to seven inch long minnows and a large sand crab.