NorCal Fishing BS

TW put a rod I wanted on sale! Now I have another rod coming. I’m done.
At least with bass stuff.
My friend just bought a ocean boat - I’ll need a cheap lingcod-rockfish set up. Nothing I know anything about. At all.

 

I have a Daiwa VIP rod with an Avet Mxj. I like the setup, pretty middle ground price wise. Fish anything over 100’ and a two-speed reel will be your best friend...

 

you "can" use a heavy bass rod. depends on what you mean by "cheap." and depends on how you will fish it.

i used a penn fierce 2 4000 with 40lb braid for 100' drops, too. the gear ratio and line capacity was fine, but when using a 1lb weight and 2 fish on a shrimp-fly high-low, it was alot of pressure not on the drag or gears, but on the little plastic handle.

you want to drop shrimp flies/ squid or jig swimbaits and flutter jigs? if you can find it, you can get a 7' ugly stick tiger and some kind of craigslist penn non-levelwind reel like a jigmaster for $40

 

some people use a lexa or tranx for jighead/swimbait and vertical jigging, granted that thumbbar is trick for dropping down. i almost bought a tranx300... but really, once you're hooked up, all you're going is winching them up.

heck i even used my grandpa's old senator 1/0 the last time i went out. and that baby is 3.1:1 ratio. torquey, fine, but the boat was kinda getting irked that it took me 20 seconds longer to reel up when we were moving spots.

 

Check out https://seekerrods.com/. My homies on the pro team and swears by their product. I'm not fishing much salt these days. If you're on a budget nothing beats an UGLY STIK!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQuJUbAQJ58

The GX2s are impressive to say the least...

 

Wish they were more sensitive and not as heavy. They are awesome rods with how tough they are though. Have owned a few ugly stiks over the years and they never let me down.

 

Yea. They are good for watching the rod bend indicating a fish. Feeling the fish, not so much.

 

You said cheap though, Shimano has great moderately priced rods. But hey ugly stik at your local wally world or bass pro might have a been warranty. These days I'm more on the BIFL (buy it for life) strategy when it comes to fishing gear, which mostly implies paying more up front for the quality, and more/most importantly a vetted warranty program ideally with no questions asked. I've got a wide range of kit, from uglys to handmade bamboo fly rods I barely fish. All my go to-s might be considered slightly on the higher end but when you break a rod tip and the company will over night the replacement its well worth the investment in my opinion.

 

On the plus side, rockfish and ling cod season ends on Dec 31. So you have until April to get whatever gear you think you want. By then, you won't be on a budget.

 

Ugh. I just realized you can buy a TW gift card and save 10% then use that very same gift card to buy a sale item for a “double dip” savings.

 

Right. Haha. My friend won’t take his boat out till next year anyways. He freaked out in the swells on his kayak recently. Haha.

 

i heard with some retailers, you can buy a gift card to get your purchases up to the 'free shipping' limit, and then use that gift card for a later purchase, too!

 

i got a little package from Mudhole today. some guides, wrap, brushes and wrap finish. am thinking about rewrapping a couple of rods in acid wrap; mainly just to try it out.

 

You all still fishing?

I got a 2lb today. Fishing is tough!

 

I haven’t had the time. Business is getting weird and I’m going through a refi so life’s gotten in the way but soon. I’ve heard the bite has really slowed on everything. Makes me want to wait until the new year and start fresh.

 

I can’t believe my fishing license is expiring.

 

Every year! I go on Jan 1 and go buy my new one so I feel better about the pain

 

Yup. Me too!