Recommendation for Bottom Fishing Rod

[ronaultmtd]

For what your requirements are, I would not go with spinning tackle at all...conventional will do a better job for less money- Spinning tackle just shines as a choice for light tackle fishing- but for the bottom fishing you describe- nothing is as efficient or economical as conventional revolving spool tackle...let's face it- you can do it all with one outfit, but not well...if you want a good, reasonably priced bottom fishing outfit that can double as a trolling outfit- go with a revolving spool outfit- if you want a good light tackle that does a really good job with about 80% of the fishing we usually do kayak fishing Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, go with a 2500-3000 spinning reel with 10-12# braid on a 7' medium to medium light action spinning rod...Redfish and others have given some excellent advice- I say go light...buy just one outfit, fish it a while before you decide to invest a lot of money in everything you could ever possibly need...kinda like we advise before rigging a new kayak- try it before you buy it...

[yakscientist]

I'm surprised no one's suggested a custom rod by Steve Fogle (backyard custom rods). He makes them in Maryland off Made-in-the-usa blanks, and I think he just did a collaboration with Alan (yak fish) on a new jigging rod, not sure if it's offered in casting or spinning or both though. Anyway, you could just send him an email, or look him up on fb, and give him all your specs and budget, and see what he would recommend. I know the one he recommended for me wasn't that much more expensive than some of the ones brought up in this thread already, but I just wasn't ready to drop that sort of cash on a single rod yet. Maybe in a couple years, maybe not. You'll have to keep in mind maintenance costs too, as IMO, rods destined for kayak use are going to get more salt spray, more dings, and more damage in transport than traditional boat rods, which may stay on the boat in a locker. Ugly stiks are great for me, but I know full well that in 5 years or so, any repair will pretty much be only 10-20$ less than a brand new ugly stik, which is fine for me, but I'm a total amateur when it comes to jigging anyway. Bottom fishing however, I really recommend spinning reels with secondary (baitrunner) drags, like the shimano baitrunner or the okuma baitfeeder. They're great for live bait fishing, giving a fish time to run with the bait before setting the hook, or leaving the lighter drag on while surf fishing, it gives you time to run over and grab the rod.

[Salty Dog]

My goto jigging, bottom fishing, drift fishing and trolling setup is the Shimano Trevala S jigging rod. It has as 110g jigging weight. I use this with a Shimano Baitrunner OC 4000 with 20lb super 8 pp. It has a medium light power with a medium fast action. The only time I leave this rod home is when I am pan fishing. Awesome combo for flounder.

[ronaultmtd]

Back in the day (1980's) fishing the CBBT we used Abu 6500 (C-3) reels loaded with 17# clear Stren mono on 6'6" custom made casting rod to throw 4 oz. Sting Ray grubs at the third and fourth Island rocks...we would catch 12-17 pound Grey Trout by the hundreds- mostly at night under the lights- we would cast up into the current and just keep slack out of the line retrieving as the grub bumped along the bottom- usually hooking a fish every cast...one bad problem we had was the big bluefish would cut a 12 pound trout in two as you were bringing it into the boat leaving you just the head and gills...mixed in were 40-60 pound stripers and 15-20 pound bluefish...I still have two 6500 Abu outfits in my "collection" from those "the heydays of Bay days"...the rods are old 1970's technology-8' 20# class Rawhide fiberglass blanks cut to 6' 6" with Lakeland chrome plated reelseats and composite cork split grips...7 Fuji aluminum Oxide guides and a Fuji tip...I caught an 80# Black Drum at buoy 80 near Kiptopeake using a bay clam for bait back in the day with this same outfit- we used these rods for just about everything in the Bay- Flounder fishing, croaker, spot, drum, trout- live bait fishing for King Mackerel and Cobia- everything from the boat- except big sharks and trolling for bluefin tuna-

[Redfish12]

Ron, thank you for sharing! I love the old bay fishing stories and talk of how great of a fishery there was in the bay. It makes me sad that those days are long behind us. I joined CCA because if we every want to see a fishery like that again then we need to take action now, not for ourselves, but those to come.

I don't think my stories of jigging kid's and ice rods for 20" mico-infested striped bass at the bay bridge are nearly as interesting as yours. I hope when I tell those stories when I am your age they are just as mystifying and hard to imagine days like that you describe because the fishery is so much better. I wish I could go back and fish those times!!

[Oldbayrunner]

I see a lot of really good suggestions here all would serve you well. Being a California coast native with my rod assortment I still keep a few Shakespeare Ugly sticks and some that no one really mentions out here that I grew up using and still buy, Fenwick spinning and casting rods.