Question For The Saltwater Guys

[pbizzle]

Yeh that bubble rig is real popular this time of year, great for spanish mackerel.  The only place I use a rod and reel that size is offshore, but many do use them off piers and jetties.  This is just the way I do it, I use nothing but med or mh rods, the difference is how much lure weight the rod can handle.  I prefer a mh that can handle 2 oz as opposed to one that handles only an ounce for my jettie fishing, I do believe there isn't much difference in the actually backbone.  This time of the year I'm pretty much on the beach, mostly using 7'6 or 8'  med rod with a 3000 reel that has good line capacity or 4000.  Since the drag setting is going to be about the same for either, it just becomes a personal choice on what to use.  IMO, you never want to crank that drag down, that can mean a breakoff, drag is meant to slow and tire a fish, not stop it dead in it's tracks.  No question of the possibilty getting spooled, out there you can hit by 2# bluefish or an 80# tarpon.  The tarpon gonna win about 95% of the time.

It's not actually my rod. Its my uncle's bait/smaller pelagic fish (mahi,king,wahoo) rod for his deep sea boat but he lets me borrow it while I'm down there. I get nervous throwing something as heavy as a bubble rig (which for those of you that don't know what it is, think about a 2 1/2 dia. bubble filled with water and sliding up and down your main line like a Carolina rig, and then fishing it as fast as possible on topwater) on my normal inshore rig.

[Dwight Hottle]

Take a look at St Croix tidemaster inshore spinning rods. TIS76MM. 7' 6" long medium power moderate action. 8-17 line wt 1/4-5/8 lure weight. Weigh  4.6 oz & retails for $140. I use st croix legend extremes in medium moderate & medium heavy moderate casting rods for smallies on lake erie with braid & mono leader. You are right the parabolic action of the moderate action rods works very well with braid & big smallies.