Birthday rod and reel =)

[NaturalAcoustics]

A Shakespeare sturdy stick, and alpha 50 fishing reel for my birthday from my best friend and fishing pal =) put on a 65lbs spiderwire (stealth)? braid on it with a steel leader (nothing but bay fishing over here) what yall think =) cant wait to take it on the water.

[RobE]

Happy B-Day, NA!

I don't know much about bay fishing but, I know that Shakespeare makes some good stuff. How about you get it wet and give us a report? Don't use cake for bait.  

[NaturalAcoustics]

good plan going out tomorrow =) expect a review at about 10 =)

[SirSnookalot]

If you are fishing bay you are probably fishing open water, imo 65# too heavy, I'd go 20# braid.  Under those conditions I use mono, my conventional has 20# p line floroclear and have 2 8000 spinners, 17# trilene and the other one is 20# shakespere supreme.  The line strength is of no issue.  BTW drift boats use 40# bulk mono and they catch fish up to 100# on occasion.

I don't know what species you are targeting but I would be prepared to take the steel leader off and go with 40 or 60# mono leader.

[NaturalAcoustics]

The water i fish is full of fossils from ancient worms that use to dwell here so the only way you can fish is with a float but its usually too windy to use one impo. The steel leader and heavy line is just so when i get caught on one of these fossils i can just power my way through it. Also with a 20# test they break really easy when im trying to throw over the rows of weeds that covers most of my area due to the weight that i have on the leader. id just rather be safe then even having losing leaders and losing fish on my mind. Use to happen a lot and im just skittish of the idea.

[NaturalAcoustics]

The fish werent biting they were nibbling which made it a little hard to set the hook. Compared to my make shift surf rod it ran a little too smooth. It was windy so i was using the weight to have tension so i can feel the bites but it worked so well that with the sturdy stick it would just pull in the weight no biggie just used bigger weights. The line was great actually did bust though i got hung up on one of those fossil rocks couldn't power through. Wont know how well it runs till the next time after its been through saltwater hell but initially i liked it =) might try on a longer rod though sturdy sticks seem to be for more of the "grab bait and haul ***" kind of fish were they set the hook on themselves.