Recomendations on a 9ft spin stick & reel to suit

[cheap charlie]

Hi,

I am wanting to put together a combo to toss metal slugs and also soft plastics land based - most likely from the stones.

Wanting Graphite or a graphite composit rod.

I was hoping to use the rod to target a wide variety of species. eg Salmon & tailor and possibly Jewies?

I would prefer to spend no more then i need to... Probably would cap the total spend at $200.

Rod;

i was thinking along the lines of the Shimano Sonic series. apparently it is based on the same blank as a catanna? around the $79 mark

Reel; not really sure what size would be suitable and most of all still allow for a decent casting distance?

Anyway, hit me with your recommendations...

[Guest SnaggedAgain]

I have a Shimano Catana [the store i got it from had some custom paint job done by Shimano and gave it a new name but it is still a catana]. If the Sonic series is based on that, it will be joy to use: extremely light, very good casting distance. *** selling them for ~$60 (7'x'').

Size of the rod: Local tackle shop tells me to get 12 footer rod for rock fising as you might need that extra length to play and guide the fish to the shore. Me being a shorty, i found that 10 footer rod is much easier to deal with.. specially to get to the those tricky spots on the rock. Silstar Crystral Power tip 10' should cost you around $100-110.

Reel: For rock fishing you need a durable - Daiwa Opus Bull 6000. 6000 will balance the Silstar(10') rod better than 4500 but have a go yourself and see what feels better.

You are probably going $40 over budget but that Silstar and Daiwa combo can be used for variety of use.

[PRED-ATOR]

I have a Shimano Catana [the store i got it from had some custom paint job done by Shimano and gave it a new name but it is still a catana]. If the Sonic series is based on that, it will be joy to use: extremely light, very good casting distance. *** selling them for ~$60 (7'x'').

Size of the rod: Local tackle shop tells me to get 12 footer rod for rock fising as you might need that extra length to play and guide the fish to the shore. Me being a shorty, i found that 10 footer rod is much easier to deal with.. specially to get to the those tricky spots on the rock. Silstar Crystral Power tip 10' should cost you around $100-110.

Reel: For rock fishing you need a durable - Daiwa Opus Bull 6000. 6000 will balance the Silstar(10') rod better than 4500 but have a go yourself and see what feels better.

You are probably going $40 over budget but that Silstar and Daiwa combo can be used for variety of use.

I got the daiwai opus bull in the 6500 size loaded up with 50lb coloured dyneema braid. Its an awesome reel use it on the boat for jigging and casting big stick baits and use it off the rocks for LBG. cant go wrong its solid as

[cheap charlie]

I think I have found a direction to head in.

I ran into the local Shimano rep and got talking about Shimano's shore spin range. He took me for a walk out to his rep wagon to show me what he uses. Out comes a beautiful Starlo classic 9 footer 2 piece rod.

initially I was tossing up between the rest of the shore spin family;

- Catana

- SSS Shimano Sonic Series

- Jewel

All of the above mentioned rods laid in the 6 - 8KG range and are very light in weight.

Once I had the Starlo classic in my hands I knew this was the rod I was after. In my eyes the quality of the rod was leaps and bounds over the above mentioned sticks and also the rod had a bit more of a solid weight to it. Appeared to be very similar to a rod I fingered some time ago at one of those stores that sells goods usefull for boating camping and fishing . I think that particular rod was a T curve stick...

Oh, and it also has the "Ian Miller" sticker

My plan is to match the rod with a Sedona 4000. initally I had my heart set on a Diawa salist 4500H out of the good old US of A. Beast of a reel with massive line retrieval per crank ( Some thing like 1.2M) Factored in the body size of the reel, it's hefty 595gm weight and also would have been looking at about a $220ish investment.

my thoughts then turned to a tried and tested Stradic, but with the Sedona being half the price and with a 9KG drag, it will do all I need it to. And lets not forget, my name is cheap charlie after all..

Rod $109

Reel $ 79

Should get me into plenty of trouble for $190...

Edited July 16, 2011 by Cheap Charlie