Eelin rod
 

I'm looking to get a spinner made strictly for eeling and maybe some small plugs right now I am looking at the Batson RS1208. Anybody have any experience with this blank? Any other recomendations?

Do you mean the SW1208? I've heard mention of it being a nice lighter eel rod. The 1201L and xra1204 are other great 1pc eeling blanks.

-spence

I thought the patriot was the SW1208, whatever. I have also heard good things about the 1204. Anybody have any first hand experiences with the batson?

I'd ask Mike at capecodtackle.com, He's usually a vocal proponent of the SW rods...

-spence

The Batson SW1208 and the Amtak ASW1208 are very..very similar blanks. Both almost identical tapers with fast actions. Amtak blank is all graphite where the Batson is a composite.
Haven't tossed eels with one, but they do make a great plugging blank. Probably one of the better "all-around" blanks to carry with you.

I have a lot of good eel rods---Lami 1204 and 120 1L, old Sabre 1088 among others. The absolute favorite among all of mine is one Mike built on a Loomis SW 108-20 blank. The bad news is that Loomis blanks are hard to come by. The good news is, the Loomis SUR 1084 production rod is built on the exact same blank.

You don't need a 10' rod for eels. 9' works fine. Eels only cast so far anyway and the shorter rod is much easier to use all night. I have a Calcutta 400 on my 9' Loomis and I can hold the rod one handed with no effort when drifting them in current. When casting and retrieving, the butt tucks under my arm and the rod basically feels like an extension of my arms--no need to have the butt between my legs.

Cool thanks for the advice, I think a 9' would be a bit too short for where I am looking to fish with it, seems like the 1204 is like by a lot of people, any other suggestions?