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Originally Posted by Uncle Matt
Cowboy -
Where are you planning on fishing? What are you fishing for? Just stripers? Do you prefer spinning reels or conventionals? Let us know a little more information so we help direct you in the right direction. It may be tough to get you one all around "perfect" outfit to sling eels, heave chunk bait, throw poppers from the beach and be easily used in a boat.
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Matt,
My friend's boat is docked deep in the EGreenwich cove. It's a little open type 20ft vessel with a 200 merc on it. I sit on a cooler as we ride out..We have just as much fun getting air on the way out as we do catchin fish. Anyway..We went out a lot last year mostly in the upper bay, and a few trips out to the bridges. We really wanted stripers, but mostly got schoolie bloos and fluke by the ton. This year, he's talking about rides out to the block on weekend and 4 dayer trips. I can't wait.
Growing up, I spent my summers in gansett and know the area pretty well. My buddy and I would drive our trucks down to my spots. I'm not gonna burn em, because they are popular enough, and we all know thats bad. so...lets get on to set-ups.
I used a hand-me-down pole that was about 7?8ft? tall maybe. It casted alright.. lets say in a dead wind I could thow an 1oz popper maybe 100-200ft with it. I dont know really. It had an old penn on it with a very small ratio. I didnt like it, to much spinning all day long. For line I used some 80# spiderwire because the guy at the bait shop told me it was "cool" so I got it. Little did I know this stuff frayed like a mofo near rocks! Lost a few good fish because of it. That pole later got destroyed by a big ol albie down on the wall. (I got him in with half a pole left on the last two eyelets, and then he ducked into the rocks and frayed my line! That fish kicked me and my poles arse!) Since, I didnt like the old penn's ratio I gave it to a friend who wanted to fixer up. After that, my uncle gave me a hand-me-down and its nice and all for a freebie, dont get me wrong... But, the ratio is the same as the old penn and the tip is REAL whippy. I am afraid of snapping it throwing heavy stuff! The line on it is pink the plastic kind (monofilament?)that stretches and I think its around 20# test.
So me and my friend would go down to the surf and throw casts with our Benny's type set-ups. We tried everything crab, dead shrimp, calamari strips, chunked macks, eels, worms, plugs, poppers, bucktails, kastmasters -ect. Our skunk ratio way to high..I dont know what we were doing wrong. All we caught last year were baby throwback stripers and more bloos. Oh yeah and many many skunked nights shared in the presence of good ol budwiesers..
I guess I prefer spinning reels although I havent used conventional other than while drifting on charter boats, or as extras for trolling in the buddy's boat. Even though it was a skunky year for us and striped bass it was still all good. good times.
That should be enough info for now. I just want a good all around combo that will be versatile and last me a few seasons. Sorry, Its easy to get lost typing while recovering from reconstructive heel surgery. But thats another dirt bike story, and Alton Brown (good eats) is doing a segment on cooking tuna as I type..
Lookin forward to getting some much needed advice.
thanks