Lou - no prob... I was actually using a 9' Batson 1088 surf rod and Calcutta 400. Not exactly a prime boat rod but I actually like using the surf rod on a boat and I feel it has certain advantages that outweigh the "too long for a boat" factor. That reel is also perfect in that range - boat or surf. Trayder - the owner of the boat - has some nice St Croix 7'5 boat rods with Penn 975LD reels which were and awesome combo that I got the smaller fish on.
I was using 20# Berkley Game Green with 25# Triplefish Flouro Leader (just started using that) and Trayder had 30# Yozuri Hybrid with a 40# flouro leader.
At best, you're only going to get live herring from the runs until some point in June, early June most likely. Then for live baits, you can snag Menhaden (if you can find them) or eels (much better at night or fished very deep during the day). Either setup would be fine for both although you probably should use a boat rod
GS? Eh?