My "eel" gear......The rod story!

[eelman]

Im sure many inovations have been made in rods,reels,etc.......

Im stubborn as they come and, Im very resistant to any "Change".I have always felt the old addage of,"If it aint broke, dont fix it" Held true in more ways than one!

For years I used a Abu-Garcia 7000. Not the abu 7000C,Not the "CS" Just a plain old red 7000 reel with bushings. I never needed all the toys,Like overhyped and foolish "bearings". I could cast my old red workhorse just as far as the guys using the bearing reel and, caught as many if not,more fish with it. Those bearings never could take the punishment of saltwater surffishing.The smallest amount of salt water entering those bearings and, you were out of buisness for the night.

Anyway, casting eels to stripers is not a "distance" contest,99% of all bass caught are within 20 feet of your cast and some are right at your feet!.More important than distance(and I have ALWAYS said this) Is that you retrieve your eel slow and make sure that eel is in the structure.


The rod I used for about ten years was a lamiglass 3M,10 foot white "spiral" blank.This rod was a behemouth!! I got tierd of the weight and swithed to a kenedy fisher 9 foot grahite,I still used the 7000 with 30lb big game and a shocker of about 6 foot of 50lb test. I hated this rod also.I really like a "slow" action rod,that bends from the tip to the butt! Thats what the lami did and thats what I got used too.Im not knocking the others but, Its what I got comfortable with.I could never find a graphite that simulated the action of the lami, so I went back to a lami 2m stick that I had some of the tip cut off to stifen it up.This rod was lighter and had the action I loved.I like to set the hook an a striper , extemely hard "break there necks" was my moto.So a slow action rod is more forgiving and Im sure that action has prevented me from breaking of the first 6 inches of the rod more than once(Although I have done that).

Im not a finese fisherman, never was, never will be! Eel fishing only needs to be done in the right place and at the right speed! I wanted to stick as many bass as I could because, I was selling the bass and the more I stuck and the faster I got them in the better.

I dont sell bass anymore and I dont apologize for selling all the bass I did so, pleas no arguments! Im just stating the reason I used the rods I did.


After my second "lami" I got a call from bob andrade.He said he found the perfect rod with the action I love in Graphite.It was the sabre 1088 plum colored rod.I was leary but had him make one up for me in 1994.Its still the rod I use today!! I was hard on rods and thought the graphite could not take the punishment I gave out.I was wrong, I set my hooks just as hard as I did with the lami and, no problems!! I absoulutly love the rod! I had a little over six inches cut from the tip so the rod as it is wrapped now is just about 8 and a half feet long.


I also tried the calcutta when it came out and liked the reel.I stoped selling bass and lighter was the way to go.I eventually settled on the penn as my reel of choice.The only reason was the drag, In my opinion, its the best drag out there,even when wet! To me drag is the most important part of your reel and can spell the difference,With a good drag, you can land a monster with thread!!

I now use 20lb bigame clear line.I use ande for my leaders in 40lb test.I hate hardware and never use it,I tie my leader to my main line using an albrite knot. I have never had this knot fail!! ever!! The eel hook I use is a mustad 94150 6/0 live bait hook.

This is the setup I have caught fish from 30lb toys all the way up to my 52lb fish.

I havent changed but im sure there are rods that are better than the old plum 1088.I just getso used to a rod that I cant give it up! Its like a favorite pair of shoes! Anyway thats my rod story.