Light tackle choices

[JohnR]

I'd say for the cheapest and best entry for eeling and plugging would be a Tica or Quarrow from 8-9 feet with a Abu 6500 TCST reel if you are going to go conventional. Probably the best setups short of going custom.

For using a lighter setup for tight areas go with an 8 foot of the same with a mid sized spinning - 6000 size reel (Shimano, Daiwa, Penn) and you can throw stuff from sluggos to lighter plugs to smaller eels.

The thing for you if you got one on a chunk a few years ago is to not target a 50 pounder off the bat but to put yourself in the best way to get fish from the 20 inch range into the small mid size keeper range... Walk before you run, you will learn more and adapt better than jumping in with the big stuff - believe me - I tried years ago migrating from an 8 footer to a 12 footer and my catches went from decent to nonexistant...

[Mike P]

If you go Calcutta, you might want to go with the 400 instead of the 250.

A 7 or 7-1/2 foot bassin' rod--maybe one rated for 1-1/2 or 2 oz at the top end--would work fine for inshore fishing. I'm not a freshwater expert, but I think some of those rods they market for Carolina rigged worms would work. I used to use an old Shakespeare "flippin'" stick that could handle about 2 oz. It cost me about $50. You could also look into some "inshore" saltwater sticks in the 7 to 7-1/2' range. You'd want a 9' plugging rod for the open beach, but a shorter baitcasting rod can be just the thing for bays, backsides of inlets, tidal creeks, harbors, etc..

[Finaddict]

John makes a good point above, you won't always catch a giant cow when you go and some of the backwater/inshore areas may not hold super large fish -- although never overlook an opportunity for decent size fish to be swimming near and in the shallows.

but one thing that I have noticed with anglers is having rods that are too heavy when they are targetting areas that smaller fish are more predemoninat than the larger fish. the larger outfits don't provide the finesse that is often needed to work the smaller stuff effectively. If you can afford it, look at some of the 7-foot outfits that can throw rubber jigs and smaller storm shads, small poppers, small mambow minnows and cyrstal minnows. rods that can throw half-ounce jigs to 1 ounce jigs and plugs/1.5 ounce.

I use this type of spin rod from my kayak alot, catch a lot of fish up to 20 pounds, but the rod is suited to fishing cramped quarters, handles small fish and larger fish fine as well. I also use it in the back creeks, flats and estuaries when wading or from a boat.

For bigger water, have a larger rod like suggested above -- check with the shops on this site including Cape Cod Tackle, Saltwater Edge, etc. -- they can direct you to what you need.

just a thought.

[Christian]

8-8 1/2 ft tica
abu 6500
youd have a perfect combo, for plugs, small eels, bait, jigs. basically everything. filled with braid you can kill bigger fish with it too.