Must have boat fishing gear

[MikeD]

I don't think anyone is being cavalier about the safety stuff. Guys on this site seem to have a genuine interest in looking out for eachother when it comes to that stuff. This guy knows how to run a boat, he's just green as hell when it comes to fishing and I've been all over him to get some gear to take advantage of the fishery right in the bay. He won't sniff 3 the three mile line south of the vineyard this season. Seatow, ditchbag, floating handheld, hell yes.

But once I get the hooks in him and he gets the bug. Well then we can talk 32 ft. CC's, fuel bladders, epirbs, and gumbys!

[J_T_R]

I like my boat set-ups to be able to multi-task. I'd rather have 4 set-ups on board that are not 100% perfect for any specific task, but fully capable of handling anything you throw at them. The only exception is my spinning outfit for tuna.

All I use for boat rods are Ugly Stick Tigers. It is really tough to beat them for the money, not to mention that it is really tough to beat them up in general. I'd probably recommend a couple of Penn Senator 113's on the heavier conventional Tigers. You can jig cod, live line mackerel/pogies and troll, all with the same set-ups. I do have a few shimano live-liners, but they took a back seat to the conventional set-ups.

Penn 5500's or 6500's make good plugging reels and if you aren't into conventional stuff for the fluke/sea bass, then you can use these as a lighter alternative. Personally, for flounder, I like an abu with braid on a light rod.