Which trolling rod?

[SkunkBoat]

Originally Posted by jvitiel

Thanks Guys,

Yea, being new I'm trying to keep it simple so no wire or bunker spoon rods just yet. I have been to a few flea markets and they are good but can get confusing so thanks for the insight that will allow me to do some research before I go.

I only had a vague idea that the numbers in the model number related to line strength so that is very helpful. 6'6" with 30# braid and medium/heavy seems like a good plan so I will look over the brands you mentioned. I'm guessing that I will look for one with a slick butt too if I can.

I hadn't considered the line counter for jigging but that makes total sense - thanks.

Reel numbers can be confusing. Shimano TLDs are sized in kilograms not pounds so a TLD15 is a 32# sized reel. To make it more confusing, they sized the 2 Speed TLD50 in pounds not kg because people were confused when comparing to a Penn International.

[jvitiel]

Originally Posted by SkunkBoat

Reel numbers can be confusing. Shimano TLDs are sized in kilograms not pounds so a TLD15 is a 32# sized reel. To make it more confusing, they sized the 2 Speed TLD50 in pounds not kg because people were confused when comparing to a Penn International.

Interesting. I saw in your first post that you labeled the TDL 15 as ~30#. I assumed that they were just doubling it for some reason but I got the connection. I never considered that it would be metric but I guess why not?

So I was looking at rods a bunch online today and the Shimano's were too expensive and the Amia was only $60 and only specified 'premium' guides. I was liking the Star and Tsunamis. Star in particular had a ton of options but was confused about some terminology.

I have a Charter Special on a beater rod and assumed that going forward I would be using that for jigging etc. That left this rod for mostly being trolled in a rod holder and then me pulling it out of the rod holder and fighting the fish while standing up. So, given that, what is the distinction between 'boat' rods (which I assume to be 'standard' trolling rods) and 'standup' rods. I liked that the standups mostly had slick butts and longer foregrips which seems to make sense for my use case but it seemed that they were all short, more expensive and fewer choices. Are they that specialized and/or somehow inappropriate for what I'm trying to accomplish? It seems that standing up would be the typical/popular configuration...

Thanks as always !

[SkunkBoat]

Standups are generally for tuna/shark chunking, short & powerful, long foregrips.

I have a pair of 7' Tsunamis MH with 30# reels that do everything from fluking, bottomfishing, jigging striper & blues, trolling plugs and live lining bunker for stripers.
That would match up well with your reel for an all around utility rod.

[Destroyer]

It's really a "what feels good to you" thing when matching a rod to a reel. Personally, I have a pair of 8' Shimano Downrigger rods that I use for downrigger trolling. If you looked at them you would swear they were too weak for that job but they are matched to Daiwa 50H reels and will horse chopper blues and 20-30 lb Stripers all day long. I'm also partial to 6-7' Shakesphere Ugly stiks for fluking.

TIP: Whatever rod you decide on, do the following: Pick up the rod in your hand. Grab the tip and the butt lightly and flex (bend) it a little.... Does it flex evenly along the guides or does it want to twist to one side or the other of the guides? All rods have backbones... the sweetspot that they want to bend to. When you are building a rod from scratch you pick up the blank and flex it like I just said. Once you find the backbone you mark it and then you start marking where you will place your guides along that line. (Keep in mind that boat rods have the guides at the top of the rod and spinning rods have the guides at the bottom. When testing a rod, orientation of the guides is essential to get a proper feel of the rod)

The machines that make mass produced rods are supposed to do basically the same thing automatically, but sometimes they miss. That's why two identical looking rods will feel different sometimes, so it's always a good idea to test them by flexing them before you buy them. (Especially if you are buying matched pairs of rods and reels for fishing like Fluking where you are holding a rod in each hand as you drift or troll).

[jvitiel]

Ok, I went to the fishing flea market in Staten Island today and picked up a rod. Its an Ande 6'6" MH 20-40. It seems to be a nice fit for the reel. Thanks for all the guidance!

As Skunk said, the reel will hold 650 yards of 30# braid. Can I get by with 300 yards and back it with maybe 40# mono or should I get more braid? 500 yards of braid and less backing? Fill the whole thing with braid?

Don't want to over complicate this but what about a top shot? Again I want to use this for trolling mojos. Maybe singles but probably tandems.