surf rod

[porgy75]

I have been using my dad's old rod and I want to purchase a new one. Is there a difference between a rod for the surf and a rod for the jetties? Does anyone recommend anything? Any advice is much appreciated.

[surfstix1963]

I generally like a shorter rod on a jetty then my beach set up say 8ft on the beach 10 or 11 ft. I like my lamiglas rods they are the only ones that are graphite that have not snapped on me.I have had a horrible run with the ugly stik custom surf rod 4 of them have snapped on me they keep sending me new ones but I am done I will spend the money on a lami or St Croix.

[DarkSkies]

Porgy, you can start out with a cheaper rod. I still have ugly stik 9 and 10' surf rods I use a lot. They are a great value for the $$. When you get some more experience and are looking to save your shoulders when plugging, you might want a lighter rod like the lamis or St Croix. They are in a far superior class when you put in many hours fishing.

Like surfstix said, you might want a shorter rod for jetties or river fishing, and start to think about pairing that up with a conventional to take the abuse from bigger fish. It's up to you, but I would say to think about where you will be fishing most right now. If just a little of both, one rod is fine.

There's nothing wrong with older rods. My primary bait rod now is a 30 year old garcia 12' stick paired with a Mitchell 303 I got when I was a kid. Your Dad's old rod probably has a lot of sentimental value, catching a few nice fish on it might be a good thing. I don't know how often you fish, but if you start to fish a lot, you will realize your different needs. Once you have that figured out, I would then start to think about specific rods as different tools for different kinds of fishing. Keep us posted.

[jonthepain]

for plugging I used an old fiberglass 7'er with steel eyes that I inherited from the old guy who taught me how to surf fish back in the day. that was one ugly sob but it was the luckiest rod i ever used.

when it finally bit the dust i bought a st croix ben doehr two piece. i've got a coupla st croixs and one g loomis (for trout) that are great too, but i love that ben doehr.

it really wasn't all that expensive