CTFishTalk.com: Father Impressed - Connecticut Saltwater ( CT Saltwater ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

Michael · Joined: 28 Jan 2012 Posts: 3823 Location: Bridgeport

Yesterday evening after going out to dinner with my dad, he had the time to come into my place so I could show him my new surf setups. My dad is a veteran surf fisherman who grew up with the gator blues and loves hitting the 40"+ stripers. Recently I played around with the rods and reels to get a better feeling of balance and action.

Out of my 3 MH 8 foot setups, he was most impressed with my 8 foot Aerial surf rod rigged with my old 3rd gen Spinfisher 5500SS. He said the Aerial and Penn have a good balance and he could tell from the feeling and flexibility of the Aerial rod that it is an all purpose lure rod and can handle anything while surf fishing.

My Daiwa Emcast 8 footer rigged with a Fierce 6000 he said had a good balance and the Emcast is a good topwater rod because of its stiffness.

Last, the Sea Striker SS800 8 footer he said is a good rod for plugging and throwing lighter soft plastics and jigs because of it having more flexibility than the Aerial. That's the rod I was using last year while hitting the stripers on the Housy with plugs up to just over 1 ounce.

I showed him my 3 ML schoolie setups and my 1 kayak setup.

The kayak setup is a 6'9" Star Rods Handcrafted Series. He liked how it had the stiffness and heavy power for whenever their might be some bigger fish while trolling and casting from the yak.

As for the short 7 and 7 1/2 foot schoolie setups, he was most impressed with my 7 foot 3 piece Okuma Nomad traveler's rod because of it having a similar feeling to the Aerial rod and good balance with my old 3rd gen Spinfisher 4400SS. That was the setup I was using during the November striper run last year.

Another rod he said would be a good all lures light action rod is my new Okuma 7'6" SST Salmon rod. And with it being 6 inches longer than the Nomad and having a Sargus 4000 on it, he said it would be a good rod for getting out to the fish. Lighter 3/8 ounce to 3/4 ounce lures he said would work very well with it for how light the rod is and he could also see throwing something just under 1 ounce with it.

Last for the light action schoolie rods is a Temple Fork Outfitters Gary Loomis Signature Series 7'6" ML with a 4th gen Spinfisher 440SSG. He liked the setup and said it would be a good topwater rod because of its stiffness and felt like it can get a lighter 1/2 ounce topwater out there to the blitz.

I let my dad hold certain lures in the palm of his hand so he could get a feeling of comparing the weight, size, and shape of the lures to each rod.

So I'd say I'm all set and made smart decisions on great deals after selling 5 older saltwater rods Very Happy