[TOG]

after a decent spinning rod & reel for the summer.

Predominantly going to be after bass/pollack from rock marks in pembrokeshire.

Any suggestions ?

I've got an okuma axeon somewhere - but something tells me this is way too big for a spinning outfit.

Budget approx' £ 100 in total.

Cheers

 

[Drew]

Hi TOG,

Believe it or not, but the Abu 6500 Mag Elite is one of the finest spinning reels on the market. It small lighter than a fixed spool and will also cover you for beachcasting. All for £89 in Poingdestres of Southampton. Buy a spare spool for it and load it with a different poundage of line and you have two reels. What more can you ask for???

Cheers

Drew

 

[Scrudgy]

I just bought a two Simano Exage travel rods, along with two Shimano fixed spool reels to take on holiday. See link below (these were the best prices I found, although my local tackle dealer matched the prices so I bought them locally)

http://www.wickfordangling.co.uk/shimano-sp/exage_spinning_rod.htm

I got the TEXS240M 8' (10-30 gram) and the TEXS330H 11' (20-50 gram). I also got the Exage 4000FA reel, and a Nexave 4000RA reel to use with them.

I tried out the 10-30 gram 8' rod last week, and am very impressed with it. It will no doubt be the rod I will be using for all my light spinning work at home, as well as fitting in my suitcase for holidays. I am hoping that the bigger rod will also impress me as much for other spinning tasks. The longer rod fits into my suitcase but only just so be aware of that. The smaller one easily fits in a suitcase. Both rods can be made 1' shorter by swapping out a section.

I opted for the take apart versions as I am unsure of the robustness of the telescopic ones.

Anyway, back to topic. I think you will find that these compact rods will easily do the job of all of your spinning - but with the added advantage of being able to stay in your car for impromptu sessions when the urge takes you, and can go anywhere with you.

There is also a post somewhere on here about the Shimano Beastmaster spinning rods that a couple of the guys seemed really happy with, but they are a little dearer.

You can get the Exage 4000 sized reel for about £47, and the Nexave 4000 size reel for about £33. (The Exage reel has fancier bearings I think)

In summary, for your £100 budget, I think you will find the above options very versatile.

 

[Manx Fisher]

I also bought a Shimano spinning travel outfit recently - originally for the intention of taking on holidays. After a couple of 'test trips' I have certainly come to the conclusion that it will get a lot more use than I expected .... not because I am going on a round the world tour (unfortunately) but because it is every bit as good as a 'normal' spinning rod, and so it will be taken with me on most fishing trips (and will probably live in the boot of my car)

 

[ChrisP]

Have a look at the Ugly Stick Gold Spin and the Ultra Lite Spin, match them with a Penn SSB350, Shimano Exage, or Okuma Epix Pro EPR30, load them up with 6 to 12 lb fluro, you have a really nice lite setup for spinning, float fishing or live baiting.

I had an 18lb tope on the Ultra Lite, Exage and 6lb line a couple of years ago by accident whilst live baiting for bass, the rod and reel handled it no problem.

I bought another Gold Spin yesterday I like them so much.

 

[TOG]

Cheers Gents - off to raid 'er housekeeping pot!

Many thanks

 

[swelleyman]

Julian Shambrook's Rubber Shark is the one and only all round rod (though costs more than £100, (and I bet you WONT find a second hand one!) It will easily cast 2oz when spinning (Abu mag or my Daiwa Regal) Yet it will also cope perfectly with 6oz beachcasting or off the rocks in the rubbish. So I can quickly change over to a 2oz Toby when and if the need arrises. It really is the 'perfect' all round rod and I saw one being used in an American casting Tournament on a link that someone posted last night. The rod is perfectly finished and should last me my lifetime (me mum just had her 91st birthday so I've got a long way/time to fish!). When I only want to take one rod out then this allows me to concentrate on my fishing, whatever I'm doing with it. Below are other rods I've bought. All are great when being used exclusively but with two rods, well tackle, in the water my concentration goes.

I use an 11'6" Daiwa Bass rod for Flatties where there's some weed or when Feathering for mackeral. So light and extremely well made. £60 ish I think (Anglesey Bait Centre, Beaumaris - hub of the Universe!) and it copes really well with livebaiting, like a heavy Pike rod.

For very light work I carry a Rockhopper Plugger with a litttle fixed spool reel. That rod cost me £48 and I also use it for freelining with sandeels as well. The reel's an Abu Cardinal (best that China can produce) that doubles as a ledgering reel when scratching with the Feeder rod (Shimano Hyperloop £40 or so, West Midlansds Angling Centre) I use this rod regularly off the beach at Lowestoft. It's rated to cast 150 gms!!! Never tried it but it casts a method feeder with groundbait or an ounce or less and a paternoster rig. The other Rod's a 15' - 17' Commercial carp Rod which I use for float fishing (Wagglers) with wagglers on the hook (maddies!). Great close to shore in deep water after pouts, wrasse and small Pollack. It allows me to fish gently casting a rod's length out and 10' and up down in the water - if you see what I mean. The best anti-blanking rod I know! ( Leeda Assasin 2, about £30 at Malcoms, Ang. Bait centre) I use the Abu Cardinal with 7lb Fireline on it and 6lb snood. One of these days I'll hook something bigger. Then the fun will start! I carry a landing net, just in case!

 

[Guest]

I''ll take that bet swelleyman

 

[glasgowdan]

The mustad sea spin rods are good at about £45, as are the ed schliffke ones. I went for a greys sea spin which is just out of your budget.

For reels I would go for fixed spool definitely. The best being a shimano 6000 size baitrunner, though there are many others. The baitrunners are just so versatile if you wish to leave your rod unattended for a minute as there is no faffing about with drag etc.

 

[lewis888]

My 2 spinning outfits are a shimano hyperloop with a 4000 baitrunner (heavier set-up) and a shimano texs270mh with a 2500 stradic (lighter outfit). As you can tell I love shimano stuff for spinning! The reels are so smooth and the rods feel so balanced and nice to use, The heavier outfit isnice to use and will cast 2oz leads as well as it casts 10g tobys so it is for heavy spinning/light ledgering. The lighter outfit is unbelievable nice to use! It feels perfect, will cast upto 45g so it copes well with ultra light ledgering/float fishing and heavy dexter wedges but it will also cast featherweight plugs such as 11.5g chug bugs more than far enough. The second outfit will definitely be my main rod this year.

The exage is a good price and can be found relatively cheaply (mines was £50) but the reel is a bit more costly at around £70 but believe me it is worth every penny!

 

[Guest]

The mustad sea spin rods are good at about £45, as are the ed schliffke ones. I went for a greys sea spin which is just out of your budget.

For reels I would go for fixed spool definitely. The best being a shimano 6000 size baitrunner, though there are many others. The baitrunners are just so versatile if you wish to leave your rod unattended for a minute as there is no faffing about with drag etc.

Exactly the set-up I have Glaswodan.

General spinning and live prawn bassing it is a perfect set-up.
Have used it wrecking for Pollock too (but I think you may have guessed that from my other posts!) and it has handled fish to 15lb quite easily although it struggles with more than a few ounces of lead....

 

[woodsy]

i use a greys sea spin, and a greys travel spin for the suitcase, both rods are good value, and get the job done with a bit of style.

 

[Ajohn]

I've been searching for a spinning rod that packs small and came to the conclusion that a 2 1/2 or 2 3/4 carp rod is the best bet. Much easier to get two hands on the rod when casting. That weight of rod will easily handle 2oz. I have finished up with a fox trek (not the trekker). It's a 5 piece 12ft rod and it can be loaded to much more than it's rated 2 1/2 lb, that's just the point where it's tip gets to 90 degrees from the rod. Some carp fishers pendulum cast but I'm not to sure about that on a 5 piece or too cheap a rod. I reckon this one will make an excellent mullet rod and work well with light sea floats to an 1oz or so too. I also have an ugly stick spin but they have too much of a through action for good casting. For lighter work I use a 10ft hardy rod rated at 7 to 35 grms. It's mainly made for the export market and is a very strong rod. Bit pricey though - present off the wife, £200+ about 10 years ago.
On reels I'm just about to try a bait caster. One slightly sub 6500 size for the carp rod and another much smaller one for lures under a 1oz. I strongly suspect that fixed spool will win out on lower weights running on 8lb line. Not sure on the heavier stuff running on 12lb line. Also for lures in the 10 to 15 grm range 5lb line would be much better, maybe even 4. All that coarse fishing I did in my youth does come in useful some times.

A five fingered cast with match rod and trotting reel will cast sub 10 grms much further than a fixed spool usually will especially with reasonable line weights.

John

 

[mago]

I'm in a similar situation to you TOG, the best deal I could find was a shimano baitrunner gte (5000)b which if you look hard enough can be had for £65 off t'internet plus a 10ft Ron Thompson Stratocaster (when they become available in June) for £30 but I must admit I haven't seen the rod myself I'm just going off magazine reviews for that part.

What are other forum members views? Has anyone any other suggestions?

 

[Ajohn]

Why pay for a baitrunner. ABU do some good salt water reels. The c178 holds about 300 mtrs of 0.4mms line but it's easy to part fill it with softish 50 or 75lb mono. There is also a slightly smaller version but again as the Swedes use heavy lines some part filling will be required. These come with a spart parts list, 2 spools and would be equally at home on a beachcaster. Price should be less than £40. They are good strong reels.
On the rod I would take a look at lower priced 2 1/2 or 2 3/4 lb carp rods. They should cast 2oz easily and under weight casting is no where as near as bad as overweight. I would expect decent performance from 3/4 to 2ozs. There are loads of mail order deals available. Your budget shouldn't be a problem at all. Most tackle shops that sell carp stuff will let you load the rod. Try it you will be surprised how strong they are. Hardly surprising really as 20lb carp are run of the mill and do not like being caught. For good casting look for something with out to much through action but carbon blanks don't usually have that problem. If the rod is too expensive save on the reel. Almost any medium sized fixed spool reel will break 10 or 15lb line. Long cast spools aren't all they are cracked up to be. The best casting reel was made by mitchel about 40 years ago and had a line lay adjustment and a short spool. It wound it on almost cotton reel style. So much for improvements. Reels are best underfilled if it's windy. Which more often than not it is. Just fill to the start of the lip or even lower.

John

 

[Ajohn]

Have a look around this site. They often have silly priced reels and rods.

http://www.mullarkeys.co.uk/


John

 

[medlar]

i use a Penn Powerstik,8ft version rated at 20-40 grms.and it is a good decent rod for what it cost about 1 year ago