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Shorefisherman - rod, reel, line?

1623 Views 3 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  FISHING&FORDS
I'm curious to hear what types of rods, reels and line weights people out there are using to fish the shorelines around the harbors.

Myself, I use a 6 1/2 ft. rod, Quantum reel, and (so far) 8lb. original Stren line. Last season I used 6 lb. line instead, which was much easier to cast, but I felt was too light of line from having lost a few fish reeling them in up and over the walls.

I mainly target bass and panfish, so I'm looking for a good line with an 8lb. type strength (to pull in bigger bass), but a 6lb. type diameter, castability, etc., so that I could fish light if needed (for panfish).

What do you guys use? Any suggestions?


- Jon
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
My suggestion to you would be that your rod and reel seem fine but think about spooling your reel with anywhere from 14 - 20 lb fireline or equivalent braid. Then you can just tie on a nice section of fluorocarbon to suit what species your after (4-6lb for gills, 10-14lb for the bass) to the end with a uni to uni knot. This way you have the line to handle the larger fish while the finesse needed to catch the gills. If I were you I'd bring 2 poles anyways, 1 ultralight for the gills and then the one you have for the bass. You can get ultralight setups very cheap through BPS.
i use this setup myself. i have spooled up with 20# spiderwire stealth w/ a 10'-12' mono leader. the mono leader is needed to provide stretch so the hooks don't tear out. the baid is nice, its thinner that similar strength mono. the only problems i have had with braid is that it fouls on the reel more readily than mono and if it knots there is pretty much no choice but to cut it out if it is too tight. however, i do do prefer this setup to mono and use it almost every trip.
for the lake i use 10 pound XL so I can flip fish but It was tested last year by a few smallies i'm going to use fluro carbon. this year in 8# don't use braid in LM unless you use a carbon leader because of how clear the water is.
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