What do you look for in a blackfish rod?

[Scrubby]

not that I catch many, being the giant hack that i am, but i could use all the help i can get..so what say you, what do you look for in a tog stick? what do you look for in a whole rod and reel set up for that matter??

[Jay]

I have three Tog rods, Bogan Custom and two are Lamiglas TFX 7030 and 7040. For reels, I have Avet's SX. The Lami's are very light and have a nice back bone to them. The Bogan rod I use when we have to use heavier sinkers.

[spyro]

blackfish....

[mickrazz]

Good advice from Jay. The TFX 7030 is a very nice rod. I'm not a fan of lever drags for bottom fishing but thats just me. The Daiwa saltist 20 is a great reel for the money, or the graphite frame version of the same reel is the Daiwa seagate for about $125. Either one will serve you well.

[shrimpman steve]

I look for a 40 year old hollow glass blank at the flea markets. I have found two over the last year or two that I would not change for the world. I like the bend in the old glass blanks, I feel it makes up for the non forgiving braid. I have not popped a hook on a big fish since going to these older rods.

[Leif]

7ft med action rod that will handle a 10oz sinker.

I prefer a matching quality star drag reel for this type of fishing.

See Kevin Bogan. He has some nice custom fiberglass rods and graphite rods that are a great value.

Mike Garone has some nice one of a kind custom rods as well.

Thanks,

Leif

[Red]

Mike Garone has some nice one of a kind custom rods as well.

He made me a Seeker inshore lite and couldn't be happier.. Even Jr had good things to say about it..
FYI, I didn't get mine warped like in the link below.

http://www.njfishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43819

[JerseyCoast]

Tough topic to get a majority to agree on. You have 3 types of blackfish rods and fishermen.

1- Soft Tip - rest backbone
2- Fast Action, with progressive/moderate action half way up the rest of the rod
3- Medium, slow action

Most important, is the ability to fish some heavy weights. You want to be able to hold that sinker in place, under rough conditions. Too soft and you will bounce the sinker around, keeping the tog away from your bait.
Too soft and you will be taken into the hole almost every time. Me, well I like both a fast action and a medium action. I always bring 2 rods, with the fast action being the rod for lighter sinkers and my medium action rod being used for the heavy stuff.

You will get a ton of opinions here, and NONE of them will be wrong! Its all dependant upon the fisherman.

[stripedbass]

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...e=1&permPage=1

I couldn't be happier with the inshore lite and this is my third . I use it for every thing stripers to seabass I think it's the best all around rod. I don't use any of my lamiglas rods any more they are just colecting dust at my house.

[Garone Custom Rods]

One thing I will say is there is no "BEST" blackfish or any type of rod for that matter. As you can see from the replys here some guys love their "Old School" moderate glass rods while others like faster action. Really the only way to find out what works best for you is to try different things. See if you can borrow a buddys rod and try different stuff out.

Me personally I like a more moderate bend I fish three rods for blackfish, a super tog, super fluker heavy and a Super Seeker SD-36. The first 2 are composites and the other is straight glass. I typically fish braid on the super fluker and mono on the super tog. Funny thing is I sell more inshore lites for blackfish than anything else.