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Ideally, you could sit forward momentarily to reach a short rod around the bow, but why take the risk of losing a fish? You could have a bad grip on the rod and lose your entire set up, you could get cut off by your line rubbing the bottom of your boat, you could give the fish just enough slack to shake free... Yes, a shorter rod will give you leverage on a fish. But realistically, your just going to pull yourself to a big fish quicker, not pull him in quicker. Therefore you pull a very green fish to the boat. And a lot of fish are lost at gaff. So why not tire him out a little bit and give yourself more advantage at that point? For live bait you can get by with a shorter rod, but like i said, 7' is about right. For casting irons, you'll want a 9'+ rod.
You will hear from 98% of people that a 9' rod is too much for a kayak, but I'll just let Josh talk about that one when he gets here.
And by your topic I'm going to assume you meant to ask about reel selection but forgot. Penn 500's are a cheap favorite. But you can get a Daiwa Sealine for $100 from squidco. The Daiwa Sealine is by far my favorite reel. With very little maintnance, and a lot of surf and kayak abuse, my sealines have held up wonderfully, still freespool better than any reel I've owned. Sealine 40 for irons, sealine 30 for live bait. 40 lb for the 40, 30 lb for the 30.
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08-13-2009, 02:58 PM
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