Striped Bass Surf Rod Recomendation

Hi Guys,

one of the things i would like to cross off my to do list for this year is to try some surf fishing here in Ireland for seabass using the same lures and techniques as the striped bass anglers of the East Coast USA. I would like to try lures from 1.5 to 2.5oz.

Has anyone any experience of trying this and if so what rod would you reccomend?

Cheers lads.

Tom
Go to the saltwater edge website and take a look at St Croix rods!

Great website, cheers for that Jim!

One of the lads down this way - Andy D - did a lot of fishing with heavier lures last year. He was using needle fish and suchlike. He was using an Illex Element Rider 240 (Not sure if it was an MH or an M). Looking at the catalogue this style of rod would suit the purpose. Not the most inexpensive of rods though!! Maybe Pezon Et Michel would have a suitable rod less expensive.
Illex: http://asp.zone-secure.net/v2/indexPop. ... 952&lng=en
Pezon: http://asp.zone-secure.net/v2/indexPop. ... 972&lng=en

Thanks for the links JimC, clearly i have a bit of option considering to do.

Tom,

Assume you are looking for something slightly longer than normal, around 9-10 feet and rated to 100g. Can I suggest you take a look at this? http://www.henrystackleshop.com/product ... 1834d840b7

Never seen it, never held it, so take this with pinch of salt. I do have the MPP soft 7-23 though and it's a great rod, best lure rod around for the cash IMHO (around 70). I have a couple of nice illex rods and still find myself using the mpp quite a bit for light lure fishing. As this is a bigger brother I would imagine its similar but more powerful to cope with larger lures. It's also a hell of a lot cheaper than many rods you could buy.

I'd be very hesitant to buy anything unless I got to play with it first so rarely order stuff online these days. Give Pat Daly a ring and see what he thinks of it and whether they have them in stock. He'll tell you straight up as to whether it fits the bill or not. The guys in tramore also stock savage gear - I'm sure they could give you some advice on it too and maybe get you one in?

Spindlefist had a post up a while back, he has one of these for pike fishing I think. Maybe drop him a pm?

I hope to be spending a lot of time lure fishing the surf this summer too. Just wont be using lures as heavy as you (max 35g) so I won't need to be adding anymore rods to my collection (thanks be to Jesus!!!). Interested in the reel you intend to use. I can't see myself using something expensive in the surf, it's going to be dunked constantly no matter how careful I am. Thinking an exage is a good choice - decent reel but cheap enough not to bring me to tears when it falls apart after a few months in the surf!!!!

Good luck with whatever you buy, let us know how you get on!

have often thought about lure fishing the surf, but it does seem daunting....what are u looking for in a good surf location? Do u check it out at low tide for any shallow gulleys, depressions in the sand etc...
and im presuming the lures have to have some beef, to keep stable in the surf. SP's would have to be fished with pretty heavy jig-heads?
talking of SP's - when fishing weightless with a small SP (4") its difficult to get decent distance, pulled a packet of tungsten putty out of my tench fishing gear and its excellent for moulding around the belly of the hook to give an extra 5-10gr of weight