What would be recommendations for someone wanting to break into surf fishing for a spinning rod and reel combo under $150. Also what do you suggest as far as spooling it with line, poundage, mono or braid,etc. Im looking to fish for drum and bull reds and occasional small sharks by accident.

i have an inshore select ugly stik with a penn fierce 4000 spooled with 30lb braid. It castes a mile and i have landed big drum with it. For the kind of braid i usally get spiderwire. All of this is about 130$. you can get all of this at bass pro shops. you can probably get it at academy but i do not know if the prices is different.

It depends if you are planning on casting and waiting, or using lures and bait in the close-by guts.
From your target species seems like baiting and waiting. 20-30lb braid would work fine and give you more line than mono, but if surfcasting and waiting there is more abrasion on it too. a 4000-5000 size reel would be fine for those, specially if no need to stop them fast to get away from structure and the recommendation above is good.


There are some combos which are hard to beat, such as the Penn Combos, for less money, though you may not get the exact rod you want. 7' would be minimum for meat chunking due to casting distance, but doable.
My surf rod is a 9' MH uglystik with a Penn Battle 6000 and 30lb braid topped with some mono.
1/0-3/0 circle hooks with dead shrimp will catch you a bunch of fun stuff too.

Good luck

Can't say about the durability as I haven't had it for long, but I've got an Okuma Longitude 12' rod paired with an Okuma Avenger baitfeeder ABF90. It is a beast, rated at 590 yds of 20 lb mono, will hold around 450-500 yds of 65 lb power pro with about 20 yds of mono backing. Total cost not counting the line is right at $100 if you get the reel online. Got the rod at Academy. Its not for the weak caster though, as it's a fairly stiff rod. Takes a good 4 oz and bait to load at a minimum.

If you want to step up from that and get something a little lighter, watch for Cabelas to put the salt striker rods on sale and pick up one of their surf rods and one of the salt striker reels. On sale you can get this setup for around $130-140. I got the 11'6" and it'll throw 2oz fairly easily. 3-4 oz will fly well.

Are you talking about the raw shrimp from the grocery store,or the smaller bait shop shrimp? Or does it even matter,as long as it hasn't been frozen?

Ideally fresh-dead, but any non frozen shrimp, wherever you can find it, can work. I know a guy who uses peeled-frozen stuff from the grocery store.

I buy fresh dead shrimp when we go to the beach, as the kids love looking around in the bait shops... the reality is that Fishbites work equally well... and last longer

Sorry about the long post, but you asked a loaded question.

If you plan on using your setup for both pier and surf, then I would stick with a 9 or 10 footer since most piers limit the rod length. If it is for surf only then go long, the longer the better.

Big rods mean big reels 7,000 to 9,000 sizes (some knock a few 0s off the size), because you can cast out a long ways, if you go with braid you can lighten or downsize a bit, but 4000 reels are for short casts on shorter rods IMO.

A rod should top weight at anywheres between 4 and 6 ounces give or take. It takes a lot of weight to chunk it out a ways, and still hold bottom in the surf. The height also helps keep the line out of the way of the weeds which tend to get thicker the closer you get to shore.

You can cast out up to about 30lb mono, but many surf guys usually use between 12 and 20lb, they also tie on a "Shock Leader" of about 40 to 50lb test so you can cast the extra weight. 20 to 65lb braid works too, although I stick with 20lb and use a longer shock leader, it protects the braid from being sand blasted near the bottom.

That Avenger reel that Catfish hunter mentioned is a pretty good reel, although I'm a Penn guy. I would go with a Battle or SpinfisherV because of the better drag and they hold up better in the sand, especially the Spinfisher V, sorry to say that will up your combo to almost #200 though. Penn's Pursuit II is a good reel also, but you need to give it a little TLC after every trip to get it to hold up to the sand.

I've had good luck with a couple rods that are pretty inexpensive.

I have a few of these in lengths around 10 feet or less, but that is because I use them both on surf and piers. http://www.basspro.com/Offshore-Angler-Power-Plus-Spinning-Rods/product/30663/ They are under $50 and worth their price.

I get these at Academy for about the same price, just noticed that Bass Pro sells them too. This is my lighter weight pier / surf rod, and I have a couple of these with 5,000 reels and braid on them, they make a nice to hold for a bit rod. http://www.basspro.com/Shimano-FX-Spinning-Rods/product/58574/

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to surf fishing. Although they are from England, check out YouTube for a site called Totally Awesome Fishing Show, they have a series on surf fishing, which will give you a good idea about what too look for in gear, just keep in mind that they are fishing a little different fishery that we are, but many of the basics needed are to be found in those videos.

You can use a lot of baits in the surf, fresh dead or live (if you can cast it) work best the type depends on what is the bait dejour, frozen works also, most of the time it is harder to cast without flipping off the hook.

Sorry to be but, Hello Sponx, hows life in the fast lane?

OH yea, if you are planning on throwing Arties, I have used that 9 foot Shimano rod with a 4000 reel and 20lb braid with pretty good success on the beach, BTW.

Hey Pferox, it's been busy (I was on vacation in Peru) and now catching up with work.
Caught some big flounders and my smallest one too.
Back to topic, there are good videos on youtube on how to read the surf, that would give you and idea of where it MAY be more productive.
With 150$ you can get a really good setup with rod and reel, if you go with braid (more affected by abrasion than mono) it will be more expensive to spool. A good reel with SMOOTH drag will work much better than a fancy rod to help you land big fish with lighter mono/braid

If you are looking for a good rod and reel its phlugger all the way selling them at walmart for 60$ so you can afford two..