Looking fora couple reel and rod combos in the sub $150 range that I can spool with 30-40lb braid and take offshore for kings, lings, mahi, etc. What do people recommend?

Andrew,

Ty Southerland is a knowledgeable man on this subject and I watched a video the other day and he explains his choices for a couple of rods and a reel for offshore . . . says with 30 lbs. braid, these set ups will catch everything in the gulf!

Ty Southerland recommendations

Hope this helps. Brad

Sorry to say but any combo you find for that price won't last very long. Saltwater is heck on cheap materials and the kings will destroy the cheaper drag plates in a few runs. You can pick up an Ugly Stick rod fairly cheap and it will hold up and have the backbone to handle whatever...just don't scrimp on the reel!

Had this discussion with a woman a season or so back while catching monster black drum. This woman down from us had broken off a couple of fish already and was asking why we could land fish after fish with no problem. She got really upset when I told her it was the difference between the $40 reel drag plates in her reel vs. the drag plates in our $200 Calcuttas (they now run closer to $300 but we have had ours for a long time). She said there was no way she would pay that much for a reel. I told her to enjoy watching us land fish while she re-tied from her latest break off.

We have had the Calcutta 700's now for going on 8-9+ years and they still work like new. Cheaper reels would never last that long in the salt and need replacing regularly. Spend the extra money, maintain your higher priced gear made for the salt properly and you will have a good setup for many, many years that will land fish.

Penn Senators mine were bought in 59'

You'll be just fine with a Penn Jigmaster 500 and Shakespeare Ugly Stick or Ugly Stick Tiger rod in 6.5 or 7 foot length, medium or medium-heavy action. Spool it up with 30 pound mono or 40 pound braid and have a blast. The Jigmaster 500 has a 4-1 gear ratio....higher than the Senators for a quicker retrieve.

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dang, Willie!
I remember the son-one trips..........

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Look for a SonOne-Two trip in '16 come late July, maybe early August. Won't be in Port Aransas.

Like that. I'm in!!

I think I just witnessed the mother of all hijacks.

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Guys, please take this conversation to PM's. Try to stay on subject here.

Thanks.

Thank you for the advice. I'm pretty much set on a couple Ugly Stik tigers in 7' Medium after some research done into them. What to put on top of them, however, is eluding me.

I already have a shimano baitrunner DC 8000 that I had on a surf rod on an ugly stik. It's spooled up with 50lb braid (300yrds) with about another 100yrds of 40lb fluoro topshot for some springiness.

Probably looking for 2 more reels to finish the offshore setup for now.

I might jut go the route of the Abu 6600 Ambassador C4's like Ty was using.

fair enough.
I'd recommend looking for a couple used shimano Torium 30 or Daiwa sealine 20/30.
these are much more "modern" reels with higher gear ratio's,sealed bearings, & better drags.
you should be able to find a couple on Ebay or other related places for $125 or less.
otherwise, can't go wrong with a couple old Penn 500 jigmasters.

I fully agree here. I've been down that Jigmaster road too and the Torium 30 IS a more reel of "today".

My late fishing buddy loved the Ugly Stix and had a Shimano Speedmaster on it and caught everything from Kings, Ling, Tuna to Red Snappers.

Have you searched ebay for used saltwater reels?

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=&am...30&_sacat=0


http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=&am...iv&_sacat=0