I'm about to enter the world of wade fishing with my dad. Any recommendations on rods/reels? I was looking at the Okuma Epixor/Trio High Speed and the Penn Slammer. This is going to be only a wade fishing set up using mostly soft plastics. Any advice would be great. Thanks guys.

Alot of these guys swear by Shimanos!

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt...eel#Post7368228

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/7245355/good_inshore_set_up#Post7245355

So i feel rather stupid now that I realized the search bar works again. I need to start paying more attention. My apologies.

I didn't know it was working again either.......

I'm a Penn man ...... the Slammer would be a great choice mated to many different rods. Again Penn rods and tsunami rods will do the job.

Personally I wouldn't buy Okuma. The specs look great, but from my experience when it comes down to parts and repair good luck. For wade fishing I use a Curado 100 and Revo Inshore. Both are solid reels, easy to break down and clean, can be upgraded to carbontex drags for cheap, and parts are readily available if anything ever happens.

I grew up using Penn reels, but am also a huge Shimano fan.
For wading, I'll use 2 main rigs:

1. A Shimano Calcutta 200A on a old 7 foot Castaway "light saltwater" rod. Very fast tip on that particular rod. It's my "go to" rod 75% of the time.

2. I also use a Shimano Stradic 4000 on a 7 ft. Castaway SLX ( again, "light saltwater") when the mood hits me or I want to down size my bait.

Both of the Castaway rods are the "blue" wrapped models, not the cheap green ones.

3. For heavier tackle, I use a Penn 750 SSM on a cheap 9 foot Garcia two piece rod....or something similar. I also sometimes use a good old Penn 209 on a huge ugly stick.

Hope this helps.

this is what i use..reel isnt reel expensive..
you cant find the blank from fenwick anymore..
but any good 6-6 rod will work, medium action fast tip, should do
it.
7000C3i saltwater ambassadeur reel
fenwick 797Xpg 6-6 hmg, with straight grip handle.

Why do you use such a big reel for wading?

I dont want to loose any fish i can eat.I would use the same rig on a good worm hole on toledo bend are same rayburn.
Its not much bigger then a 6500 , and the long rod helps me throw a little farther.

6'6" is a long rod?

When I was a young kid I always read and dreamt about catching monster catfish. It gave me the crazy idea to fish off the bank with a Penn 309M on a broom-stick boat rod

Of course I never could save enough lawn mowing money to spool the dang thing full of line. It did teach me how to cast just about anything

Don't know about 7000s but regular old 5500C3 or C4 make fine heavy casting reels.

A lot of value in the Epixor, been using them for years. Go with the 30 size for wading. I own duplicates of each model going up to the 55. No problems, good line lay. For the money spent,you can't go wrong just maintain them. Oh, if your getting the Epixor make sure to get the "B" series. The "A" is the older version, without the Corrosion Resistant Coating.

I have the older A series Epixor 30 and it works really well still after owning it about 6 years. It takes the salt well and w/ a little cleaning it keeps on going. My father in Law has the B series 30 and he loves it. I'll be getting one soon. I also have some older Shimano Saharas that still work well too. Last but not least I still use an older Ambassadeur 5500 C4 that casts a top a long ways and has handled some big fish w/ no problems. All on 7 ft Castaway rods.