I have a few conventional salt reels I use when trolling for catfish and want to put them on surf rods for when I take the kids to the beach. I’n not looking for the perfect setup, just something to use occasionally. I was looking at 10-12ft surf rods and noticed pictures online of people using them on spinning rods. Is that the type of rod I want for these?

Stick with a rod built for conventional reels since that is what you will be using. Lots of good options on the market depending on what your price range is. Some good ones to look at are Ocean Master, Okuma Longitude, Breakaway HDX and the LDX, and Fishing Tackle Unlimited’s one piece 10ft rod. The best bang for your buck is going to be the Okuma Longitude, good rod at a good price. Price points differ between all of those but they are all good and you can’t go wrong with any one of them.

What kind of reels Goose?

Bass Pro Shops makes a pretty good surf rod in the $175 range -- top quality components, I have an Avet MDX (450/30# braid) on it and it's a mid-weight surf fishing machine.

I think I'd go with an Ugly Stick in that length. I personally shy away from those high end rods and the Ugly Stick has held up for many years for me. Some folks get those in longer lengths , then chunk a heavy piece of lead only to pop a foot off the end of the rod. That's the time to buy a few tip tops and some glue. I don't know what a "conventional" salt water reel is, just tune the reel .....i.e. mainline weight, leader line, and the amt. of lead your throwing. BC reels? Spinning reels? As they say ,"match the hatch". Just my $.02

A penn long beach and a JA Coxe.

Goose: ATX Ben and I had this same conversation awhile back when I was looking to get back into surf fishing. You may be in the same boat I was, I tried to find his suggestions and my own and had to finally settle on simply what I could find (and had to wait for that). "Out of stock" was the rule rather than the exception.

I would as said get a conventional rod - no substitutes. I ended up with a Penn from Dick's and had to wait a month for that to come in and be shipped here.