I've been looking at the tidewaters. They have a good line capacity and they're Shakespeare so you can't go wrong.

maybe for fishing out of a boat

One of the guys in the carp forum said he gets about a fifty yard cast with a 1 ounce wight and what seemed to be 7ft ugly stik.

The PAT50 reel is bad to the bone. Stick them on a PAT750C rod and you have a kitty slaying setup for real. Boat or bank, don't matter. Perfect setup and those reels cast a mile!

ABU GARCIA FOR LIFE!!!

ABU GARCIA FOR LIFE!!!

when you're bank fishing and need distance a $30 rod is just going to be less than medium distance. there are a few rods one can get for $50 or $60 which will get you out to medium distance ... say 450 ft or so but to achieve those great distances one has to have a great rod. same with reels ... if you put a tidewater on a good surf rod your distance is going to suffer terribly because ya gotta use your thumb with those ... a good abu reel for about twice as much and you can bust one out there to 200 yds with a little technique like a unitech cast. I've been needing to get me a new surf rod for those rare occasions that I need to throw a long ways and I wouldn't even consider a shakespeare rod for distance casting .. the shakespeare surf rods have a very uneven back bone and you can see it when people reel fish in with them ... they're stiff in 3 or 4 spots up the spine of the rod and limber in between. this combo of soft and hard spots makes it feel like a buggy whip when casting them and they're about 3 or 4 times heavier than a good graphite casting rod. if I were going to get a $50 rod I'dd get one like albertking mentioned and that's the daiwa eliminator ... I'd run away as fast as I could if someone showed me a berkley rod for sale ... they break easily and are very sub standard ... no quality control at all it doesn't seem like. anyhow, if you want good distance and ease of use ya gotta pay a little extra ... ain't like you're buying a boat or something that ya gotta take out payments on. hahaha. The reason I was able to catch all those fish below keystone dam all those years was because I could cast about twice as far as everyone else ... i could get out there where no one else could and I did that by having a good understanding of centrifugal force and great quality equipment. if you are okay with sputtering one out there to 80 yds then those other rods are fine.

+1 to the man

I could retort that but I'll use some one's first hand experience that says it not like a buggy whip.

http://www.catfish1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119382&page=2

i once had a BWC 1102 120 ... it's a 12' ugly stik big water casting rod rated for 15-50# line & 6-24 oz weight ... i couldn't throw 4 oz with it, it was like a wet noodle ... i don't know maybe i just had a lemon but i wont buy another one ... that's my first hand experience

tiny is a casting champion!!!!....what about this other guy??hmmmm...mmmmm..didnt think so

you talkin' about me or the fella on that other board

Does it even matter ?

And did you even read the link I posted ?
The guy casts 100-150 yards with this rod.
I don't know about you but that's more than enough distance for me.

Just so you know the bigwater series of rods are downrigger rods. They are not meant for casting.

i agree that the rod i had was not worth carp for casting ... they have some big water downrigger rods but the BWC 1102 120 ain't one of them ... all the big water downrigger rods are listed as BWD ... the D is for downrigger ... don't know who told ya the one i had was a downrigger rod