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All my life I have bought the cheap stuff so as "not to waste money"  I know a lot of people will tell me there are plenty of "good cheap rods that will do the job" But I want to buy a great whiting rod and reel, the one you would get if the money did not matter. I have some idea about what makes a great whiting rod, but which one to buy? I know there are a lot of people have one they like, I want the one they wish they had.

 

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From a boat casting is not as important. I value lightness so you can hold it all day, a soft tip so it will show bites but enough backbone to handle any bigger fish. I use a few high end rods for specific uses but mostly prefer mid range gear these days. I really like the gomoku rods for boat fishing for whiting as they tick all of these boxes.

For landbased bait fishing for whiting it is a balance between length for casting distance and lightness. I use a pair of Daiwa seajiggers for most of my jetty work.

For extreme distance I have pair of SFC Surf Tiger rods and a pair of Century TTUL ST. Matched to a pair of Daiwa Surf Basia reels these will cast over 100m easily.

For lure fishing I am lucky enough to own a Black Diamond Flats Ranger 1 to 3kg rod that works great for small hardbodies and plastics. Although I mainly use it for baitfishing from the Yak.

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I remember Rex Hunt used to advocate super long - super floppy - fiberglass rods with nibble tips.  And he was a competition winning whiting angler back in the day. The idea being, they feel very little resistance from the rod when having a nibble - Then BANG - you whack them when the tip loads up.

Theres something about this approach I like but I've never used it - I did use nibble tips but only 7 footers.

Ive seen guys who specialize in super spooky docklands snapper using nibble tips aswell. If the area you fish has spooky whiting that nibble but dont get hooked- A "Noodle-stick" might be worth considering

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Thanks, it looks like I need a lot more than one rod. Maybe that's why people go for cheaper rods. So maybe I need to narrow it down to, a boat rod, about 7' for fishing in South Australia, mostly targeting King George Whiting, in 1 to 10 metres of water, mostly using bait, often on a Paternostra rig and perhaps using braided or mono line, hopefully on a sunny winters day, with a gentle off shore breeze, on a incoming tide. This should narrow it down to just a few hundred rods :)

 

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I've just been checking out the  gomoku rods that Kelvin suggested and they seem to be very good, but now to try and narrow it down to which one to buy.  Then comes a reel, god help me with that one but I am thinking a 2500 or 3000?

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I switch between an old Ugly Stik 3-6.5kg with a 2500 spinfisher and a TD black 3-7kg Mangrove masher rod with 2500 Sol. Both with skinny 16lb siglon. They're very different and represent my dream outfit when I was a kid and my ideal modern if it swims I'll catch it rig.

I like both a lot, the newer one is light, powerful and great for all fishing, I use it all day, the old one is heavier and really only good for bait fishing but geez is it nice for that. 

Then there's the baitcasters.........

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My preference is a baitcast outfit if holding the rod. Currently using a Gomoku Belize matched with TranX 200 reel. Awesome set up and very versatile. Spin outfits include a Samaki Craze PE 1.5, shorter rod but lots in reserve if something bigger jumps on and a Shimano Sedona XT 763 nibble tip that lives in the rod holder with circles on an extended paternoster. Both these have 2500 size reels with 15lb Suffix 832 or Powerpro and 20lb fluro leaders.

Also rate the whiting slayer 641 from SFS, matches up well with same 2500 size reel.

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20 minutes ago, yellow door 1 said:

To the guys using bait casters - is that so you can easily feed line to a nibbling fish? or is there another reason?

I used to love bait casters for deep fast flowing water as it gave you a much more positive indication of when your sinker had hit the bottom. 

I like the bait caster for lure fishing in chasing whiting and other flats/boat species,one of em is a BFS BC for 2-4 gram lures.more entertaining using BCers. 

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On 22/05/2021 at 4:29 PM, TENNANT said:

All my life I have bought the cheap stuff so as "not to waste money" 

It depends what you call cheap. Personally I think $150 is cheap for a rod, so to me I think you can get a good rod pretty cheap.

With a lot of fishing gear, particularly rods, your bang for buck has significantly increased over the past decade. Reliable name brands such as Shimano and Daiwa have graphite rods with Fuji guides and reel seat as little as $125.

Fishing for KGW from a boat doesn't require anything overly expensive, it's basically a whiting winch. So if it has enough sensitivity to detect the bites and enough power to pull a KGW, then it will be more than adequate and you don't need a lot of money for this. I personally wouldn't spend more than $250 and this would buy you an excellent rod; and i don't really believe you need to spend this much. 

What I consider expensive for a rod tend to be specialist rods, often ultra light weight rods designed for lure casting or extra long surf rods.

Don't over spend on the rod and use those savings on other items that will improve your fishing experience, maybe better line, an improvement to your boat, better sunglasses.

Same principle applies to reels. You can get super smooth reels pretty cheap, but you start paying more for specialist reels, or ultra lightweight reels or extreme water protection.

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1 hour ago, SurfcaztR said:

I like the bait caster for lure fishing in chasing whiting and other flats/boat species,one of em is a BFS BC for 2-4 gram lures.more entertaining using BCers. 

Yeah I've got a love/hate relationship with bait casters.

In certain circumstances, there is no better reel.

but they are so fun to play with, that I've found myself using them in circumstances, where a spinning reel is far better suited to my skill level😀

 

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1 hour ago, MAH said:

It depends what you call cheap. Personally I think $150 is cheap for a rod, so to me I think you can get a good rod pretty cheap.

With a lot of fishing gear, particularly rods, your bang for buck has significantly increased over the past decade. Reliable name brands such as Shimano and Daiwa have graphite rods with Fuji guides and reel seat as little as $125.

Fishing for KGW from a boat doesn't require anything overly expensive, it's basically a whiting winch. So if it has enough sensitivity to detect the bites and enough power to pull a KGW, then it will be more than adequate and you don't need a lot of money for this. I personally wouldn't spend more than $250 and this would buy you an excellent rod; and i don't really believe you need to spend this much. 

What I consider expensive for a rod tend to be specialist rods, often ultra light weight rods designed for lure casting or extra long surf rods.

Don't over spend on the rod and use those savings on other items that will improve your fishing experience, maybe better line, an improvement to your boat, better sunglasses.

Same principle applies to reels. You can get super smooth reels pretty cheap, but you start paying more for specialist reels, or ultra lightweight reels or extreme water protection.

I think around $250- $300 on a rod and maybe similar on a reel, is around what I am looking to spend. I know you can get a rod and reel cheaper, that will do the job, I have had them all my life. This is as much about finally getting some thing for my self, as it is about getting some thing that will do the job. I can afford all the other stuff like glasses, boat  improvements.

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5 hours ago, SurfcaztR said:

Whatever is chosen can you get it,as there's a world wide shortage on many items. I'd be walking into a tackle shop and be asking for what you got in stock that suites my needs.

I  already have rods that will do the job. I was looking for a rod that was more than that. Most of the roads I am interested in are still available in Adelaide, if you check the tackle shops on line before you walk into one.

 

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