Awesome rod builder

[deepsushi]

Matt,

IMHO, theres nothing better than the feeling of striper hits while jigging with wireline and parachutes (the reeling in of 300 ft of wire is a whole different story [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] ).

I think you need to consider how much wire line fishing you will be doing and base your decision on this. If you are only going to fish wire occassionaly, you could get away with one of the inexpensive ($35-45) Penn longbeach boat rods with the chrome plated guides. However, the wire will eventually destroy the guides and you will have to replace the guides altogether or just throw the rod out period.

The tried and true for wire line fishing is a rod built with carboloy guides. If your going to fish wire frequently, then this is the type of rod you should purchase. I have seen some "plane jane" wire line rods at some of the tackle shops for around $100 and wire line rods built by Penn(Sabre)and Daiwa for around $150.

Personally, I have built all of my own wire line rods because I can build them better, cheaper, prettier, and more durable than any of the commercialy available wire line rods.

edit: this place has the best prices on fishing tackle on the web that I can find: www.srmo.com. They have the Penn sabre wire line rods for 118.99 ... a real good price. However, while I think these are the nicest non custom commercial wire rods on the market, IMO I think they are too "soft". Pulling rigs puts a heavy strain on rods and these Penns will nearly bend in half...

[ January 30, 2003, 11:24 AM: Message edited by: deepsushi ]