reel & line questions

[jrb161]

Hi,

I hope that many of you can help me. I live in NJ and fish the Raritan Bay for blues and stripers. I currently use either a Penn 4/0 or a Penn senator on 6 foot boat poles. ( or in a pinch i bring my 8 foot ugly sticks with Quantum reels ) I use 30 lb Mono with 50 Lb leader. and usually use no more than 6 oz of weight.

My kids want to go up to L.O. in July / August and try to fish off the boat there.

Is this type of set up good for Lake Ontario. I am trying to avoid spending a lot of money ( BOAT = BREAK OUT ANOTHER THOUSAND ) again on boat equipment.

I have never fish L.O. but we do fish over by Dexter and last year my boys ( 11 and 14 years old ) limited out for 3 days straight. So we are used to streams and rivers up there and need to learn how to adapt to lake fishing.

Any help would be appreciated.

John B

[LongLine]

Welcome to the board JB. Those salt outfits are more than enough for anything in freshwater. You might want to lighten up on the gear a little. Something with a little more give, especially in the rods. Your liable to straighten out a few hooks.

Most of the guys use 7-10 ft medium action rods. I personally use 8'6" heartland rods with penn 320 GT2's. July August is Flea season. The 30 Lb is often used by some to keep the fleas off, not really necessary for catching the fish. As long as you reel as a smooth enough drag to let the fish peel off 100-150 yds on his first run, you'll be fine.

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[CaptSpike]

What I have done for gearing up for a couple trips a year is to buy Okuma magda reels and heartland rods. They are cheap enuf you wont break the bank getting set up yet should be fine for only fishing a couple times a yr. As time goes by you can upgrade the reels one or two at a time to keep the cost down. I also found my cost in tackle has far surpassed the rods and reels. might be better off chartering a boat to get a good feel for what you need and how to fish. If you let the Capt. Know ahead of time he could curtail the trip with gear you would use if just getting into the fishery. This way you get a fish hand observation of gear you would purchse and how to use it. Not necessaraly a full set up charter boat with multiple copper rodds ect. being fished with the rest of the gear deployed. they could keep it simple so you can see how it would play out on your own boat. Doesn't hurt to ask for that anyway.

Spike

[Mortigan]

That's pretty much how we started out last season - one charter in the spring and one in the summer with lots of question and answer.

If you want the Magdas, you can get pretty cheap combos here, $50 to $70 each: http://www.brettsplaceonthebay.com/cate ... red&page=1

The next step up in Okuma is the Convector reel and you can find combos around $100 - $110 each. Their line of Classic Pro GLT rod is good and about the same price point as the Heartland rods.

We're pretty bargain basement ourselves, running Magda combos for downriggers and planers, Convector wire combos for dipsies and used Penn 209s on Fenwick Rigger Sticks as backup. Took us a year to build up that much and I've also probably spent more on tackle than poles.