First off I would like to say hi to all that read and post on this forum I have found it to be very informative. I have recently purchased an 18 ft grady white and moved from strictly pier fishing the bay with mainly ultralight gear to fishing out of my boat with my ultralight gear, Today I took the wife and kids out in mobjack bay Pretty close to the mouth of the ches. bay. Here is were things got interesting for me (real interesting seeing how I grew up a freshwater fisherman, Hence all the ultralight gear) we have been pretty much fishing the rivers up here on the peninsula so this was our first taste of the bay and we started catching the normal croakers which we are kind of getting bored with (really boney to much work for to little return in my opinion) and my daughter hooks into something that bends her rod over and goes straight under the boat she starts to reel and pow line snaps, she reels it in and its just the hook line that snapped put her a new hook on and back to fishin, then my wife goes same thing im thinking what the heck, well then mine goes so I turn the drag down im determained to boat what ever it is I bring it up after a few minutes of a nice fight and low and behold we are in a school of sand sharks, I dont know who was more excited me or my son so long story short we caught somewhere between 10 and 12 of them all diff sizes very fun day of fishing. Back to my point, I found out today that my gear is not going to hold up to the fishing that I am hoping to do especially after reading and seeing some of the big cobia and other fish that are being caught so my question is what are the best types of rod reel combos (how long/ how stiff etc.) what pound test lines should I be using I have seen all of the tips on what to use for bait/lures etc.. but if im going to go out and start buying stuff up I would like to get the opinions of some of you as I said this Boat is a first for me and I am in love with it the fishing bug has bittin so hard feel like a little kid agian and I want to make sure that next time we go out we dont loose as many as we catch because of improper gear.

Thanks ahead of time and thank you for running such a great website I saw someone else post how surprised he was at how the information is shared on this site and I have to agree with him, back in the old days if you had a spot you would never share it that does not seem to be the case on this site. sorry for the long post I promise they will be shorter in the future.

Chilli

Welcome to the board ! You have definately come to the right place for info, These guys know their stuff.
As far as rigs go, You can spend thousands of dollars and never have enough. I add every year to my combo's it seems like. I have some light tackle spinning rods for cathing bait and having fun with the kids. Then i use some medium action baitcasting combos such as ambassador reels on medium action ugly sticks. I use these fro drifting fro flounder and pitching baits near pilings and structure. the you have your boat rods for trolling, heavy action poles with soem meaty reels like penn 330's or even walmart has cheapo combo's with shakespears on them ( otter caught a 90 lb bigeye tuna on one of mine so they work fine ).

The guys at princess anne bait and tackle and long bay point can rig you up like a champ, Bass pro has some good deals too.
Ask questions, trust me i have asked some dumb ones on here and never been laughed at ( well not for asking questions ) And have fun ! And if you ever get to fish with bob from "still Thinkin".. Bring banana's... He loves them !

Jeff is sick (mentally)...but spot on. The set ups he sugessted are where you want to go. Although, if the budget doesn't allow (like mine), find places to use rods for multi purpose. You can land a large Striper or Cobia on some medium action stuff with 20-30 lb test line. It just takes a little longer and you learn to use skill and patience over brute force. If this is the case, spend the xtra money on lures and rigs (if you are going to fish structure, you will need them). Better yet, learn to make your own rigs and invest in the stuff (crimpers, good swivels, and flouro/mono) to make them. Above all, follow Jeff's advice and ask lots of ???? If you can't find the answer here, it will be real hard to find elswhere. Oh yeah, us tube squid vice the stuff you buy in the grocery...it may seem like more money until you run through an entire box within an hour.

Good Luck and Keep em tight.

--Brett

A good inexpensive combo is the Penn Captiva, you can pick it up for around $50 anywhere tackle is sold. I bought a couple med. action combos and put 20lb. line on them and have caught several 30lb + stripers on them.

Chilli,

Welcome to the board. I also had an 18' Grady (Tournament 185) that I recently upgraded from. It was my first boat and I loved it. I actually miss being able to fish some of the spots that I used to be able to get into with the smaller boat.

I too had the same issue as far as tackle goes. What I find to be a very versatile setup (have used it trolling for striper, chunking for striper, flounder fishing, and cobia fishing) has been a setup with a medium action boat rod 5'6" to 6' with a Penn 320 (or 330 is only around 10 bucks more) lever drag reel spooled with 30-50 lb power pro (braided line). The lever drag is easier to use than the star drag, in my opinion, and these have been very reliable setups for me. I did have a problem with the drag on one, but it was immediately exchanged by bass pro shop and has been flawless since.

The croaker do get old quick, but don't knock 'em too much--they're great bait for striper and cobia (and blues as well), and the kids love to catch 'em too. There are so many species to try for in the bay--we've been focusing on 1-2 new things for us each season, and that's kept the cost reasonable and it doesn't get too overwhelming.

Good luck.

Naved

PS--forgot to add--it's a good idea to spend a few more bucks for a nice setup than getting something very cheap and losing a nice fish to a messed up drag or broken cheap line, etc. If you get something reliable (Penn, Shimano, etc.) it should last for years and give you a lot of enjoyment. Just my 0.02 cents.

Great advice from everybody. I just want to add, and this may seem obvious but since you were previsouly a freashwater fisher, make sure that you rinse your rods and reels with freshwater after every use. Do this and your setups should last forever, well maybe not forever but a long time. I have one Penn reel that I have been using for over 20 yrs (I'm only 33) and it still works great.

Personally I like to use light action setups. Flounder I use Shimano Corsair reels with powerpro, either 15 or 20 lbs with ugly sticks rods. For casting striper I use Penn spinning reels, usually my 4500s with 15lb mono. Works fine as long as your drag is set right. My biggest last year casting was 43" and I caught alot between 30 and 40" using the 15 lb setups. Blast on light action. For trolling stripers, I use heavier line, 20-25lb mono for trolling Stretch 25s and then 50lb powerpro on my mojo rigs. Good luck and welcome to the board.

Pete

Chilli,

Welcome to the board and saltwater fishing. All advice here is good. I would suggest two more things;

1) when buying equipment get a setup you think you might like and try it out. Then if you like it get another one or two. I fish the bay with everything from ultra-light tackle to Penn Slammer type rods with 4/0 reels. It all depends on what I am targeting. What I am saying is don't jump in with both feet on tackle until you find what you are comfortable with. Try to go with others and see what they use or will allow you to use. Flounder - I use a meduim fast tip rod. A mooching blank is a good all around rod.

2) when I come in from fishing I lightly (key here is lightly) rinse my rods and reels. If you have too much force on the fresh water source you will only accomplish driving the salt into your gear and it ends up being a self-defeating operation. I also rinse with a solution of Salt-X which removes the "salt" from your equipment. There is another product called Salt Away that I would not recommend using for this purpose. Here's why;

I did a comparison of the two. I got two foam cups and filled them about 3/4 full of each mix at the recommended ratios. I then added a few drops of oil to each. The Salt Away caused the oil to disperse into the solution. The Salt-X did not cause the oil to disperse and break up. The oil remained in droplet form.

Okay, so what does this mean to me? If I were to use the Salt Away on my reels it would wash away any lubrication or protective oil coating I may have on there. Try the experiment yourself if you should have doubts.

Now back to fishing rods and reels for the bay. Let me say that I also fish from a Wellcraft w/a cuddy and a 14 foot kayak and have caught nice fish from both. Ivae a friend that caught a 42 pound cobia on his flounder rod and another friend that caught a citation black drum on what would be considered a light rod for the bay. I personally have caught a 52 pound cobis on a Lamiglass blank (rod I built) with a Penn 650 spooled with 20 pound test. It took me an hour to get the fish in the boat..... It can be done. You'll just need experience.

The sharks you were catching if they had teeth were either baby (born this year) ducky sharks or baby brown sharks. These two species come into the bay to have their young. The limit is one shark per day per boat. If you do not handle shark correctly they taste terrible. Handling begins as soon as they are in the boat.

Oh yeah, one other thing you can do to help you greatly in your quest for what tackle to get (also how to fish for all these different fish) is to join a fishing club and ask the people in tackle shops (not the box store types) like Queens Creek in Mathews and Bishop Tackle on the Peninsula. There are several clubs in the Tidewater area and on the Northern Neck.

If you're on the Northern Neck contact Capt Dave at: 1captdave@comcast.net

For the Hampton/Newport News area there is the Peninsula Salt Water Sport Fisherman's Assoc. and they ahve a web page at http://www.pswsfa.com Their web page also has a fishing tips section that has good information on how to catch the fish in the area. On southside there are a number of clubs such as the Portsmouth Angler's Club and the Great Bridge club and so on. I'm sure if you ask on the boards someone could help with these south side clubs.

Good luck.

Sand tiger, Thanks to you and all for all of this info as I said I am new to owning a boat and trying to take in as much as possible, planning on taking my son, father n law and bro n law out this sat hope everything settles down a bit and the fishing is good think we are going to venture out into the bay and see what we can do.

Thanks agian to all

As you venture further out away from shore and your launch area, keep listening for updates on the marine weather station because the bay can turn nasty at the drop of a hat. You'll get to know it after a while, but like riding a motorcycle, never think you got it figured out. You are welcome for the information and I know it will all work out for you in time as you learn.