Favorite Light Tackle Rods & Reels
I have to admit I’m a huge gear junky. It’s safe to say that the majority of my fishing buddies are as well. Whenever people ask, “Why do you have over 30 different rods?”, I always respond that there’s a specific tool for each type of fishing we do on Cape Cod Bay.
For example, when we are live bait fishing for Striped Bass on Cape Cod Bay, my go to setup is a Shimano Tallus Blue Water Casting Rod in the 7’2 length with medium action.
I’ve found this paired with an Avet MXL is an awesome combo that can tackle all sizes of Striped Bass. The best thing with the Avet reels is that you can get most colors you can think of. So you can customize your outfits however you’d like! Typically, I run 30lb Power Pro braid on these reels. These outfits will handle anything from 14″ school sized Striped Bass, to 50lbers.
When casting lightweight surface plugs, soft plastics, metals, etc., to school sized Striped Bass and Bluefish, I like to use a Shimano Stradic‘s in the 2500 size, paired with a Jigging World Nexus Spinning Rod in the 7′ length. This is an ultimate lightweight killer that can cast 1-ounce metals and plugs a mile, while still being able to get some solid distant with soft plastics. In addition to school sized Striped Bass, this setup also works awesome for when the False Albacore run in the end of the summer along the south side of the Cape and Islands. I run 10lb Power Pro on this setup.
The past couple of seasons, we’ve had a really large class of Striped Bass around Provincetown in the beginning of the season. They’re only here for a short time, but when they’re around, the name of the game is top water and it is insane fishing. With this type of fishing, I use Shimano Stradic’s in the 5000 size paired with a St. Croix Tidemaster Rod. Everyone’s opinions differ, but my favorite is the medium heavy, fast action rod in the 8′ length. This gives the added distance to cast larger plugs and a ton of backbone to wrestle 40lb Striped Bass to the boat.
This is just the start. These combos cover most of my light tackle inshore setups for Striped Bass, Bluefish, and False Albacore on Cape Cod. Take a peak over at our other blogs for what we use for Black Sea Bass and Tautog.
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