Help with a boat rod

[rboeri]

I was just given a Penn 209 Level Wind reel as a gift and am looking for suggestions as to what rod I should match it to. I am primarily a fly fisher from my Boston Whaler 17' Montauk around the North Shore and Cape areas. I am thinking about using the rod and reel for trolling from the boat. Any suggestions regarding a rod would be most appreciated. Also, what type of line should I load it with? Thanks for the help.

[jb]

Two suggestions:

1) load it with about 70 yds. (don't know if it will take all 70 yds) of 36 lb lead core line and troll a tube a worm rig (very slowly) for large bass in the daytime.

2) or - put some 40 lb mono. backing, then 150 yds. of 30lb
spiderwire, whiplash, gorilla braid, fireline or any type of super-thin line. Use it for jigging for fluke, drifting eels for bass, maybe even tube and worm if less than 30 feet deep.

Any type of 6-7 ft. medium action boat rod from wal-mart k-mart, etc. for $20-30 will do. You can have a lot of fun with this when flies aren't working.

[DFix]

you don't need all the lead line. Fill the majority of the spool with dacron, albright ten or twelve colors of the lead to it, and go with your conventional leader of mono of your choice depending on style of fishing. On the braided side of things you'll probably get closer to 400 yards of the new braid stuff, and can do the same thing with a leader.

[jb]

Capacity of Penn 209:

1) I don't believe that you can get 10-12 colors of 27 or 36 lb. leadcore PLUS backing on a Penn 209 (a level wind reel). It won't fit. That is why I suggested 70 yds (7 colors). Each color = 10 yards. This should be enough to get a 2 oz. tube down to 35-40 feet deep or so, depending on your trolling speed. That is how I set up my penn 209.

2) Why put 400 yards of spiderwire on a 209 unless you are fishing for cod in extremely deep water? 400 yards of spiderwire costs about as much as the reel itself.

[DFix]

mea culpa - wasn't thinking accurately. Seven colors is about all, agreed, but the superbraid idea is still a better wearing option than mono - even if conventional dacron was used, still wears up better. Super braid winds more capacity on reel, and you can jig with the same rig, if you want.

[jb]

Hi Wildgoose,

Have you seen the new WhipLash by Berkley yet?? I think it is supposed to be a superbraid, sort of a competitor to spiderwire, but much cheaper, like $20 for 300 yards, as opposed to $40+ for 300 yards of spiderwire. I want to try some, but can't find it in the RI/ southern Ma area.

John