Help Choosing Rod.

Hello I could use some help in picking a good rod to bottom fish with. We only fish in about 70 ft. of water for snapper and grouper. Wife just bought me a nice arbu garcia ambassadeur bg9000 for my birthday. This is a nice real to me anyway. any suggetions on what I should buy to put it on. I have always had cheap stuff would like something nice thank you.

[audiracer]

hi mate
i've just got myself a
shakespear ugly stick gold boat rod
length1.95m class of 20lb
i feel it's a great rod, well balanced with a nice flexable tip.

[JuanPablo]

i concur. the ugly stiks have a virtually unbreakable glass fibre tip which merges into carbon weave further down the blank. this gives you a lovely soft flexible tip section (so very sporting behavior and a lot of fun) but also massive reserves of power in the mid and butt section incase that lurking monster of the deeps turns up!
not normally a fan of shakespeare tackle but BIG THUMBS UP to the Ugly Stiks - once ive got a boat i will be buying an Ugly Stik Lite in a 12-15lb class and it will hopefully be landing double figure bass from sandbanks! I have also used this rod on a charter boat for bream fishing over a reef - even a 2lb black bream can put a pleasing bend in the rod!!! Seeing as you are from Florida I cant honestly say I know how big those fish can grow or what else you may encounter but from seeing angling programs in the states on cable tv i think it may be right up your street.

Most importantly you should take your new reel to the tackle store and see how it balances with the rod - the 9000 series are quite big so see how it feels on the various ugly stik models available.

Thanks, The fish we catch are usually 15 to 20 lbs. I have an ugly stick on my bass rod it works great. I have not been bottom fishing long and some people say you want a stiff rod and some say flexable any Ideas. I use a 25 lb line when I go. Thanks again

[fishypaul]

best of luck you duke,and welcome to the forum,we may fish for different species over this side of the pond but there is a wealth of experience you can call on.

[SteveMingo]

i have something to add - i consider my self fairly good at bottom feeders fishing - e.g wrasse and pollack and so on - if u need any advise i can tell u

[JuanPablo]

hey YOU DUKE I can assure you that an ugly stik will do the job perfectly. here where i fish we use a method called uptiding in anything up to 90ft of water. they actually make an ugly stik in an uptide model - slightly longer than a downtide rod at roughly 9ft and capable of flicking up to 9oz weights around 30yds from the boat. anyway the point im trying to make is that we can expect anything from a 10lb cod to a 40lb tope on this gear and it does the job well. dont know what the prices are like the States but Ugly Stiks are nice and cheap aswell - damn i sound a bit like a shakespeare rep...

[John Marshall]

Originally Posted by YOU DUKE

Hello I could use some help in picking a good rod to bottom fish with. We only fish in about 70 ft. of water for snapper and grouper. Wife just bought me a nice arbu garcia ambassadeur bg9000 for my birthday. This is a nice real to me anyway. any suggetions on what I should buy to put it on. I have always had cheap stuff would like something nice thank you.

Welcome Duke,
ugly sticks are good rods, I own two myself, but you live in Penn country
they must be a fair few to choose from, and alot cheaper than imported rods.

Check out basspro.com they give good service even on this sode of the pond

[audiracer]

i'll second that john

www.basspro.com

i got a penn 310 gti from them, very good and helpfull service, saved quite a bit aswell, even after paying the import charges

Hey thanks guys. I like the ugly stick but not sure if it will have to much play in it. The grouper will get in a rock quick if you dont have a stiff rod to pull him off the bottom. But not sure what the larger ugly sticks are like in the 50 lb. class. Thanks for the advice. Any one else have a suggestion please have a go.