Total nOOb in CT

[zimno1]

family? i get the impression he will be spending most of the time on the beach. lol.
i'm hearing a sense of defeat>
no such animal here. get the 9 or 10ft ugly stik with the penn reel combo.
it is everywhere now as shakespeare bought up penn and now has that combo on sale relatively cheap in walmart/kmart/sports authority/etc. 20# ande line and a fluorocarbon spool in the 30# test size wil be fine. a set of steel leaders already set up with snap and swivel on them. get a kastmaster in the 2oz size and clip snap on the lure and make sure the connection on the snap is pinched down as to not have it come undone. hooks snelled and some bluefish wire leadered for baitfishing in 7/0 - 9/0 size range. 3-5 3oz weights and 3-5 sinker slides and that will be all you need for baitfishing with chunk bait. a couple of plugs in 2oz size " a popper and some storm shad plastic baits to walk the beach and prospect while family is camped out for a bit. the steel leader on the kastmaster will assure a bluefish may not bite it off and lose it as sometimes you can lose many lures to them before getting into bass. this time of year i would even get some bass assasins in white/pink for bass and weakfish in the marsh areas and (think about the fly setup gary mentioned with a smaller hopkins) if you are so inclined to be there. i've kept it simple as i can and sometimes as my good friend tells me "ya gotta take what the fish gods give ya" so with that i say, don't forget a pliers/knife/rag/spare line "in case you lose some to snags or god knows whatever". enjoy your vacation and welcome to the site.
i am really reluctant to post this but if it is
"extremely imperitive you only spend less that 100 dollars than you can get an 8ft shakespeare rod/reel combo at walmart and take the 12# test line off and add 20# to it. it is 30 bucks for that combo. i never suggest cheapo stuff but all too well know this economy. http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...#ProductDetail

[Lxpaul6]

Originally Posted by smyke

I am actually 100% positive I will never catch anything "trophy" since I will not be out there enough. All I was trying to say is that I dont have high hopes of catching anything but want to try it and hopefully hook something (most likely my ear).

I guess will just get the cheapest combo and some lures mentioned in the stickies and try to chuck it out there. see what happens.
I can always exchange it for something better down the road.

I'll keep reading the forum and figure stuff out from other posts.

If you are serious about fishing and catching fish than DO NOT just pick up any old cheap equipment because if you do happen to get any large stripers the cheap gear will fail you. If you live in Connecticut then i would recommend going to the Cabelas in East Hartford and looking at the gear there. The staff are knowledgeable (to a certain extent) and they can cater to your fishing needs. Also get a rod and reel with a warranty in case you drop your rod in the excitement of reeling in a keeper. Gl man.

[jerseystriper]

Zimno had a good point there as those Penn combos are not bad for the money. They are not the big money setups but are better then many of the silstars and cheap Diawa's and their likes. There is also a Penn Captiva combo in 9 and 10 foot that may suit you fine. I had looked at one and they seem much better than many other combo's I've seen. Some of the Ugly Stiks can get a bit heavy(depending on model) but you can throw a truck with them although plugging will be affected. As said check out Cabela's as they match they Penns up with many differant rods and their Salt Styker rods are not all that bad.

Check around also if you are going to keep doing this. I stopped by a garage/yard sale and picked up a never used Ugly Stik Big Water 11' for $20 and also am stopping back to pickup a Penn 704z (all black) for $20. I had a brain fart when there and did not take the reel at that time, realized after I left I could sell as is for over $70 easy or have a great reel.

Oh yeah I also picked up a decent used St. Croix Premier 7'6" rod for $20, they sell for $170 new. The rod's perfect with ust a bit of wear on the cork. Along with this I also got a mess of lures, hooks, sinkers and such for $10, many of the lures were never used. A very fine day it was except for the torrential downpour.

[smyke]

Wow, i guess my 2 threads got somehow spliced together. :)

thank you all for your replies.

I was running out of time before the trip so I bought a cheapo 8' Sheakspeare set at Sports Authority for $30. pretty much same thing that zimno mentioned and got some lures based on other threads.
I chucked it out there from the jetty at different times of day and guess what? Not a darned thing. not even a nibble. "skunked" is the term I think, right?
first of all there were no "serious" looking anglers out there for the whole week I was there. that to me seemed like its either a bad time to fish or bad place. I have no idea. or maybe they were out there at different times when the fish were actually biting. couple of people mentioned that they saw bass crusing around the jetty but without polarized glasses I couldnt confirm (even if I had those glasses I wouldnt know what to look for).
I did learn some lessons though:
1. family and fishing dont really mix that well.
2. "you get what you pay for" is very accurate when it comes to gear
3. I have a lot more to learn.

All in all it was a good time. Oddly enough I didnt get discouraged by my defeat. just being on that jetty with no people in sight was nice.
I will return the rod I bought and put in the time to find a more decent one that will not break my wallet either and give it a go again.

[smyke]

I have been looking around for the decent setup and as jersey mentioned Penn Captiva and Cabela's Salt Striker/Whuppin' Stick are my top choices. Keep in mind this is a budget concious decision.
Which one would you pick? one better than the other? I read in few posts on here that the Salt Striker reel is very good for the money.
Rods will be 9' in both cases.

Thanks in advance for your input.

[Bunker Guts]

LOL family and fishing do not go together, i learned that yesterday which is too funny. what parts of ct are u fishing in upstate or more southeast?? we have some great blues commin thru now even tho im a bassman myself!

guts

[smyke]

I cant even put "usually" and "fishing" in the same sentence in reference to myself.
I only got out there once so far and it was in the southeastern CT. Niantic area to be exact.
Trying to learn on here and hope for the best.

now to add to my question regarding rod/reel combos: are Daiwa D-Wave any good? I called Cabelas and asked about Salt Striker/Ugly Stick combo and the rep recommended Daiwa D-Wave as a better way to go. any thoughts on that?

[new2fish]

Hi. I am a newbie myself, however been playing with the blues around S.I (no stripers yet) . I am on a budget myself, and have been asking friends and people at the beach what they are using. I have found that tsunami is a good choice, to be more specific tsunami airwave. I don't have money for that rod though $120 for a 10' so I found out that bimini bay makes tsunami and also ande. I bought a 10' ande surf tournament rod for $60 at dick's. I also bought a used shimano baitrunner 6500 on ebay for $40, spooled it with sufix siege 20# 300yds. This is my primary chunking stick for the surf. I know it isn't the best but I really like it and it is killin the blues . I also use a shimano fx 9' from k-mart $20 with a penn 103cs used $10 spooled with 15# power pro braid 150yds, backed with 50yds 18#mono. All in all I have fun with what I have and I have just about spent approx. $175 for the 2 set ups.
any how GOOD LUCK and HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!

[zimno1]

i thought i saw someone with an "older model" 105 at a particular haunt the other day...

[new2fish]

LOL!! I don't know could be me. I've been hangin around in fox and greatkills alot lately.

[smyke]

I dont know if its a good idea to just keep asking questions in the same thread but will give it a whirl anyway.

I put 30# PP braid on one of the spools and now dont know what to do with the other one.
Should I put different test on that?
I was thinking about having one for bait and one for pluging. One for bait would have a shock leader but dont know if its required for plugs.

what would you suggest?