surface iron rod

[erikpowell]

When I bought my BlackHole popper rod, I bought the 7'6 based soley on the fact the 8 footer didn't fit inside my car .
Even though I knew the 8' was a better caster... Oh well.. That's I roll 
I had to ask the shop guy to let me run outside for a minute with both rods... He looked sideways at me for a sec 

[SoCalAngler]

A longer rod gives you more casting distance for sure on the surface iron but you can use a 7'. For yoyo I like a 7' rod some like 6.5'.

Here is a pic of the iron I'm carrying in my 1-3 day tackle box right now. Others move in and out depending on where I'll be fishing and some yoyo iron gets doubles up on because from time to time you will snag the bottom and loose some.

On the top are Tady's, the bottom Salas and to the right others.

[erikpowell]

Mel, I hope I didn't hijack your thread here... Thanks for the ideas & input!

And Mel, Bryan, Lee, Ben, SCA, thanks you guys, that's all excellent info... I get it now. Good stuff...
I can't see any reason those wouldn't work here... especially the salas in that color.
So no action, both just a straight winding retrieve looking for the magic speed eh?

I just noticed that they are right about the same weight, the shorter salas is denser/heavier with a thicker ring but feels the same weight as the bigger tady..
Looking forward to giving them a go next time out. I've got a 501 and a 505, both Tani-tized & Sal-inized, I can whack on that Calstar rod.
and add another one to the quiver.
You guys rock!
Thanks again

I am a long rod lover, but if you can cast a short rod they are not absolutly necessary. I find that anything over 9 ft just gets in the way and annois people.
Ron

same applies to surfboards... especially when you have an hour longboat ride to the reef!  

[Dr. Jekyll - AKA MeL B]

Erik, it's all good. just think of it as a conversation by a group of drunk people making sense but no fighting allowed.

[Ron Jones]

I don't see any castmasters in the list, I always like a couple of them for surface bites.
Ron

[maxpowers]

for the surface irons, I have seen tutorial where you can tweaked the "swimming" action by reaming the top hole just a bit to make it slight off center.  Grab hold of the ring and spin the jig in a circle.  It should spin around in a circle nicely.

[stevennc]

I fish two different 10 foot sticks , an ss Ulua , and a 100j all glass. Here are the benefits I find in fishing these long rods
1) Casting distance. They seem to load up great, and the added length really adds distance to the cast.
2) if a cattle boat bow rides high the extra length you can use to lessen the angle you are reeling at
3) If you hook up far outside the bait fisherman you can easily move over them while hooked up
4) you can easily cast while keeping the jig away from people
5) most importantly the "cool factor"

Many of these benefits are also drawbacks. If you have a bad back a 10 foot stick and a large fish will work you. I took a beating on a 38 lb yellowtail last year and Im a strong guy. You have to drop the jig far enough to get the rod to load up right. Many reels are tough to fit to larger poles.

[doradoben]

Does a 100j have a large diameter butt like the Ulua??

[johndtuttle]

Bula Mel,
Are these what you guys call surface irons?



My west coast bro dumped a bunch of his gear on me last time I was back… I have a bunch of these I've never used and here
in Fiji, we're not sure what to do with them 

He also gave me a really nice Calstar West Coast 25-40…. am I supposed to toss these around with that rod?

So what exactly are you targeting with surface iron & whats the technique? is it a viable tropical fishing method?

Cheers

Hey Erik,

This type of iron is deadly in every tropical sea and I know guys who fished them years ago in Fiji with great success on GT and Dogtooth, Wrasse etc. They are extremely inexpensive and incredibly durable and I would consider them a staple of an overseas angler given the expense of getting lures to an island location in conjunction with how long they will last (forever, or until you get cut off whichever happens first ).

SoCal's posts are right on. The heavy lures are fished right off the bottom. Lighter alloy ones are fished near the surface. The heavies you basically wind back as fast as possible with usually no rod action but variable speed retrieves work at times.

The light lures are actually fished pretty slow near the surface or throughout the water column if you have the patience to let them sink. If you have a light tip like most west coast live bait sticks you can feel the "wobble" when you have the speed just right. It's a wide wiggle that you will recognize when you see it.

They slay! Asian jigs may be better when you need more action or more density to get deep. On an average current day and at depths no more than 75-100m the West Coast jigs have boated tonnage.


best

[johndtuttle]

is a rod >8 feet long really necessary for surface irons? thanks much!

Any 7' live bait stick will cast them just fine. They are dense, heavy lures as far as casting goes and length is not critical.

Your 7' rod is your "go to" for one rod to do it all from live bait to casting iron to dropper loop and yo-yo. You can boat 95% of West Coast fish with this rod.

An 8'+ rod is typically dedicated casting and unless very light rarely used for live bait fishing.

[johndtuttle]

A longer rod gives you more casting distance for sure on the surface iron but you can use a 7'. For yoyo I like a 7' rod some like 6.5'.

Here is a pic of the iron I'm carrying in my 1-3 day tackle box right now. Others move in and out depending on where I'll be fishing and some yoyo iron gets doubles up on because from time to time you will snag the bottom and loose some.

On the top are Tady's, the bottom Salas and to the right others.

That's a nice selection SoCal all proven to catch.

One suggestion if I may: drop the second assist hook from the Asian style jig. The saying goes if you have 2 on there, there is one to stick the fish and one to stick you (ie very dangerous). You will not notice the lack of hook ups with just one.


best

[mackereljoe]

As a cattle boat fisherman, i ended up using 7-8' rod for surface iron.   Amidship don't have much room to cast and an 8' spinning outfit worked out better for me.  In an open forecastle or fantail, it will be 9' j90.  So, it's not really necessary to have >8' rod for surface iron, unless you ask one of the teenage pinheads.   

[SoCalAngler]

A longer rod aids casting distance plain and simple. For most of the casting we do here we use a pendulm style cast and not what you see on freshwater bass fishing shows. This type of casting IMO takes more skill to master and even the guys reaching the furthest distances are still looking to gain more yards with the perfect casts. If I'm getting about 80-90% of the max distance I feel I'm casting well. How do you know what 80-90% of the max distance is? If you sling the iron enough you will get those few, very rare casts where everything comes together and the iron looks like it was shot out of a gun. You even amaze yourself on how far it went.

Casting anything from a Southern California party boat means you have to be careful of others. This means ALWAYS look behind you while making your cast. There is alot of water in front of you and your going to hit it with your lure or bait so be more concerned about not hooking others then where your cast is going to land. I always say something like "going out" to let others I cant see know I'm about to let her rip so they don't walk into a dangerous area. With the pendlum cast that is right behind you thats why it is a must you always look back until your hook is out of range of hooking others.

[SoCalAngler]

An 8'+ rod is typically dedicated casting and unless very light rarely used for live bait fishing.

Well, not so sure about this. Myself and many others are now using 8' rods for bait up to about 30lb test line. This seems to be catching on here more and more just like smaller reels for bigger fish did aroung 10-12 years ago. I went on a trip last year where I and some other guy, don't know who he was, were using 8' rods and 25lb test for the 40-50lb BTF. The deckhands at first thought we were nuts, until we had our Mexico 5 fish limit way before others and we were hooking and handing fish to those that weren't so lucky.

I would not be surprised to see more of this, especially if the bait situation starts to move back to anchovy and away from sardine.

[johndtuttle]

An 8'+ rod is typically dedicated casting and unless very light rarely used for live bait fishing.

Well, not so sure about this. Myself and many others are now using 8' rods for bait up to about 30lb test line. This seems to be catching on here more and more just like smaller reels for bigger fish did aroung 10-12 years ago. I went on a trip last year where I and some other guy, don't know who he was, were using 8' rods and 25lb test for the 40-50lb BTF. The deckhands at first thought we were nuts, until we had our Mexico 5 fish limit way before others and we were hooking and handing fish to those that weren't so lucky.

I would not be surprised to see more of this, especially if the bait situation starts to move back to anchovy and away from sardine.

I think if you read between the lines of my post you will see we agree . "Very light" is that exact situation.

regards