Seeker Rod Advice for Alaska since we don't have dealers.

[taggermike]

If you're breaking decent quality graphite rods some thing is seriously wrong. Are you high sticking those rods? Sounds like you're looking for a light weight, powerful, parabolic rod. An all glass rod will be softer than a graphite rod but will be noticably heavier. A rod that might be perfect is one of the Shimano butterfly jigging rods. Teravela series i think. There rods are very light, have soft parabolic actions, but are still very powerful. Not pricy either. Mike

[Kardinal_84]

Originally Posted by taggermike

If you're breaking decent quality graphite rods some thing is seriously wrong. Are you high sticking those rods? Sounds like you're looking for a light weight, powerful, parabolic rod. An all glass rod will be softer than a graphite rod but will be noticably heavier. A rod that might be perfect is one of the Shimano butterfly jigging rods. Teravela series i think. There rods are very light, have soft parabolic actions, but are still very powerful. Not pricy either. Mike

Good points. Yah, something is seriously wrong...it's the way I fish. I am hard on my gear, I use 50lbs braid or better on all my gear. What typically happens is that I buy a nice high end graphite rod with super thin walls. Shaft gets nicked, next fish it snaps. If you watch any of my videos, you constantly see me slamming my rod into the net or having it banged by 12oz of weight or into the hull as a fish takes off. So yah, its definitely operator error though I do seem to manage a few fish.

I have fished all of my life pretty hard but this kayak thing is only about 5 years. I guess all of my gear is working great! I've landed crazy numbers of fish since I have started kayak fishing.

But what's also happened is that I have landed nice king salmon and halibut using a barbie rod, a 4 wt fly rod, and an 4'6" ultralight rated for 1-4lbs. But what I have discovered is that while being sporting with light tackle was great, the lighter gear was no fun really in playing the fish. It was just a lot of slow give and take. Took longer, exhausted the fish if I wanted to release, and the fights were much less spectacular.

So I am looking for something smaller and lighter BUT can still reef back on the fish at 10 to 15 pounds of max drag. Loved the Trevala's but really enjoy my two seeker rods so I was hoping to find a Seeker replacement but we don't have dealers up here. If I can't find a decent Seeker, I will likely go back to my Trevala jig sticks for my lighter stuff. As you pointed out, they fit the bill fairly well.

thanks!

[JohnMckroidJr]

Originally Posted by taggermike

If you're breaking decent quality graphite rods some thing is seriously wrong. Are you high sticking those rods? Sounds like you're looking for a light weight, powerful, parabolic rod. An all glass rod will be softer than a graphite rod but will be noticably heavier. A rod that might be perfect is one of the Shimano butterfly jigging rods. Teravela series i think. There rods are very light, have soft parabolic actions, but are still very powerful. Not pricy either. Mike

Agree....even good quality fiberglass rods can be broken "high sticking."

[Goose1993]

A high quality fiber glass rod shouldn't be breaking. The only people that break rods are people from Florida. They fish 5 times more drag than they should and highstick like crazy.

[JohnMckroidJr]

Originally Posted by Goose1993

A high quality fiber glass rod shouldn't be breaking. The only people that break rods are people from Florida. They fish 5 times more drag than they should and highstick like crazy.

On the contrary: California built Avet LX/HX reels are best when used with the Avet South Florida cam installed to handle the softer drag tensions used for kingfish and sailfish off florida -- Still have yet to see a rod break from high sticking since moving to Florida. While growing up in Southern California, I worked as a deckhand on headboats for 5 years and observed multiple incidents of fiberglass rods breaking from high sticking. Breaks most commonly occured while bouncing a big fish.