Selecting a Rod for Landbased Fishing

Andy Macleod was recently asked, “is there one rod that will do everything I need to fish from the shore?” It’s a good question and there is no simple answer, but attempting to find one throws up some interesting learnings in itself…

Personally, I have five rods that cover all my bases from a shore fishing perspective – livebaiting, spinning, straylining and surfcasting. If you are deadly serious about each scenario, then rod specialisation is important. But maybe you’re on a limited budget, pushed for space on a family holiday or exploring a new area and unsure what fishing terrain you’ll encounter. In these circumstances an “allrounder” might be just what you need.

I put a lot of thought into what type of rod will cover all the bases and came up with a stiff (carbon fibre) 12’ surfcasting rod, ideally breaking down into two or three pieces for portability. A rod like this is only perfect in one scenario, but it can do a serviceable job across a few others. Let me explain.

Surfcasting

Funnily enough, this is the dedicated function for a 12’ surfcasting rod! Such rods, especially stiffer carbon rods which cast well and hold their shape in a rod spike, are ideal in light surf conditions. Being slightly shorter than most serious surfcasting rods these days (which tend to be 13-14’ in New Zealand), they are light and a pleasure to swing around. This is my “go to” set up when fishing in light swell and clean water for moki and gurnard. However, they do have their drawbacks from the beach. Firstly, with their reduced length they have limitations in heavy surf. Not having that additional foot or two in length can make it hard to keep your mainline above the breakers, resulting in damaged line and difficulties in maintaining a tight line. Secondly, 12’ surf rods typically can’t cast the heavy weights that their big brothers, 13 and 14’ rods, can. Often they will bottom out if you’re casting a 4 or 5oz sinker and big baits. But they will comfortably cast a 4oz sinker and a small bait, which might be okay on the day.

Livebaiting

You might ask, “who would seriously livebait with a surf rod?” Well it’s been done, believe me, so let’s look at how our chosen rod will perform. For slidebaiting, it’s well-nigh perfect. With a stiff profile and the ability to cast out a sinker a fair distance, it gives you just enough grunt to tame big fish over clean ground. For traditional livebaiting off rocks or wharves and around foul ground, it has some pretty serious limitations. For a start, I’m reliably informed that it’s difficult to impart more than one or two kilos of drag pressure through the tip of a surf rod, and that’s just not enough to stop or even slow down a rampaging kingfish. On the positive side, the extra length of the rod (compared to a normal livebaiting rod) has its advantages, enabling you to keep the line clear of rocks while swimming the livebait, and even during the scrap itself. But be warned, if the fish is big, heavy and strong, the rod will bend over like a noodle and any clearance advantages will be quickly negated. The extra length also tends to lever against the angler as much as the fish and makes for an uncomfortable workout. It can be done though – I’ve seen kingfish up to 20kg landed on surfcasting rods from rock platforms.

Spinning

It might seem counterintuitive, but surf rods can be excellent for spinning – primarily with large, heavy lures which effectively “load” the rod and maximise its casting properties. Kahawai fishing from the surf with large silver slices and hex wobblers is a popular pastime, for example. With my chosen rod, however, you are going to face some limitations, mostly in relation to casting. Firstly, the stiff construction is going to work against proper loading and limit casting distance. Beyond this, getting an effective balance between lure weight and line weight can be challenging. If you are casting to fish that are too wary to bite – sometimes even kahawai won’t hit a big, bold lure – you may struggle as your ability to cast small, discrete lures that imitate whitebait or other small baitfish is limited. With a lack of weight, these lures will barely load the rod, severely reducing casting distances. To offset this, you can use very light mainline (e.g. 2kg nylon or a thin diameter braid) but the physics are against you so don’t expect great casting performance. Once you’ve hooked a fish the rod will easily deal with the usual suspects – kahawai, barracouta and rat kingfish – but you’ve got to reach the fish before you can bring them in!

Popper fishing uses the same basic cast and retrieve technique as spinning, and for this our chosen rod will perform quite well. The extra weight in the average popper will load the rod nicely and result in casting distances comparable to a tailor-made popper rod. If you hook a big fish – using this technique, a kingfish is the most likely suspect in New Zealand waters – the fish-fighting qualities of the rod will be tested around foul ground but over clean ground you should have no problems at all if you’re patient enough.

Straylining

Straylining in New Zealand is typically done from rock platforms and the main species targeted are snapper and kahawai, and to a lesser extent trevally and the odd passing kingfish. Although straylining utilises the same basic technique of cast and retrieve as spinning, casting distance is less of an issue because the angler can usually find deep water holding fish right at their feet. This opens up the possibility of casting small, light baits and using heavier line. For most of the fish likely to be encountered – pannie snapper and surface fighting kahawai – the rod possesses sufficient stopping power. The extra length also offers advantages in keeping your line clear of rocks, barnacles and bull kelp.

However, you have some limitations to deal with too. At 12’ in length it will be a bit unwieldy to wave around on the rocks and reposition against fast directional changes of hooked fish. The real problems will arise when you’re hooked up to strong, heavy fish that need to be stopped in their tracks. This is simply not possible with the “give” of our chosen rod – even the stiffest surf rod will surrender in these circumstances. You will also experience the rod levering against you as described above under “Livebaiting”. In frenetic fish catching sessions it can be extremely useful to lever fish up onto the rocks with your rod then quickly unhook the fish and return it to the water in anticipation of the next cast. Unfortunately, our chosen rod lacks the grunt to do this with fish over about 1.5-2kg in weight and will require your mate to net or trace every fish up the rock. Because of the rod’s length, you’ll also have to back a long way up the rocks to bring the fish into netting range.

Final thoughts

It’s been an interesting exercise to think of a rod capable of doing it all. I reckon I’m not far off the money with my choice of a stiff 12’ surf rod. As I’ve said, it’s far from perfect across most scenarios, but it can do a job. I’ve thought about other options – but in my opinion shorter rods just don’t cut it in the surf at all and longer rods become unwieldy in confined spaces like rock platforms and wharfs, or when you need to quickly put the stoppers on fish. If you’re just getting into fishing I would encourage you to think about where you’ll do the majority of your fishing and tailor your rod purchase accordingly. However, if you’re not sure and you just want something to get you underway, you could do a lot worse than a 12’ surf rod!