Thomast, with reguards your questions....viking 400 as suggested will do the job very nicely, for a rod i don't buy into the long rod argument of being able to reach around the front of the yak, i prefer a short 5-5.5'' powerful rod with a soft through action, this gives you plenty of pulling power and keeps the center of gravity nice and close to the boat, which means you can enjoy the avarage blue cod yet really give big fish some hurt if need be. the best rods ive fund that provide this although not built for bottom bashing (99% of what we do) are vertical jigging rods.there are plenty of these rods on the market , i use an uglystick, bluewater, 30-120g, pe3 jig rod for most of my fishing, retail around $200. if you don't want to spend that much look at the cheaper boat rods in the 8-10 kg bracket preferably a glass tipped one as these are good tough rods (ugly stick, abu from the warehouse, shimano jelly tip), for a reel for general fishing avoid eggbeaters, go for an overhead/free spool of medium size (penn, shimano, maybe okuma) look for simple and tough with smooth drag, spool it up with 30lb braid with a 4m 80lb mono leader.....one thing i often see is people who spend large on all this flash shiney stuff then scrimp on the basics like hooks and rigs,these things cost fish and lead to frustration,so learn to tie good tough dropper rigs on 60-80lb mono always use good hooks preferably circle hooks (mustad demon size 8/0-10/0) its worth checking out online stores such as marine deals r for bulk packs at good prices.