I want to thank everyone for their ■■■■■■■■, insights and suggestions on what inshore rods (maker, action, length etc.) you prefer. For now, I have bought the G Loomis E6X Inshore 902S 7’6” Med-Light/ XFast and the ALX BOKU Inshore 7’6" Spec series to compare. I bought a 7’ St. Croix Tidemaster TIS70MLF (Medium Light/Fast) to compare to the Shimano Teramar TMS70M (Medium/Fast).
I will be pairing the Loomis and ALX with a 3000 Shimano Sustain FG with the same # braid and jig weight. I will be pairing the St. Croix and Teramar with a 3000 Stradic Ci4 FA with the same # braid and jig weight . I am heading home to Naples to see the parents next week for several days. The plan is to fish 4 days with the Pops with mother nature’s blessing. This should hopefully provide me enough of a sample to make a sound decision on the best 7’6” and 7’ combo for me to purchase. Just hope I catch a Snook on each one! I will post once I get back and hope to provide some good ■■■■■■■■ on the rods performances. Also, I will be selling the rods that i don’t prefer at a discount if anyone would be interested. Thanks again all and tight lines.
I know this thread is about fishing gear, but Cola-Hoo how do you like your boat?I just took delivery on a 22 Tidewater Carolina Bay myself and I love it.I went with the Yamaha 200 for power,what about you?
I was looking at doing a custom boat out of Inglis, FL called Young Boats. Toured the plant, did a couple of test rides, even booked a charter on one and was so close on pulling the trigger on the Young 24. Robb is an awesome guy and builds an unbelievable boat I just couldn’t pull the trigger on a 95k + bay boat with all the trimmings. He even tried to sweeten the deal because at the time I would have been the first customer in SC. Needless to say the boss had other plans with that kind of money.
I started looking around and really liked the Shearwater and Pathfinder then a friend suggested I check out Tidewater. Did some digging around doing some comparisons and was really impressed by the Carolina Bay series. Nothing against Shearwater and Pathfinder which are excellent boats but the bow flair on the 22’ Carolina Bay is crazy. You get so much room to fish up there and the wife and kids enjoy all the room for sun bathing too.
I had some custom back rests made at the beginning of where the rod lockers open near the bow so they could sit up there while cruising around. I also added some additional custom work to make it unique. What an extremely dry boat and very sturdy with 4 grown men on it. Doesn’t list a bit when you’re on one side. I ended up going with the 225HP Yamaha Offshore 4.2L XCA V6 and she goes if you want. Great hole shot with trim down. Couldn’t be happier. So is my pocket book and the boss!
Thanks Cola-Hoo…I originally looked at 250 Yama for power but I visited the Tidewater factory and talked with Jimmy Metts, the owner and after asking me a series of questions he recommended I go with the 200.With the lower price I was able to upgrade with power pole and a nicer GPS/Sonar unit.All in all it has exactly everything I wanted and it’s alot cheaper than some of the other brands you mentioned.
Creek Snake - Jimmy is a great guy. I see him a lot on Lake Murray and he always asks if I am happy with the boat or if there is anything he can do. Tidewater compared to most factory boats is a quality built boat for with an exceptional value. Ditto here, the overall extra savings allowed me to upgrade electronics etc. The only issue I have is I have a 10’ Talon which works great but i want to add another but with swim/ladder platform i can’t add a 2nd because the adapter bracket is to long on the port side. So i am now selling my Talon (basically brand new). Adding a jack plate and adding 2 jack mounts for 2 power-poles.
Well I am back from my trip. It was a very successful trip. My dad and I did really well with the specs. Several over 20”. We also caught a ton of ladyfish and jacks. We caught several small snook between 18”-22”. They are in the beginning of red tide down there plus they have had a lot of rain so the rivers and lakes have dumped a lot of muddy fresh water in the bays so we had to do some searching for decent water. I brought the G Loomis E6X Inshore 902S 7’6” and the ALX BOKU Inshore 7’6" Spec series down to compare and the St. Croix Tidemaster 7’ TIS70MLF to compare with the Shimano Teramar 7’ TMS70M.
Overall, I was very pleased with all the rods. I fished two days with a 3000 Shimano Sustain FG, 15# power-pro braid and 20# fluorocarbon on both rods. The Loomis and Tidemaster was set-up with a pearl trout eye jig and Zman MinnowZ in sexy shad and on the ALX and Teramar I used a .20oz Hogy 1/0 swimbait with a Hogy 4” skinny in bone color. Then the rotated/swapped rigs for another two days. This gave me four days of comparison. Two days fishing both rigs on each rod.
The comparison between the Tidemaster and Teramar was quite significant. The Tidemaster was the clear winner all the way around from the balance, sensitive tip and action. It’s definitely worth the extra $30-40 to get them. I plan on using my Teramar’s as my popping cork rods. I have to say I came away really impressed with ALX rod. I was amazed with how sensitive the tip was, the balance of the rod with the reel and the micro guides worked just fine with the braid to fluro knot. The rod felt very comfortable while in action both in retrieve and fighting a fish. The Loomis had a great feel but I felt the balance was a little off. The Loomis had a sensitive tip and great back bone when fighting the fish but the balance/feel in action with the jigs felt a little off. Either way I would be extremely happy with both rods but if I had to choose, which I am, I am going with the ALX BOKU Inshore 7’6" Spec. The only negative is I don’t like the gre
I’ll probably regret this post but,a $39 7’0" Ugly Stick with a two year warranty and I’m out!. Trolls nice, soft enough touch for artificials, good corking rod,just saying. Use the saved money to upgrade from PBR to Stella Modela
