How To Choose The Right Rod And Reel

Wading through the myriad of choices in fishing gear can leave you with a headache.
To begin with there are the choices between freshwater or saltwater fishing, light tackle, medium tackle, heavy tackle and even fly-fishing.

When considering saltwater you also stop to consider, am I going deepwater or am going to fish near shore. Do I need a rod suitable for boat fishing or a longer rod for the beach and pier fishing?

We obviously cannot address all of these in one article, so lets take a favorite of mine, saltwater fishing. For the purposes of this article we will assume we are choosing near shore and bay fishing as opposed to offshore, deepwater fishing.

This author grew up on the Gulf Coast of Florida leading to a love of saltwater fishing. We have always had a number of fishing piers in the northwest Florida area where I was raised so having a boat was never a prerequisite. The main types of fishing we do in the Florida panhandle are fishing off the local piers extending into the Gulf of Mexico and wading in the local bays.

When fishing off the local piers one will need fishing gear from medium to medium heavy. Fishing in the Gulf of Mexico...