I would like info on building a Cobia spinning rod. All I know that these rods look a little like a surf rod 8/9ft long, 20/30# line, fast action, 2 to 4 oz live or jig head bait, large boat guides size ? 30/50/70, Penn 706 reel. I am a experianced amature builder (fly rods). I need a plan. thanks for any help.

Personal favorite: Pacific Bay SP70MH with either the Pac Bay Channel Lock reel seat or the American Tackle graphite/aluminium hood reel seat (either with gold hoods); American Tackle gunsmoke frame / gold ring guides and a gimbal. Set up with a Shimano 3500B (baitrunner) or Penn Captiva CLL (baitrunner) it makes a spinning rod that you can either toss baits/jigs with or live line small sea trout or croaker on. Hook up and they're a lot of fun fighting the fish. The blank has a fast taper but is a "moderate action" (ie: forgiving on the final turn at boatside)

Thanks Ken, I have built a couple lately but I wanted to change blanks. I will order that set up tonite.

Big John
Rio Hondo, Texas
Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting

My favorite is the Rainshadow SW 967. Plain ole' fuji graphite reel seat, cork tape butt, cork grip, double foot hardaloys and you got a fishing machine! Perfect with a 4000 size spinning reel loaded with braid and a 3oz bucktail on the other end. Striper, drum, cobia, it's great for them all.

I have done a lot of fishing for cobia. My largest to date is an 83 pounder. These are really tough fish, as you no doubt already know, but around these parts we don't use surf type rods for them. Where are you fishing and from a boat or shore? A longer rod is only going to aid the fish, not the fisherman. If you don't need the length for casting purposes, you'll be better off going with something shorter.

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Tom's right. At that weight you want a shorter rod to give the fisherman the advantage. Even a 50 pounder.

Try a search of the Internet on that fish and see what other people use, you will come up with a lot of sites Here is one [www.fish4fun.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2006 09:31AM by bill boettcher.

I would go with the 4500 Baitrunner or a Penn 5500 size reel, just in case you get a 30lb plus bruiser! Ed

I have seen that I think the Florida record was a little over 100 pounds ??

The 8 foot rod gives you better casting range from the boat. I've got two guides out of Hatteras that use these exclusively for sight casting to drum/cobia. This rod fights a fish extremely well, no doubt a 7' rod may be better, but the trade off on the long range casts you sometimes need to reach spooky fish is worth it. And a 4000 size Shimano or Daiwa spinning reel with 20# braid will do the trick. Now for bait fishing, we use much stouter tackle, 30# line on a daiwa sl30sh with a 7' or 6'6" composite rod with lots of backbone.

Thanks everyone for the info. We fish in Destin FL , Cobia start to run in april, live lineing bait and sight fishing. The sight fishing is a ball, the fish run along the shore near sandbars. A long rod that can cast a long way but is very strong is a must. One good cast may boat a trophy and tasty supper. FL record is around 142#. Min size 33, most fish are 15 to 100 lbs.. Hours of boredom minutes of excitement.

Wow That's a nice fish

I would be very tempted to steer you towards one of the more stout Hot Shot blanks. The Loomis HS932 was a personal favorite some years ago but I don't know if they make it any more. I used to trim an inch or two off the tip and had a very fast action, very stout rod for the biggest cobia. It would easily cast up to 1 and half ounces a long, long way.

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