King/Cobia rod

I am in search of a king/Cobia rod for the pier. I am wanting a 1 piece 8ft rod for casting x raps for kings and while I am Spanish fishing have a Cobia jig tied on just incase the unicorn swims by. I have found some trouble in finding many 8ft rods for a reasonable price, so far I have found 3 1) star stellar surf M power w/ 8-20lbs rating ~$95 (which I own for Spanish fishing), 2) star stellar light H power 8ft w/ 15-30lbs rating $150, and 3) Shimano Teramar SE XH 15-30lbs rating $230. I have the stellar surf rod paired with a daiwa bg 4000 with 300yds 20# braid, I feel like it would catch a small king and that is the reason I went slight overkill for the Spanish incase I hooked a king, but I don’t believe I will have a chance with Cobia. After watching several YouTube videos the general consensus for a Cobia rod is 15-30 lbs rating, can’t find much about the Florida way of king fishing tho most is a trolley rig setup. I only get to come down 1-3 times a year so won’t be fished super hard but I am a buy once and cry one person, so what do y’all think about these rods/ personal experiences and possibly pairing with a bg 5000 with 30# braid? Sorry for so many words and thank you.

I've never seen a trolley used at Pensacola Pier, not sure about Navarre... at PBP, most people snobble, freeline or toss xraps. I'm just gonna watch because I'm in the market too.

Brady, go to J&M Tackle in Orange Beach on Canal Road and tell them what you need, what you want and how much you want to pay. I'll bet you walk out of there smiling. They have good tackle in different price ranges, but very little cheap stuff of little value, if you get what I mean. Ask about their custom store rods for pier fishing. They may be a little more than what you were thinking of paying, but the value is out of sight. Good luck. Tight lines. (By The way, I don't work there, not kin to anybody there and don't own interest. It's just the best place for tackle and live bait. Ask for John G. and tell him Haywire sent you....He'll laugh, slap you upside the head and raise the prices.)

I wasn’t planning on using a trolly rig and I have never seen one used. I know about JandM great store, but I do not know if I will be able to go there before the next time I get to pier fish. The past 2 years we have went to Fort Walton and fished in the okaloosa island pier (lots of tarpon there this year) and Pcb before that, and a few years ago gs/ob. It’s just depends on where the family wants to go that year I just find somewhere to fish 😂.

There are tons of builders out there who will build a good solid king rod in the 8' range but 7'10" is about the limit for mail order blanks without a large shipping fee. Apparently shippers have set the limit. Now that being said there are plenty of builders who will build you a great rod. The Shimano Teramar SE XH 15-30lbs rating $230 is a very good rod. They have a XX version but its over 300 and if I pay that much I am going custom with my choice of hardware/colors. I have a Teramar and a Fenwick with similar actions and ratings but my 5 yr old Teramar is still my favorite production rod so much so that when my newest custom rod is finished I am going to have the Teramar rewrapped and updated hardware.

Oh and Gulf Shores is probably one of the only local piers that allows any form of trolly fishing. Its definitely a no-no at Pensacola.

Trolley fishing is officially against the rules at Gulf Shores Pier but some folks still do it north of the octi where they don't interfere with the snobblers. It sure is fun, especially if you have problems that keep you

from casting repeatedly.
(Sorry, my computer did something weird.)

I ran into the shipping problem when buying the star surf rod, but I have a buddy at a local store called Reynolds outdoors that ordered it for me through them and they are a dealer in Shimano too so I could order it through them again to avoid the oversized shipping fee.

And now a story that is probably of no interest to anybody and no help to BradyS. But this is one of the few relaxing moments I've had over the last few months of readying my house for the market. I will be relocating to the area in the near future and reading this thread had me thinking of a day on the pier several years ago. I had never heard of a trolly rig until joining this forum and to this day have never used one. But this particular day I had the pleasure of watching Haywire set up his trolly rig, Hogman was also using one and actually caught a king. Yes, they surely never knew I was glued to thier every move and the memory is permanently burned into my memory and I have no doubt that I could set up such a rig if need be. Thanks, just a stroll down memory lane.

Hey, if they ever get the pier back in operation, come on and set up by me. I need somebody to tell fishing stories (no lies) to and maybe show you some of the finer points about the rigs that are hard to know just by watching. Tight lines.