New King setup

Well I am in the process of building a decent king setup (and general use possibly) and I am just not sure what pole to get. I know the custom ones are all the rage but to be honest I just want something that will get the job done and hold up for years. I have been looking at ugly sticks but I just want to know what other good ones that are under $125? What length would serve me the best? Also i found an old Mitchell 306 cleaning out my garage, that is in amazing condition a little grease and the thing will seem like its brand new, I was wondering how much line this thing will hold im thinking 15-17pound test or should I go with a different test? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

302 will be good with high catch 16 lb test, and go to j and m tackel, they will fix you up a rod in your price range, tell them you need a king rod. Hope this helps, Eddy

Ok cool, will I be able to walk outta there that day with the rod or is it gonna take a while? I problem is I can only get down there every so often so it might be tough for me to order it and then have to wait a month to go pick it up. Not living down there anymore makes it a big PITA. Also its a 306 not a 302 if that makes much of a difference.

Pier pest has a nice custom rod in your price range for sale in the classifieds.

[size=12pt]Here’s a link to Pier Pest’s rod if it’s still available.
http://www.gulfshorespierfishing.com...uilt-king-rod/

J & M Tackle has a huge selection of rods.[/size]

I am sorry, I did not know Jeb still had that rod for sale, If its a king rod, you should check it out, He built me a really nice rod, but if it is not what your want, call j amd m, they still might have some rods they could recomend for you to king fish with. The 306 might be a bit small, unless you put alot of braid backing on it to give you enough yardage. You can watch ebay and get a 302 for very little. It is worth checking out. Just don't buy anything from anyone with less than 99% rating. You can get a good used 302 on ebay for about 50$. Check out pier Pest rod, he makes good rods. I am very pleased with mine. Talk to John or Terry at J and m, if jebs rod is not what you want. Good luck

I will send him a message when I can get on my computer. Thanks guys for the quick replies, I'm going to attempt to try this reel because it has a lot of sentimental value. So are you saying use braided line or?

put about 50% braid, maybe 15lb test, the rest 16lb high catch

Hi Bobby, welcome to the forum! I fish a 306 on occasion as well but it may be a little undersized if you are just getting into king fisher but can still definitely catch kings. The main thing with king fishing is to have line capacity of around 250-300yds +. I fish mine with 12# most of the time and it does well with it and can hold right about 300 of momoi or maybe 275 biggame. You could extend it a little more with some braid backing if you want that little bit stronger mainline and still get some capacity. I actually put some dacron on all my mitchells just to help keep the spool from blowing up under extreme pressure. Just keep in mind its not really designed for braided lines and may not stack it real well if you end up using it much. A little bit bigger reel like a 302 is perfect for an all around reel if you prefer to stay with a mitchell. It really doesn't matter too much the brand as long as you have that capacity and a good drag. J&M has lots of good options for king rods, off the shelf you can take home with you then. Just tell the guys exactly what you want it for and they can help you out. 7-9ft medium action with a little softer tip is great for slinging cigar minnows and small-med live baits. There's lots of good options under $100 for rods if that's where your budget is and lots of places where you can buy. Hope that helps you some, sorry for such a long answer.

+1 on what Tofer said!!

This year was my first year fishing/catching kings. I used 12lb and it worked good. I think next year I'm going to use 10lb.

Good luck on finding you the right setup.

I have read on the now-deceased gulf pier forum that braid will make you unpopular with the locals because of the risk of cutoffs, but as backing that should be less of a concern. Your topshot of mono or floro would give you a little stretch to absorb shocks.

Some of the new Nanofil line will also maximize your capacity without being a braid but it will drill a serious hole in your wallet like high quality braid. :'( Its very slick and so it casts well but is hard to knot.

BTW on the 306 if its stock, you may want to add the crosswind, and a manual pickup to it. Squidder aka Rick C. in Navarre area can hook you up or maybe ship to you if you need parts or work done on it. You may also want to redo the drag after it sitting awhile, at least make sure it functions well because a good drag is essential. He's on Panhandle, if you want to get in touch with him.

Thanks guys for the replies. I think his custom rod is going to be out of my price range I had to drop it to $100 even so I am probably going to wait another month or so. I just want it ready by the end of March.

I will see if I can get in touch with Rick C. I think I will need to redo the drag it looks pretty shot.

So roughly 100 yards of braid?

Also long replies are welcomed in my thread lol, it shows most of the time that the person has some experience to share.

[quote author=Bobby link=topic=379.msg3402#msg3402 date=1324412720]
Thanks guys for the replies. I think his custom rod is going to be out of my price range I had to drop it to $100 even so I am probably going to wait another month or so. I just want it ready by the end of March.

I will see if I can get in touch with Rick C. I think I will need to redo the drag it looks pretty shot.

So roughly 100 yards of braid?

Also long replies are welcomed in my thread lol, it shows most of the time that the person has some experience to share.
[/quote]
I would just put 12 on it, with like 30 yds of dacron to protect the spool under it. If you really want to do some backing and heavier line, you would want to put like 150 yds of 20# braid then splice it to mono and fill it the rest the way up with 14-17# mono. 14 would probably get you close to the 300yd mark. j&M can do all that for you, they just need to know what you want on it. You can do all that in the same trip when you go to get the rod. If you are going to get a custom make sure you order it ahead of time because John does get pretty busy at times. Jeb aka Pierpest does fine work too. Get with one of them on advice for rod blanks, you'll want to get all that decided before you go to order it. (Blank, guides, grips, and thread colors for wraps.) Its a little overwhelming when you look at the amount of stuff available but they can give you some good advice on all that. You don't have to crazy when doing it either, nothing wrong with a simple rod that functions.

We have pier king rods on the sales floor that are built in house starting at $145 plus tax.If you plan on king fishing a good bit save up the extra money and get a rod designed for this style of fishing.Why do we have to build them and why is the price higher than most other production rods?Because there is not a mass produced rod of this nature using 35 cent an hour China labor.And yes that is exactly what the labor rate is over seas.

damn, this thread is trying to reinvent the wheel. get the the 306 looked at,greased and carry to j&m and get it spooled with some good 12 lb mono. yes a nice house rod will fit ur needs but ur budget must come up a bit as john said..as you become more experienced you may see the need to buy something bigger and do all the new fangled stuff like backing,braid,topshot. it just makes me wonder how we ever caught fish growing up when i read all the bullshit in some of these threads.. as you were

The fish were stupider back then?

[quote author=midwestexile link=topic=379.msg3511#msg3511 date=1324666842]
The fish were stupider back then?
[/quote]

And there were more of them ;-) LOL!

Plus the fact that the fish I caught back then seemed a lot larger to me then than they seem now.