New Rod Choice?

[KaneMc]

Hi all,

My wife has finally come to her senses and instead of trying to surprise me again this year she has asked me to give her a Christmas list. First on that list will be a new rod.

I currently have a Penn 8500SS and have it matched with a 10 foot Penn Powerstick for off the rocks. I want to do some boat fishing (if I can find a good place to hire one from) in the future and am looking for a suitable rod for under $150. I will use my Penn real with this too until I can afford to buy another reel or bring my TLD from New Zealand.

The reel is currently loaded with 20Lb braid. This rod needs to be multipurpose as I am likely to try a fair few different techniques. I have done most of my previous fishing in NZ so will need to see what works here. i.e. Livies, trolling, spinning, bottom bashing, etc.

I am leaning towards something around a length of 2.1 m (7 foot) , and around the 10kg class. I have looked a few Ugly Stik Platinum's and some Penn Powerstick Plus’s but am not sure which is best or what other possibilities there might be.

By the way I love Kingy’s so it needs to be able to tough it out if necessary. Maybe I need it a bit heavier?

Any help would be appreciated.

[Bashir]

I do the same thing with my 8500ss. My boat rod for it is a custom job, its 7ft long, and can handle 15kg but is more of a heavy 10kg rod. Its a great allrounder, look for something with similar characteristics. silstar, ugly sticks, penns, live fibre are all very similar rods, take the reel into the shop (most shops should have a 8500ss in stock anyway) and put it on a few different rods and see which one feels best, but I reckon you are already on the right track.