Quality boat set up

[Paul_h]

Hi Andy, I will give it a go with an uptider as I still have an ugly stik uptider I used to use for tope fishing. I had a 20-30 rampage and the tip snapped on it. For me I didn't feel confident fishing bait or pirks with it. I think I am going to go for the century excalibur 20-40 but the only thing putting me off is the rings as I don't like single leg guides as they can get knocked easily. Reel wise I want to try and go and see a few. If I go for a two speeding will probably need to be second hand like a penn international or avet raptor.

Gillbo,
I was under the same opinion about the Century Excalibur and its rings, so I bought a 20-40 blank and Fuji torzite rings, had it made up. another reason is that I like low reel seat position, which gave me a good customised rod.
I am very impressed with it for shads and pirks up to 12 oz. although my mate has a production 30-50 with the Kurgon rings and they never faultered at all, and its had a lot of use.

for reels, and to balance the rod, sized for our waters I teamed it up with an Accurate Dauntless DX2 400, well balanced and you can go all day on the shads and rippers/pirks without having an arm like Popeye.
Although all the reels mentioned are all good and have good reputations. however don't stick a great big reel on, you see some lads coming on boats with marlin sized, harness clips, 80lb mono 100lb braid etc etc

hope it helps, best of luck

Paul