Advice please!

[limpit]

I have decided to finally upgrade my beachcaster rod and fixed spool reel and am after something that the tip doesnt flap about in windy conditions and can take a bit of stick (due to the large clumps of weed I manage to find ). Ive always only spent around £50 in total for my rod and reel but my budget is around £150.
Cheers for any input

[eccles]

Hi mate, When I got back to sea fishing a few years ago, I bought one of those cheap beachcasters that flap about in the wind, still got it somewhere I think. Anyway I soon realised that I had to get a full carbon rod because they cast better and hardly move in the wind. So what to get? Well I have finished up with a couple of Abu Hellbenders which I am quite pleased with but you have to hunt around a bit to get a good price. Shakespeare stuff is a bit cheaper (the salt range I mean) but not the same quality as the Abu's.
As far as reels are concerned, both Okuma and Daiwa offer some fairly robust FS stuff (I presently use Daiwa BF5500's) but don't be tempted to go below the £30 mark because the cheap stuff simply doesn't last in my experience.
Mind you, any rod will bust eventually with a seriously large clump of weed - I don't take the risk these days I just wrap the line around my arm two or three times and walk back up the beach until the weed comes ashore or the line busts.

[Dyer]

if your after a good rod i have a penn PPT sidewinder for sale

[pout]

Really need to go and have a play with some rods at a tackel shop, what suits one anler will often not suit another, as anglers we are all looking for something slightly different in a rod, it will also depend on whether you are fishing rough ground marks, clean ground estuary.

[limpit]

thinking of going for a Penn Powerstix but now cant decide on what size to go for, 13' or the 15' 9'' version. I can see the obvious benefit of the larger rod being able to cast further but will it be a bit of a handfull for a relative novice angler

[eccles]

Just don't do the 16 ft bit. It's highly debatable as to how many extra yards you will get and don't forget that the former world champ Neil MacKellow use a 13' 4" rod to achieve his 250+ yds casts. Personally I use 14ft Abu Hellbenders and that is only because they don't do them in 13ft. One of my mates (bit of a novice) bought himself a monster Greys rod a few weeks ago and that is what it is - a monster. Very awkard to use in restricted space and a sod to cast unless you are very fit and strong which at nearly 70, I am not.