School me on beach fishing rods & reels

Title says it best.

I grew up boat fishing for walleye, bass, etcetera in MN, and spent time down-rigger fishing for salmon in Lake Michigan. Also have experience with a fly rod in Tahoe and MT.

I wanna spread my wings a bit and get the family to the beaches this year... coastal Japan. All gear will be bought second-hand and will be fairly newish. (Think Japanese thrift stores full of gear bought by people who wanted to pick up a new hobby but quickly decided to sell said gear. Read-- fishing, golfing, guitars, etcetera.)

I also predict that I might discover there are certain reels and rod flexes I hate/prefer. I'll speak to the locals about lures & bait. Just need the rods and reels for a family of 5.

What are your gear preferences?

stick with rods between 9' 6" and 10' 6" and rated for 10-25lb line. okuma, shimano, penn, ugly stick, etc. all have multiple affordable offerings that fit that criteria and are quality. make sure the guides are solid (no cracked coating around the thread wraps) and the reel seat is sound.

for reels, its the same players mentioned above. the more plastic on the reel, the shittier it is. saltwater reels are sized by the 500s or 1000s depending on manufacturer. look for between 4000 and 7000 with a drag around 20lbs. check for smooth action and no bearing noise. make sure the bails have good resistance in both positions. if they aren't spooled, spool em up with 15lb mono and let em rip.

and definitely consider a fly rod for yourself. 9' 7 or 8 weight. large arbor reel. the larger the mo betta. weight forward intermediate line.

Cheers for your breakdown. I appreciate it.

For sure man. Just as a start for lures, bucktail jigs in a few different sizes and colors and a few spoons/flashy shits will catch you fish anywhere. They are the woolly bugger(s) of gear fishing.

The best place to look for that info is at:

stripersonline

What species do you think you’ll be targeting and what kind of terrain — rocks? Sandy beach? Generally guys use larger, beefier rods on the rocks than on the beach.

I’d also suggest getting something in the 9’6’’-10’6’’ range that throws on the lighter side of weight range (~.5-3oz is a good place to start). Get something modern and cheap and figure out if it’s something you’ll use often and figure out preferences for action and stuff like that from there. Tica and Tsunami make great entry level surf rods.

Reel size go around ~4000-6000k. Penns and Diawa BGs are great starter reels.

Suf is right on for lures, I’d add some soft plastic jigs to the mix and maybe a topwater lure or two that locals recommend. Paddle tails are super easy to fish with and they catch just about everything.

Maybe get a reel with braid and another spooled with mono in case the kids have wind knot issues. Braid is superior. Tie a leader with a swivel, Palomar knot for braid to swivel. I’d go 20lb braid and 30-40lb fluoro or mono to a tactical angler style clip.