Sea fishing rods

This guide goes through each type of sea fishing rod and highlights some of the best rods from that category that we know of at FISHMAG.

The two key features of a sea fishing rod are its length and casting weight. Both these details will be written on the side of the rod near the handle, and tell you how much weight the manufacturers recommend casting with the rod. Each rod also has an ‘action’ (where in the blank the rod bends and how fast it recovers to straight after being bent).

There are other factors, such as power, tip-sensitivity, build quality, reel seat type and blank thickness. But all this falls into insignificance if the sea fishing rod and reel combination doesn’t work together. This is an easy mistake to make when ordering online, so for this reason, we have a guide to sea fishing reel sizes.

Anyway, let’s crack on and look at some of the best sea fishing rods out there for your purposes…

How to find the best sea fishing rods

The best sea fishing rods cost over £500, but you can get a fully functional and reliable rod that does everything most anglers need for £70-100. It can be very difficult to ascertain the quality of a rod when buying online because there is a lot of variance in quality even at the same price point. There is also a lot of variance in quality between brands and even within the ranges that each brand brings out… A lot of the time it can come down to what factory the rod was made in, rather than what name the rod has had slapped on it at the end of the process for marketing purposes. This is more the case with the budget end of the market, however.

Let’s look at some example sea fishing rods from each category…

Sea fishing rods & reels (by type)

Most rods sold in the UK are designed for freshwater fishing. Sea fishing rods for bait fishing are almost always much heavier rods – meaning they are designed for casting far higher weights. This is not so much because the fish in the sea are larger, but more about the importance of holding a bait to the bottom in current, or casting a long distance where needed.

The sea spinning rods – normally called ‘lure rods’ or ‘spinning rods’, are pretty much identical to those used for pike or perch fishing nowadays, so there’s really not much difference there. For float fishing, the gear used is very similar to freshwater tackle, it’s more the corrosion resistance of the equiptment that poses a limitation there than actual casting weights etc.

If you want to get the very best kit, it’s unlikely to come in a sea fishing rod and reel combo. There are some great rod and reel combos out there such as the Akios Crave & Okuma Surf combo or the Penn Feirce which is a fantastic combo for sea fishing with lures.

However, more commonly sea fishing rod and reel combos are overpriced and lower quality. It’s better to buy a rod and reel seperately, and our see fishing reel size guide should help a lot with that, as getting the right size reel for the rod is the only real challenge.

Sea Spinning Rods: For casting lures & spinners to predatory fish

We can broadly split the all the spinning rods on the UK market into four categories to choose from.

1. Light spinning rods

A rod casting up to 28-35g can cast soft lures brilliantly and most hard lures too. A rod like this is not the best for flinging a plug or metal to the horizon, but is very good for picking up on light bites on weedless soft lures when fishing in calm conditions close to the water.

The Savage Gear lure rods say they have fast actions but our testing revealed this is completely inaccurate (in our opinion). They are slow action rods, which some anglers enjoy for fishing with soft lures. With hard lures, the rod absorbs too much during the twitch, which most anglers do not prefer, though it can be useful in specific situations. A great rod for a specific purpose – anyway sorry that’s a side note. The point is, it’s a light spinning rod.

Example rod for fishing with soft plastics – Savage Gear SG6 7-35g 

1. Heavier spinning rods for mostly casting hard lures

If you grab a spinning rod that can cast a couple of oz (a max casting weight of 60-80g) with a bit of extra length – around 9-10ft – you have a highly versatile rod for sea fishing. A rod like this can cast larger jigs and spinners (around the 40g mark) a great distance when fishing with braid. You can also use your standard sea fishing float rigs and very light ledgering rigs. A great all-rounder rod, but also useful as a specialist lure rod if you use larger hard lures on rugged coastlines, especially if there’s often wind and surf or where safety is an issue in terms of access to the water. They are not so good at casting lighter soft plastics, which is a limitation.

Example ‘all-round’ sea fishing spinning rod or specialist shore jigging rod – Blackrock Bass 10′

2. Ultra light rods for making sport from smaller species from mackerel down to mini-species

Paired with a 1000 or 2500 size reel and 8lb braid a rod that casts up to a maximum of 10g is perfect for mackerel fishing with light casting jigs, flounder fishing in winter with lures, and targeting mini species. This approach was widely shunned by the mainstream fishing scene for years but it became clear that LRF anglers were catching nearly all the same things as everybody else plus a load of other species, so it’s a lot of fun. The limitation of this gear is that you can’t use most of the tackle you’ll find in a tackle shop with it – it’s a specialised method and all the kit has to fit together perfectly or it doesn’t work at all.

Ultralight Sea Fishing Rod Example: HTO Nebula Light Gamer

If you are looking for something for casting modern singular lures, you will like our complete lure set up guide and specialist bass rod guide.

Beachcasting rods: for casting baits a long distance & holding the bottom

A beachcasting rod is what you need if you’re casting baits a long distance or need to hold the bottom in current. Even 4oz weights can’t hold the bottom when the tide is charging through many estuary marks, which causes your line to tangle and your rig to roll into snags. These rods also allow you to target and land much larger species, like conger, huss and smooth hound, which are rarely caught by any other method from shore.

We can broadly split beachcasting rods into three different types.

Types of Beachcasters:

Light Beachcasters / Estuary Rods / Bass rods (not to be confused with bass rods for spinning): These rods cast a maximum of around 4oz. You could probably break this down further into light beachcasters vs. bass/estuary rods, the latter being lighter with maximum casting weights of around 3-5oz. These are quite versatile as you can just about float fish or cast mackerel feathers with them. They’re typically used over clean ground, where snagging is not an issue.

It’s easy to illustrate the different types of beachcasters with the highly respected Anyfishanywhere rod range as they have rods from each of these categories.

Example: Anyfish Anywhere Estuary Rod and AFAW Bass Rod – casting 3oz and 5oz respectively.

Heavy-Duty Rockfishing Beachcasters: Built for rough grounds and larger species, these rods can handle heavier leads, with a casting weight up to 8oz, and provide the necessary stiffness to be able to pull out of snags. A softer rod will only pull into the snag, not out of it. The ideal length for rock fishing is around 12ft.

Example: Shakespeare Salt casting 8oz at a little over 12′

Continental Rods: Longer and lighter, designed for casting lighter leads over greater distances. These rods are 15ft+ and and have fast actions designed for bending deep and recovering fast when casting lighter lead weights at range. They are useful over clean ground – beach marks, estuaries.

Boat rods overview

Boat rods can be split into two broad categories. Inshore rods and offshore rods.

If you’re fishing inshore and the water is only 10-20m deep, you can likely use the same lure fishing gear you’d use from shore, only a bit short. A bass rod is all you need if you’re not fishing close to wrecks / major snag hazards. Since you’re pulling the fish directly up, it’s actually easier to pull them away from snags than it is from shore.

Then you’ve got offshore rods, or rods you can use for trolling mackerel feathers from a boat. These are designed to handle heavier leads 8oz and up. Instead of having a ‘casting weight’ written on them to indicate how heavy the rod is, they often only have a lb rating – the same as freshwater rods. This indicates what strength line to use on the rod, which tells you how heavy the rod is.

Example: Penn Pursuit Boat Rod Combo

Best Sea Fishing Rods (by brand)

Daiwa Sea Fishing Rods

Daiwa makes some good sea fishing rods, with some standing out like the Daiwa Sandstorm. Their reels are generally far more impressive and innovative, and I’m not sure if the rods that make it to the UK are of a similar quality to the ones sold in other markets. Many brands have one set of gear under a brand name for one market and then another for another. This is because in Japan for instance they expect a much higher quality product that most British anglers expect. Regardless, I’d say it’s best not to expect that because you love their reels you will love their rods.

Penn Sea Fishing Rods

Penn have a cultlike loyal following that has persisted long after being acquired by the tackle giant purefishing, which also owns Savage Gear and other popular brands. They have maintained their robust style, with their rods and reels tending to have a more rugged feel than most other brands. We see Penn as a great brand for the entry level to middle market of sea fishing rods. The Penn Pursuit rod for example is a great option for people getting into sea fishing as it’s harder to snap than most others of the same casting weight. Are they the most sensitive, advanced rods on the market? No. Regarding the reels, the higher end models are truly exceptional (e.g. Penn Slammer) and the lower end models like the Penn Pursuit are perfect for balancing on heavier lure rods and fishing with heavier braids.

Century Sea Fishing Rods

It’s so fantastic to have a brand that makes premium rods in Britain and does it so well. What makes Century unique is their commitment to precision engineering and customisation. They offer a range of rods tailoured to specific fishing styles and conditions. If you’re looking for the best sea fishing rods in the UK this is where to look.

Shakespeare Sea Fishing Rods

In our opinion Shakespeare tackle is highly variable in quality, but it makes some great gear for great prices which is what most people want from their fishing gear. You won’t find exceptional quality – some of the beachcasters for instance have connection-points where the male rod section doesn’t slot into the female section with perfect overlap, so you get this annoying connection point. However, not everybody gives a s**t about this kind of thing when they’re going fishing. We like the Shakespeare Salt range in particular.

Sonik Sea Fishing rods

We’ve put Sonik reels through their paces and had good success with them over the years. Similarly to Shakespeare, they are going after the budget sea fishing rod market, and they are very good at making tackle that works well and is cheap. It’s not high end gear, and it’s a shame that with inflation it’s still quite pricey to buy this kind of stuff that used to be a lot cheaper in the past.

Recommended reading before buying a sea fishing rod

Guide to sea fishing reels – includes a detailed guide to getting the correct size reel for your rod.

Guide to buying a complete lure fishing set up – includes recommendations for spinning rods and which exact size and model reels to pair them with.

Guide to the best beachcasting rods – a more specialist version of this guide that focuses on beachcasting rods specifically.

Mackerel fishing rods – if you’re heading out mackerel fishing this summer and are looking for lower-cost feathering kit, this is a handy article.

Mackerel fishing tips – general advice for mackerel fishing to catch more fish.

Beginners guide to sea fishing – a list of general tips for sea fishing that will save you years of effort if you’re brand new to sea fishing.