I fish the reefs near Daytona Beach for snappers.
Primarily mangrove snappers.

The style of fishing I do requires a sensitive tip, or you will never feel the fish take the bait.
It also requires plenty of backbone to pull a reef fish away from cover.
This rod does both of these things beautifully.

Several cobia, and red snappers over 30" have fell victim to this rod.

Bye bye Ugly Stiks.
Hello Star Handcrafted live bait boat medium action spinning rod.

I paired this Star Aerial Live Bait 15-30 lb rod with a Penn Fathom 30 2-speed Lever Drag reel spooled with 30 lb. braid with a 100 ft top shot of 20 lb. mono and have been using this for light trolling for Kingfish, Spanish mackerel, barracuda and bonito. Very happy with the action and soft tip which takes shock off the hard hits from kings. The fit and finish of the Star products is superb. Great value for money.

I ordered these to go with the Okuma 6 2 1 reels. Perfect for kingfishing

Perfect rod for live bait fishing. Reasonably priced.

I participate in a few of the local king fish tournaments here in Tampa Florida. I have been shopping around for a decent conventional rod for this application for a couple years. I am accustomed to spinning gear which with braided lines surely gets the job done, however I felt it necessary to utilize mono main line in my arsenal as well due to the stretch and its translucence in the water providing better presentation. You cant fit 300 plus yards of 20-30 lb mono on a spinning rod unfortunately. Utilizing a lever drag high speed reel for the ease of drag adjustment and pairing it with this rod is a dangerous combination for slow trolling sport fish in the Gulf of Mexico. This rod has a nice soft tip and a strong back bone making it easy to stay tight to the fish without pulling the hooks. I was able to take it out for the first time this past weekend to pre- fish an upcoming tournament and I have to say I am impressed. I have an arsenal of Star rods as for the money they just can't be beat. We caught 6 kings up to 30lbs and 10+ cudas in the 40lb+ class utilizing this set up presented both on the surface and down riggers slow trolling live threadies and pilchard in about 5 hours of fishing. The water temp is still in the 80s and the herds of kings in masses have not reached our area just yet. Can't wait to get back out this weekend and do it all again.

So far the Handcrafted Live Bait Spinning rod has proven to be an excellent combination with the Shimano Baitrunner series of reels. It's handled everything inshore and nearshore that I've been able to throw at it in the Big Bend.