Don,

i got to this late, so if your still watching:

i fish a little salt water each year and i have a different point of view
than what you have heard. i think you should spend some money to ride on a
couple of different open charters in your area and LEARN about what is going
on there. you will then have a much better idea of what you enjoy, what to
do in your boat and what kinds of tackle make sense for that type of
fishing. head boats are cheap and will help you learn a lot if you talk to
the deck hands and ask questions, don't forget to tip them for the lessons
they can use the money. try some small boat charters as well, look for
"make-up" charters where you share the boat with five other guys. tell the
captain and mate you want to learn the basics to use on your boat, bring
them some donuts and pay attemtion. again a nice tip to the mate is in order
if you get a good lesson. there are also some lower cost inshore charters
that you could split with a friend from work to learn tactics for the bay.

given that, if you want a reccomended set-up i would suggest going to
boaters world and buy a penn 4/0 combo for bottom fishing. load with 40
pound test braid or mono whichever you like. this will handle most of the
larger near shore bottom critters nicely and still be a bit sporty. then
look for a penn squidder and a 7 foot rod rated for 15-25 pound line, tica
and tsunami have some decent boat rods in this line class that are pretty
reasonable, spool up with 20 pound test mono for smaller stuff and some
light trolling and you will have gear that will last a long time and catch
you a lot of fish.

also: very important to learn how to take care of your gear. the salt water
will trash it if you don't. you can have your reels serviced once a year at
the tackle shop but you gotta keep em clean in between.

i would learn before you spend too much money on more gear than those two
rigs,

do you have a sonar (fishfinder)? do you have charts of the area and know
how to get on the reef/wrecks? if not maybe you can find someone local to
help you learn about that. check on tidalfish.com you should be able to drum
up someone in your area that would help with learning navigation.

if i lived nearby i would come out with you and give you some lessons, and
not even charge you that much......

good luck,
jerry

"Don" wrote in message
ups.com... Thanks a lot,
folks. This is exactly what I was looking for. I had no
idea about braided lines, which all seem to agree on. I'll look into
the "circle hooks", too. So far I'm just torturing them.

I was only asking the bait shop shacks for advice, but they didn't seem
as concerned or consistant in their adivce. The bigger bait & tackle
shop had lots of great advice. Albeit they all seem to say the same
thing, "What are you fishing for?" Hell if I know. Fish I guess.

Anyway, all help is appreciated.