"Dale Coleman" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 15 Feb 2004 11:05:14 -0500, "Steve & Chris Clark"
wrote:

Dale, personally, I use one that is stiff and short. One that the tip
eye
comes close to the surface of the water while standing on the casting
deck.
Point the boat at the target so you can along the side of the boat and
get
some good velocity to the bait. This way the height of the release is
already nice and low. Use the rod and reel that you are the most
proficient
with at first.
---cut---
Hi all, thanks for the tips. I went down to the local lake yesterday
just to give two of my spinning rods a tryout. It was windy with a lot
of chop so it was not the best day to try skipping. I tried a 7 1/2
foot fast action rod and a much slower 6 1/2 foot. From what I could
tell off of the chop the fast action rod was much easier to skip but
was a bit awkward. I think I will try to find a nice fast action
spinning rod about 6 foot long with a quick taper. None of my current
spinning rods are well suited for skipping. All my good bass rods are
baitcasters and I can't see skipping bait without backlashing the
reel. I'm thinking I will be better off getting a new rod and learning
to do it right then trying to make do with the long rod or the slow
one.

Thanks again, DC
--

My $.02:
For skipping wayyy back in, I also like a faster action spinning rod. I
usually hammer it hard closer to the boat, rather than a soft presentation
that touches down more adjacent to the dock. Any soft plastic that doesn't
have too many appendages skips well, IMO (ie crawworms, lizards & DT grubs
are worse than worms, tubes, etc).

I rarely keep a spinning rod setup for plastics after the spring fling is
over, so I can usually get one decent skip on baitcast gear (with the thumb
working overtime).