Thanks for the info. I purchased the crab trap at GI Joe's, then went down to Sportco and picked up a real cheapie Shakespere surf caster with a cheapie reel. I figured that since I wasn't going to be actually fighting fish with it, it wouldn't matter. I had them load it up with some 12 pound backing, and about 150 yards of 50 pound test Power Pro. The rod it came with is a bit short, so I'm going to swap that out for a surf casting Ugly Stik that I have in storage. The instructions recommended using a chicken leg, but I seemed to do just as well with squid. It stays on the bait clip a lot better too.