Rods

I use 6'4" carbon rods for trolling and a 7' carbon rod as a spare and for casting on bust ups. I can't go over 7 feet as it won't fit in the kayak and the smaller rods just feel better. I would say 6-7 feet is the ideal size. You definitely don't want to have to setup a two piece rod when you're out there.

The fish we're handling are often big and strong. We also put the rods through quite a bit of a pain when they're bouncing around in the hatch. Get something with 2-4 PE rating. I go for "medium-heavy" and 20-40lb.

The line many of us here use is 30lb. It's strong enough to handle the fish and also weak enough to snap if you happen to get stuck. I've had my lines run over by boats multiple times and wrapped around me. I want something that I can snap, even if it's going to hurt. The worst nightmare would be to be wrapped up by 80+ lb line that I can't snap.

A lot of people use fibreglass rods. They're cheaper and can take more punishment. I just don't like the flex in them, so I use carbon rods.

I prefer rod rings that have double footings. They seem to hold up better when I mishandle them getting the rods in and out of the hatch. Having that said my Penn rod has held up well even though I've had to slightly adjust one ring once. My other rod is a Daiwa Saltist which has held up great.

It's worth mentioning that you might want rods that have different positions of where you attach the reel. This is so that the reels don't sit right next to one another when you try to get three rods into the hatch. If they're in different positions you can stack the reels on top of one another and use up less space for the whole package.

You also need lanyards.