How much $ for Rod/Reel?

[D Man]

I'm upgrading all my gear. I want to buy some quality rods and reels now that I have a boat. I'm planning on spending anywhere up to $120 or so for a combo. I could buy a $100 rod and a $20 reel, a $20 rod and a $100 reel, or any combination in between. My question is given a budget like mine - how much do you spend on each component. At what point is spending extra $ for the rod (or reel) a waste because you have to put a junk reel (rod)on it?

[perchjerker]

D-
Let us know what type of fishing (trolling, etc) you plan on doing with your new equipment.

[curt quesnell]

Good question D man.

If you have no preferance for either rod or reel then 50/50 the deal.

If you have a good sporting goods store handy let the salesman show
you a few different rods and reels in the price range you are looking
at and then pick the ones the you like best for the type of fishing
you will be doing.

Its alot of fun shopping for rods and reels.



Curt Quesnell

[D Man]

I'm upgrading all my rods. The one's I have are all junk combo's that I lived with while bank fishing. I fish mostly for walleyes, so I'll purchase a Jigging rod (5'6" Med), Rigging rod (7ft Med), trolling rod (7-8ft Med Heavy)
That should cover most of the situations I fish. If I've got some extra $, I'll also look at a baitcasting rod (5'6" med) for other types of fishing.

[TravisC]

On the spinning side of things, I went up to Cabela's a couple weeks ago and got a St. Croix Premier rod and a Shimano Sonora reel -- combo price $120 -- I think I got an excellent combo for the money spent!

[Melonbob]

my brother went with a shakespeare intrepid rod, which I thought was a great jiggin stick for around 20 bucks. Then he bought himself a nice quantum energy reel to put on it. Came out to well under a hundred, and he had a decent setup. Sweet thing was, about a year later, we got him a Loomis, and he didn't have to bother with a new reel, since he got one good enough to go on a good rod. I find it's easier to get a good rod cheap than a good reel cheap.....(:

[SUPERTROLLER]

Lots of good suggestions so far. For your trolling combo's, get the Diawa SG27LC's and flexible tip/strong backbone rods and pair them with those. For your jigging, rigging, casting combo's, it is much more important to have better rods than reels. The rod will be doing all the "feeling" for you. The reels basically are there to hold the line. Yes, the drags are important but that is after you hook a fish. If you can't hook'em because you can't feel'em it doesn't matter how nice the drag is or how many ballbearings it has. The trolling set-ups need to know how far back, to the side, or how deep your lures are running. The fish will hook themselves. It is most important to know how you can re-produce that same lure presentation to the fish again. Curt's idea of balancing the costs for your jig rods was great. I've got a couple Lightening rods and a Fenwick HMX that are in this price range mated with Shimano reels. All good stuff without getting too pricey. (OR) You could get some expensive rods now and use your old reels until you can replace them at a later time. This is if you wanted to go more upscale right away to one of the Big name rods. (St.Croix, Berkley Series One, G-Loomis, Fenwick HMG, etc.)

[River_eye]

I won't reccomend any brand names, because there are a lot of good ones, but I think that a person would normally spend a bit more on a reel than the rod they're matching it up with.

With baitcasting outfits, the minimum you want to spend on a reel is probably $80-$90, otherwise you just won't enjoy casting with it and it will go to the bottom of the rod locker. I have a shimano corsair and it's a decent reel, but I wouldn't want anything any less expensive. The rod that it's on is a falcon, worth about $70.

Spinning reels are generally less expensive and you can get away with spending less. For a jigging combo I'd probably spend about the same on the rod as I would the reel, if not more. This is because when jigging, the rod weight, sensitivity and feel make all the difference.
I do a lot of jigging, so I use a St croix Avid ($150) with a Shimano Stradic ($120). I would not consider spending this much on any other type of presentation.

Generally, a spinning reel from $65 - $90 you won't have many complaints with. A baitcaster, probably about $90 - $150 depends on the application. Rods are more variable to your personal preference.

[Heye5]

Since you are upgrading everything, you could do rods first. Bass pro has their xps extreme rods 3 for the price of 2. Don't have any of these rods but have heard good things about them on this board and they are fitted to except the balancing kits (extra $). For $200 you would have 3 new rods of good quality and get reels later.
Heye5

[Dave in Mpls]

For spinning, it's hard to go wrong with a Shimano Symetre 2000 reel. Cabela's has these in a combo with their XML rods for $135:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/horizontal-pod.jhtml?id=0011766&navAction=push&navCount=2&indexId=cat20287&parentId=cat20287&parentType=index

For a reel for bottom bouncing, casting, etc, Gander Mountain has a reel :) good deal on a Quantum right now for $30:

http://www.walleyecentral.com/cgi-bin/dcf/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&omm=0&om=16334&forum=generaldiscussion

Team that reel up with a 6 1/2' to 7' medium action rod and you will be set there.

For trolling, find a combo with a Daiwa SG27LC and a 8' rod and you'll be in business. Try Bass Pro, as I don't know if Cabela's currently has a 27 combo available.

Regards