Bassin2604

Thanks for all the good replies. I feel like I've gained a much better perspective from reading all of this. I did forget to mention that this is giftcard money, but I do think I might keep the better deals and future bps sales first in mind from here on. I'm going to dig more into other threads here while I'm free. I'm not making any purchases until the weekend, but now I'm thinking about just shopping elsewhere and hanging on to the cards after all I've learned so far. I've definitely scrapped the inflatable idea for now. I'm in no hurry for one, so I'll pick one of those up whenever i see them cheap and stay focused on tier 1 or 2 combos. Thanks again.

Thanks Darren. I no longer have access to a bass boat, so I've been fishing mainly from johnboat rentals and banks this year. I've been thinking about getting a kayak off craiglist eventually, but I see bass trips w/ a guide more in my future. I mostly fish with soft plastics, spinnerbaits, and buzzbaits and 6ft rods I decided to stay away from the cheaper inflatables without the pressure sensor, because I didn't want it to go off accidently. I honestly can see myself getting mad and putting the pfd on craiglist before I'd buy a 30 dollar rearm. I didn't name brand drop since I'm new, but I was looking at the cheapest mustang BPS sold. Thanks for the rec Hulkster. I'm thinking about just dropping the pfd idea, but I really wish I could find the right price point on rods and reels to squeeze a 150 pfd or two in. Edit: Darren, I just noticed that you were talking about regular pfds. I keep one with me already, but it's just too cumbersome and hot to have on all the time. I sit on a flotation device too for padding. I have checked out the acsend fishing pfds with the mesh at one point in time and it didn't seem that much different then what i have already.

I have $500 to spend on gear that I normally wouldn’t even look at and I’m reading that it’s ideal for a beginner to jump into the med, med-high end if they can. I’ve been using plastic shimano spinners and shakespeare rods for a couple decades now. I was pretty floored just by how light the 100 dollar rods were. I almost walked out of basspro with a $199 Lew’s (Tourney pro g) and a random 100 dollar rod. I’m now currently looking at Fenwick $80 HMX, $100 HMG, & $200 AEOS. I don’t know what price point to stop at on the reels either, but I really do like the feel of the high end Lews models. One more thing: While I was imagining myself diving into stumpy water after losing any of those rods and reels, I got to thinking about the brand name inflatable pfds there that I’ve been looking at for a while now. It would be nice to have one I’d actually wear instead of sit on and wont accidentally inflate from humidity or rain. So I walked out thinking that before I take the plunge (LLOOLOL) on an expensive reel combo, maybe I should subtract 150+ dollars from the equation on one or two pfd's. That is unless it would be better put towards the higher rod and reel price tier?