Budget Rod/reel Combos

[Victor57]

Hello all,

 

 I'm new to the forums been browsing around for a little while now. I am sorry if this question has been asked before, which i'm sure it has been but i have tried searching for similar topics cant seem to find what i'm looking for.

 

I am looking for at least 6 "budget rod/reel" combos. What combo, Lengh and line would you reccomend for the following categories?

 

1. Flipping, pitching, punching, frog rod and swimbaits

 

2.topwaters and jerkbaits

 

3.crankbaits

 

4.texas-rigs and jigs

 

5.spinnerbaits, vibrating and swimming jigs

 

6.shaky heads, drop shots, lightweight plastics or light jerkbaits and topwaters

 

I did some research and found reccomendations for lengh/ action for each category listed above but they didn't give which brand of rod/reel and want to see what others would reccomend. I'll be doing some tournament bass fishing next year for the first time, any other reccomendations or tips that you think would help ?

 

Thank you !
 

[DFrench97]

Welcome to BR!  What is a budget for you.  A price would help a lot for the brand because everyone's budget is different.

[Victor57]

Thank you !... I'm thinking under $100 Per rod/reel combo. Looking for decent combos to basically get started with, without throwing a ton of cash into them right off the bat.

[OntarioFishingGuy]

1. 7'3'' to 7'6'' MH/Fast or H/Fast casting rod with a 6 or 7 gear baitcast reel spooled with 30-60lb, braid depending on the cover you fish.

 

2. 6'6'' to 7' M/Fast casting rod with a 6 gear bait reel spooled with 10lb copolymer or monofilament.

 

3. 7' to 7'8'' M/Moderate or MH/Moderate (Depending on if you want distance or accuracy) casting rod with a 5 or 6 gear baitcast reel spooled with 12lb fluorocarbon.

 

4. 6'8'' to 7'6'' M/Fast or MH fast casting rod with a 7 gear baitcast reel spooled with 12-20lb fluorocarbon or 20-40lb braid.

 

5. 6'6'' to 7' M/Fast or MH/Fast casting rod with a 6 or 7 gear baitcast reel spooled with 10-17lb copolymer, monofilament or fluorocarbon, or 20-40lb braid.

 

6. 6'6'' ML/Fast or M/Fast with a 2500 size spinning reel spooled with 10lb braid.

 

At that price range, I would be looking at Fenwick rods, but i have heard BPS has some good budget rods also. I like Shimano and Daiwa for reels, but Pfluegers are great reels for the money. For braided line, look at Power Pro and Sufix, for monofilament, Berkley Big Game is really good, and for Fluorocarbon, Sunline and Seaguar are pretty much all I use. Hope this helps!

[DFrench97]

If I were you I would not buy 6 combos and save your money and buy 4.  You can uses some combos for different techniques.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/130634-rod-selection-the-basics/  It basically states that you can do most techniques with 3 main combos.  If you save $200 and buy 4 combos, you can get better gear by spending $150 per combo instead of $100.   

[deep]

Thank you !... I'm thinking under $100 Per rod/reel combo. Looking for decent combos to basically get started with, without throwing a ton of cash into them right off the bat.

 

Frankly, that's gonna be a little tough. Basically means you'd be looking to buy used PQs/ Curado B's/ Citica D's and Berkley Lightning rods.

 

Why do you feel you need six setups anyway? Roadwarrior has a thread stickied on top on how you can get by fine with three rigs.

[I.rar]

Psh. I do all my fishing with two! But I only fish a handful of techniques I'm very confident in.

RW's suggestions in that link are spot on though.

[Victor57]

Honestly not sure why i went with six. I guess the majority of the sites i researched reccomended at least 6m which were of pros pushing there sponsor products. I must of completely over looked RW's thread. Thanks for the input guys !

[kikstand454]

Whatever you decide- for the best CHEAPEST combos, look no further than academy's h20 line of rods and reels. The mettle reel is awesome and I ever heard good things about their house rods as well. With the holidays coming, you should be are to catch them on sale for less than $40 each.

[Raul]

You only need 3 combos, so from 6 100 dollar lousy combos you now can fish with 3 200 dollar good ones.

[timsford]

Instead of spending 600 on 6 combos for those id get 3 or maybe 4 better combos. A mh fast baitcast combo, a m or moderate or moderate fast fiberglass or composite baitcast combo, a m fast spinning combo. And maybe a heavy if you like throwing heavier swimbaits and frogs in heavy cover. There are a ton of brands out there that offer good stuff in that price range. I think you will be much happier with 3-4 good combos than 6 cheap ones. You can fish almost everything with a single hook on the mh, the treble baits on the fiberglass or composite rod, and the lighter stuff on the spinning rod. If you fish a lot of truly heavy lures you might want to fit in the heavy, but most of my mh rods handle lures up to 1 oz

[jonathan627]

Hey Victor...I was pretty much in your same position about a month ago.  The first thing I recommend is trying to find 1-2 Daiwa Tatula reels.  They can be had for under $100 online if you're patient.  I picked up the Type R off eBay on a late night auction for $97.  Stuck it on a $100 mh-fast *** rod.  So for $200 right there you've pretty much got your soft plastics covered.  I fish texas rigs, drop shots, weightless senkos (4" and 5") with it.  I'm sure it would handle a jig n frog as well.  Hell, I could even flip with it if I wanted to throw some heavier line on it.  Anyway, then I picked up a Quantum Smoke rod 6'6 Medium for $98 and a used Revo S for under 100.  I prefer to use that for my smaller senkos, and finesse worms.  The other two setups I picked up were a Cabela's Tournament ZX 'Crankbait' rod which is 7'1 Medium with Moderate action for $100 and am still deciding between keeping an Abu Garcia Pro Max reel on it or one of my old trusty Ambassaduer 4600's because of the slower retrieve, I fished a spinnerbait with it all day today and the rod did pretty well.  Then a pflueger summit spinning reel ($60 brand new), on a Cabela's Tourney Trail 7'1 ML Rod.  This last combo I got lucky on and found in Cabela's Bargain Cave for $38.  So basically, I've acquired about 4 reliable combos for a combined price of around 5-600 by being patient and searching for good deals after doing a lot of research.  My favorites of them all are the Daiwa Tatula Type R and the Quantum smoke rod by far.  Hope this helps!

[Victor57]

Thanks everyone for the great replies. Glad i came here and asked before i just went out and bought 6 cheap rod/reels. So i'll stick to 3 more expensive rods, now just have to research and figure out which brands to go with. Thanks again guys, appreciate the help !

[BassSlayer71]

I bought a couple of the Black and silver max rod and reel combos by Abu Garcia.  They've worked well for me so far.  I am going to start trying to upgrade now.  But like the guys said, save the money and try to buy better.

 

Buy once, cry once.

[xxmurrxx]

I run 4 rods basically close to whats recommended in RW's link but with the addition of a heavy rod for thicker cover.

 

I have not used a lot of different rods out there but some I can recommend in that price range:

-St Croix Premier / Avid (I have not used the inbetween models rage & mojo but i'm sure they are good)

-Fenwick Tech elite

-Shimano Citica reel

[Poolshark]

My vote for a starter would be bass pro or shimano clarus rods on citica or tatula reels. The combos should run you under two hundred a peice and the reels will last. Also consider the bass pro pro qualifier/carbon lite combos. Saw the combos at bass pro for around a buck 60. Wouldn't go any cheaper. you'll have to re buy later and that would cost you a lot more. Been there.

[mjseverson24]

Personally I would still go with the 6 combo set up since you are going to be doing tournaments and time is money...

casting:

1) Skeet reese victory 7:1 (50.00) Abu vendetta 7'6" H (80.00) total 130.00

2) Black max combo ---> 50.00(6'6" M or MH)

3) skeet reese victory reel 6:1 (50.00) and a 7'M Berkley amp(30.00) total 80.00

4) Skeet reese victory 7:1 (50.00) Falcon bucoo(100.00) or Tatula(100.00) total 150.00

5) Black max combo ---> 50.00(7' MH)

Spinning:

6) Pflueger president(50.00) st.Croix mojo bass (100.00) total 150.00

 

toal investment ---> $610.00 + tax (but if you wait till black Friday sales it could be well under 600, and or you could upgrade a few of these components and still stay near the 600 dollar mark.)

 

with 6 combos instead of 4 or 3 you will spend less time retying and more time fishing, especially in tournaments this is a big plus. if you were just recreational fishing I would agree with the others and suggest to buy more quality gear. Also tournaments are tough on equipment, with these combos if something happens to one due to tournament fishing life the replacement costs are less...

 

Mitch

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

Trim the arsenal down to 3 combos as suggested, and look to spend $500 of your $600 budget. Grab two BPS Pro Qualifiers in 5:1 & 6.4:1 on sale ($80 ea) and a Pflueger President Spinning reel ($60). Grab a $50-$75 cranking rod, and look for a couple St Croix Avids in the flea market etc. You'll get plenty of value from the reels and the rods could last you a lifetime without feeling the need to upgrade them (unless of course you want to). 

[Victor57]

I like the idea of 6 for tournaments, but on the other hand it sounds like i can get away with 3 higherend combos. Thanks guys. Decisions, decisions.

[hatrix]

I would also go with 3 decent setups over 6 crappy ones. I think your making it much more complicated then it needs to be as lots of the things you have listed are all done with the same rod any ways. The cover your fishing and type of line you use also matters but any decent M/H 1/4-1 or around there will cover lots of what you have listed. A spinning rod will cover all the light baits or finesse presentations you have listed and the top water like spooks or jerkbaits you can also get away using a M/H or the spinning rod with those. Are you throwing squarebills or fishing diving ones down 10' or more for cranks? For your pitching I doubt your fishing at okeechobee so a H or a M/H depending on the weight you use is fine and the H will cover super thick vegetation if your frogging in that other wise a M/H works fine. Swimbaits is also super vague as those probably have the widest range of any bait but I will assume you mean a hollow or a trailer+head and not that you mean a 8" hudd or something. Again that M/H is the rod and swimjigs are the same thing and the spinner chatter baits are also thrown on the same rod. If you felt you needed less power you can use the spinning rod or if you needed more pick up the extra heavy. You can pretty much change the power of a rod by what line you pick. If you could get a extra spool for the reel you put on the H then you would be golden as you probably might not always want to run braid or copoly/flouro. I would go with a 6:3 and 7:3 Tatula for the casting and a President for the spinning and pick up a Fenwick HMG for your M/H and the spinning rod and figure out what you have left on the heavy maybe since those don't come in H.

 

Having extra spools if you can get them though can almost be like having another rod. I don't think presidents still come with 2 spools any more but the wood handle ones use to.

[xxmurrxx]

Just seen 2 citicas in the flea market for around $50 - 60 ish, would be a good grab imo.

I dont know the guy selling or anything just saying good reel for the price if your on the budget if you dont mind used gear.