Budget Spinning Gear Around The 100$ Price Point

[pwahmy]

I'm sorry, I realize this topic has probably been beat to death. I'm a new user although I've visited this site for a year or so now. But I appreciate what you guys are here doing for the bass fishing community. Now into the topic. I'm not a beginner bass fisherman, I'm just not the most wealthy one. I need a spinning rod for my shakey heads, weightless flukes, etc. probably need it to handle about 1/8 oz to 3/8, MF preferably. Feels im not picky just something relatively smooth. As far as spinning gear I don't have a brand preference nearly as much as I do for bait casting gear. Thank you all for your time, appreciate it.

[Evan K]

I like St Croix rods, but my favorite are rods by a company that the owner of this site hates, so I'm not allowed to tell you the brand...

Yes, seriously.

TBH about any rod in the $100 range will be great.

[DogBone_384]

Are you looking for a rod & reel for $100, or just a rod?

If it's a setup you're looking for, a Pflueger President is probably your best bet for reel and a spinning rod that might be on clearance. I have a few different size/action BPS Microlite rods, which are about $50. They're light, and sensitive, lacking only a hook holder.

As far as a good $100 spinning rod goes, there are so many good ones, you're best bet is to get down to your local store and handle them for yourself. My two favorites are Abu's Veritas and 1* F*****g's Om**.

Best of luck.

[pwahmy]

Are you looking for a rod & reel for $100, or just a rod?

If it's a setup you're looking for, a Pflueger President is probably your best bet for reel and a spinning rod that might be on clearance. I have a few different size/action BPS Microlite rods, which are about $50. They're light, and sensitive, lacking only a hook holder.

As far as a good $100 spinning rod goes, there are so many good ones, you're best bet is to get down to your local store and handle them for yourself. My two favorites are Abu's Veritas and 1* F*****g's Om**.

Best of luck.

Both but probably would pay at most 120$ spinning gear isn't my strong suit but it is definitely required for some applications. Appreciate the reply.

[pwahmy]

I like St Croix rods, but my favorite are rods by a company that the owner of this site hates, so I'm not allowed to tell you the brand...

Yes, seriously.

TBH about any rod in the $100 range will be great.

Hmm... That's interesting. Thanks for the reply, appreciate it.

[Evan K]

Hmm... That's interesting. Thanks for the reply, appreciate it.

 

 

Didn't realize you meant both. In that case you can't go wrong with a Pflueger President reel and No. 8 Tackle Company b lackout. That would be a killer budget combo. The reel should be $40-50 and the rod $60 or so.

[pwahmy]

Didn't realize you meant both. In that case you can't go wrong with a Pflueger President reel and No. 8 Tackle Company b lackout. That would be a killer budget combo. The reel should be $40-50 and the rod $60 or so.

The exact combo I was looking into, just wanted other opinions. Thanks Evan!

[TorqueConverter]

Both but probably would pay at most 120$ spinning gear isn't my strong suit but it is definitely required for some applications. Appreciate the reply.

 

House brands like Bass Pro and Cabela offer some pretty darn good rods at a low price point.  BPS Bionic blades and Carbonlites are great but Cabelas has a range of tencnique specific rods with the Tournament ZX that I'd take a good hard look at.  

[pwahmy]

House brands like Bass Pro and Cabela offer some pretty darn good rods at a low price point.  BPS Bionic blades and Carbonlites are great but Cabelas has a range of tencnique specific rods with the Tournament ZX that I'd take a good hard look at.

Thanks for the suggestion, will look into it! Appreciate the reply!

[I.rar]

I'd also suggest a president size 30 but with a previous model Daiwa procyon from fleabay. You'd be just over your budget but with a great value rod with Fuji components.

[Evan K]

I'd also suggest a president size 30 but with a previous model Daiwa procyon from fleabay. You'd be just over your budget but with a great value rod with Fuji components.

 

I wanted to get a Procyon but had trouble finding them, when I was looking for an ultralight rig.

 

EDIT: oops, meant the Presso model. But I too have heard good things about the Procyon.

[gulfcaptain]

Check out Academy's H20 Ethos 6'8"M Spinning rod.  Think they still have that model.  Great rod at a very good price $60 IM-8 Graphite rod, nice components, and balanced well.  Reel wise, look at the Pflueger President 6930 $60.  Got yourself a nice $120 spinning outfit that will do what you're wanting.  I still fish my Ethos spinning rod.  Upgraded the reel but the rod is a great and works well for what you're wanting.  Both found on Academy's site. Hope this helps.

[Bluebasser86]

Check out Academy's H20 Ethos 6'8"M Spinning rod.  Think they still have that model.  Great rod at a very good price $60 IM-8 Graphite rod, nice components, and balanced well.  Reel wise, look at the Pflueger President 6930 $60.  Got yourself a nice $120 spinning outfit that will do what you're wanting.  I still fish my Ethos spinning rod.  Upgraded the reel but the rod is a great and works well for what you're wanting.  Both found on Academy's site. Hope this helps.

This is the exact combo I was going to suggest and one that I personally own a couple times over. If you get the Ethos on sale they go for 40-50 so you can get pretty close to $100 for the combo. 

[TorqueConverter]

On the Daiwa Procayon.  I've got a 6'6'' medium spinning and it's not that great.  It's been a good versatile workhorse rod and I've caught a bunch of fish on it, but it's fairly tip heavy in balance, somewhat moderate in action and the aluminum knurled  portion of the lock nut came unglued and clangs around on the ribbed blank as it slides up and down the shaft.  Really need to re-glue that now that I mention it..  For $60 I'd look elsewhere.  What exactly?  Sale priced stuff from TW and some well thought of house brand stuff.      

[I.rar]

On the Daiwa Procayon. I've got a 6'6'' medium spinning and it's not that great. It's been a good versatile workhorse rod and I've caught a bunch of fish on it, but it's fairly tip heavy in balance, somewhat moderate in action and the aluminum knurled portion of the lock nut came unglued and clangs around on the ribbed blank as it slides up and down the shaft. Really need to re-glue that now that I mention it.. For $60 I'd look elsewhere. What exactly? Sale priced stuff from TW and some well thought of house brand stuff.

Do you have the current model or one of the older cork handled rods with Fuji guides and seats? Two totally different rods....

This is what I was referring to

http://www.daiwa.com/rod/detail.aspx?id=248

[Jaderose]

Another vote for the President...pair it up with whatever rod feels right to you.  Any of the above choices are good ones

[Raul]

My most "budget" spinning setup is:

 

Shimano Clarus 6´6" MH XFast + Shimano Sahara 2500 = $ 140 

 

That was what I paid, I do have "nicer" more "not so budgety" spinning gear setups but this one is really a good one.

[tje0705]

I have a cabelas tournament trail 7 ML spinning rod which is on sale for 45$ right now and a cabelas tournament zx spinning reel ( it's an older one I got on sale for 49$) that I use for wack rig and weightless worm fishing and it has worked very well for me.

[Racerx]

My budget spinner's probably gonne be a Shimano Sienna, or Pfleuger President or Trion on either a Berkley Cherrywood HD or Field And Stream Inferno rod. I DID have my first Berkley snap about 1-2 feet up from the tip, but they replaced it, and, so far, she's still intact.

 

Sending 3 kids to Catholic school kills my budget.  Ironically, it's fishing that helps with my nerves from the school's sticker shock!

[FloridaFishinFool]

I would suggest to make your money go farther, rather than buy brand new, you might consider buying used gear. ebay is a good place to find some good deals from time to time.

 

Another place I find some really nice gear for decent prices is in pawn shops. And with pawn shops you can haggle over price too especially when paying in cash.

 

I recently scored big time in a pawn shop find when I found a custom made spinning rod by a deceased rod builder from here in Florida. He only used G-loomis rod blanks in all of his custom rod builds. Whoever sold this rod to the pawn shop obviously did not know what they had because it had a cheap spinning reel on it. I scored this rod for like $12.00 cash.

 

What I discovered about the pawn shops in my area is that they price the rods and reels that come into their shops based mainly on the reels. Those they can look up, but certain rods, like this custom rod, is not really searchable online for pawn shops to find something to compare it to for pricing. So they usually go with pricing by just the reels. So this works in the buyer's favor.

 

And a few years ago I scored another fantastic rod made by kistler, a $200 plus rod with a cheap reel on it. I bought the whole thing for like $17.00 cash and had to really contain my excitement walking out the door so I could hoop and holler out there in the parking lot for another great score.

 

If I had to pay new retail on just these two rods I'd be looking at close to $500, but because most pawn shop employees are clueless about the rods, they ignore the rods for the most part and focus on the reels to do their business deals and you can use this to your advantage same as I have and continue to do on a regular basis. So that is about $500 worth of high end rods for about $30. What is not to love here?

 

I have also scored some rare reels this way too.

 

Pawn shops are not so concerned with what the real world value is of an item. They have a margin of markup they want to make off an item that comes in their door. So if they have a $300 rod they paid $20 bucks for, the pawn shop is happy if they make their markup margin and you still get a good deal.

 

I'm an old rod and reel repair tech, been doing it for more than 30 years. So I really save a ton of dough buying broken reels. I avoid broken rods if the blank is broken, but reels I clean up on and make some decent side money on them. I just recently scored a $200 reel on ebay for $15.50. The only thing wrong with it is it is missing the spool. I have 6 of the spools on the shelf right now, so no big deal. No one wanted to bid on it. So thanks! I do this all the time buying broken reels usually for less than $10, repairing them myself and reselling them. I then use the profit to buy tackle, boat fuel, etc. This reel I just purchased cost me $15.50 for the reel, the spools were like $2.00 each off ebay and I can resell this reel for close to $100 doing virtually nothing to it. $80 in my pocket for 1 trip to the post office to mail it out.

 

So don't ignore the used gear market! Pawn shops and ebay are great places to find nice gear for decent prices. It is a way for you to have a $300 reel and $300 rod for under $50 as a typical scenario can go...

[FloridaFishinFool]

I completely forgot to mention another great way to find great fishing gear cheap is garage sales and estate sales.

 

I am fortunate to live in central Florida the fishing capitol of the world and also fishing equipment capitol too! Hunting down great fishing gear in BF Kansas or Oklahoma would be like trying to find a needle in 2 haystacks, but living around these parts tons of fishing gear goes with the fishing environment. So this is a definitely plus for me.

 

But when it comes to looking for great gear at great prices, it pays to do your homework on location. Location is everything. I would not be driving to poor neighborhoods to stop at their garage sales hoping to find high end gear. It is possible, but more than likely not going to happen. So what I do is focus on only the extremely wealthy neighborhoods. And in the Orlando area, for me, this is Winter Park. It is a community with multi-millionaires living side by side.

 

These people are your doctors and lawyers and brain surgeon types of rich people who can easily afford top end gear. So when they have a garage sale or one of them kicks the bucket and have an estate sale, make it a point to be there! I do! And it has totally changed my fishing gear trajectory too.

 

For example, some 20 plus years ago I went to a garage sale where some ticked off angry divorced wife was unloading his fishing gear in her garage sale. Top end custom made rods for like $3.00 each. She just wanted them gone- along with him too!

 

One of the rods I purchased that day was already years old at the time. It was a custom made spiral wrapped 7 foot baitcast rod. I had never seen one before. I had no clue. That one rod changed my way of thinking forever. I loved it so much that I began a process of converting most of my own baitcast rods over to spiral wrapped rods. And to this day I only do spiral wraps. I will not ever put guides on top of a rod again. No reason to. To me, putting guides on top of a baitcast rod is like violating the laws of Nature and physics. So if I am going to put guides on a baitcast rod they are going to be spiral wrapped or nothing. So in the last 20 years I have not done anything but spiral wrapped rods.

 

So there is no telling how random searches in garage sales and estate sales can benefit you!

[FSUFish]

If I was getting a spinning combo for $100-120 and only using it for bass, I'd buy a Shimano Sienna or Solstace for $30/40, and spend the rest on a good rod. And a good rod means whatever rod in your price range feels best in your hands. I used a Shimano Clarus(back when they were $70) and a Sienna 2500 for years with 10# PowerPro.