3 rod aresenal

[Blake Burns]

Looking to build my girlfriend a 3 spinning rod and reel arsenal. She currently has a 6ft medium lighting rod with a lews American hero reel. I need two more combo preferably around 100-150 each to compliment the one she already has. She's only 4ft 9 and prefers a 6ft rod, 6ft 6 is pushing it. What should I get her? 

[J Francho]

Kent put a great thread up in the stickies:

Just go shorter by a bit, but stick to the power and action recommended.

[fishnkamp]

Welcome to the site, there are a lot of good people willing to share their knowledge and experience here.  

My wife is 4'11 1/2 so I feel you.  First lets choose a reel and for the max bang for the buck get her two Pflueger Presidents and make them 6930s, it will feel good in her smaller hands and they are as reliable as a reel gets. They will cost $60 each.  Between myself and my wife we have had a bunch of other reels and now have changed all 9 spinning reels for bass to Presidents. Some of ours are less than 1 year old and some are over 10 years old. We have 1 other newer reel and it is a Shimano that cost a lot more, but it was specifically purchased to give us a high speed reel for frogging.

For a rod  consider two price groups.  First under $90 and second the $100 to $130 range. I know this would be just a tad over your intended budget but one rod over it may be worth it for covering all bases.

I think her Berkley rod is fine for throwing some light finesse type stuff like Sencos, grubs or tubes.

Her next need should be a little heavier rod with a soft tapered action for treble baits I would consider another Berkley rod. It is a Berkley Lightning rod Shock series. Get the 6'6"medium it is a moderate action rod perfect for rattle traps and crankbaits. This rod will also allow her to fish some jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and light bodied minnow baits like Rapalas as well.  This rod will cost you around $50 unless the local Walmart is closing them out for the season, then it will be around $30. Another good option in this price range would be an Abu garcia Vendetta in a 6'3"MMF, they run around $75 from Dicks or Tackle Warehouse and of course any of these may be available cheaper from other online sources.  For this purpose in a higher price rod I would consider an Abu Garcia Veritas 6'6" Med, it runs $100. Lastly I would consider a Falcon Bucoo 6'6" Medium which will also run around $100.

The third rod should throw worms, jigs, carolina rigs etc,  This would be a workhorse of a rod.  Again look at an Abu but this time the Veritas 6'6 MH, Another good choice is a Fenwick HMX 6"10 MH which runs 1/4 to 1 ounce. It costs $89.   I know she wants to stay with a shorter rod but it is worth it for some techniques to have the longer rod. My wife's rods are all  6'6" or less  except for her frog rod and it is a 7 footer. It is an Irod and is so light she got used to it quickly, no choice if you want to throw frogs.  One more option for this rod would be Carrot Stix Wild Wild Orange Spinning Rod 6'7" Med Hvy also from TW for $100.

This would give her three distinct combos to cover most techniques and each of these suggestions, with the exception of the Carrot Stix, I have either fished with or own and fish with. All of them are quality pieces that should provide good service for quite a while. You are a lucky man if she appreciates spending time enjoying this hobby with you. We dated all thru high school and college and after i introduced her to panfish and then river smallmouth she became addicted to fishing. We have owned 11 boats over 40 years along with a ton of tackle. I get to fish lakes all over the US with her and get to employ some amazing guides at each lake as well. The funniest thing was for one of our anniversaries I offered to get her a diamond necklace or another  G Loomis rod. She chose the rod. LOL True story !!  It was a 6' GL2 721 which she still loves to fish with. I have left you with a bunch of research to do, let me know what you think. lso where do you live? Anywhere near the mid Atlantic?

 

[Blake Burns]

Thank you for all that information. I was already considering the presidents and vendetta/vertias just wanted to see what other suggestions came up. Not quite mid Atlantic I live in South Carolina 

[fishnkamp]

Too bad if you were Md, Va, PA, pd DE I was going to offer to put some rods in her hands. I is really getting hard to find the right actions in a 6 or 61/2 footer.