Are you brand loyal ?

[J Francho]

Getting tackle for review has opened my eyes for some companies and yet also confirmed my biases for others.  No one is truly trying to sell you junk, but you have to realize the what the product's purpose is.  A $40 baitcaster just isn't gonna hold up to more than occasional use.  A $600 spinning reel isn't six times better than a $100 reel.  As far as baits go, I like to use baits that are original, or unique to that company.  Ragetail, GYCB, Lucky Craft, Jackall, and Roboworm are a few that come to mind.  I've been very loyal when it comes to Seaguar.  Their products, and specifically fluorocarbon line,  have shined for me long before they became a sponsor.  I'm also pretty invested in St. Croix, having over three dozen from various ranges - some are over 20 years old now!  That all isn't to say that I don't try new options.  Pinnacle was putting out some seriously nice rods a few years ago.  Okuma continues to please me with excellent rods and reels.  Spro and Fish Labs have both really expanded their lines to a point where you could pick one you like, and they would cover all your bases. Jigs....  Siebert all day long, and for many years.  No need to go anywhere else for them.

 

So, yes I'm brand loyal.  That loyalty doesn't come with blind faith in the product.  The companies I'm loyal to have made mistakes, but always learn from them and those mistakes end up improving future product.  Those are the companies that deserve my loyalty.

[roadwarrior]

Well said...

 

 

                                                                  

[Skunkmaster-k]

1 hour ago, Deleted account said:

I think I hear a banjo, but it's hard to tell cause the waterfall is drowning it out...

How dare you. 

[TnRiver46]

I prefer around Ambassadeur baitcasters 

[Deleted account]

36 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I prefer around Ambassadeur baitcasters 

I prefer around Brazilian lingerie models

[Darth-Baiter]

not so much fishing stuff.

 

but Apple products, yea.  

 

rods.  I do have Megabass dreams, but only a Dobyns budget.  

[CrashVector]

Not really...I use what works.

 

Most of my equipment is Abu Garcia simply because I know what I'm getting when I buy it: top tier performance.  All of my high end combos are Garcia.

 

However, I have multiple brands of rods and reels: Shimano, diawa, Pflueger, etc.

 

The only brand im loyal to is the brand of braided line I use: Hercules.  I won't use any other brand.

 

Lure wise, I have lures from all different brands, from Ozark trail (Wal-Mart), to Berkley to rapala.

[Kelvin]

Reels are always Daiwa or Shimano for round reels or low profile baitcasters.  The rest that I've used are lacking the only exceptions would be a high end abu garcia made in sweden.   

 

Rods are a wide range.  Lean towards G Loomis, high end shimanos, Falcon and ironically my favorite is a Gander Mountain trout special....finesse rod that can punch above its weight.  

 

Megabass is my first choice for hardbaits.  Nothing comes close to a vision 110 or vision jr.   

 

Jackhammer or OG chatterbait.  Trailers are hogfarmer or zako.

 

Soft plastics.  Yamamoto, Megabass, Jackall, Gancraft, Keitech, Reaction Innovations, Zoom.

 

Spinnerbaits are from War Eagle. 

 

Braid is YGK, varivas or Gosen 16.  Fluro is Seaguar tatsu or Sniper invisible. 

 

In general if its not on the higher end or a JDM I won't have any confidence in it and then give up on it fast. Didn't say it was logical.  Just is. 

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Cannot stand Kastking, Googan anything (complete crap) Gambler (they smell like death) Lews, 13 Fishing, Eagle claw. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gorris317]

Not brand loyal but little OCD. Try to have all my reels from the same company and rods from the same lineup to stay consistent. 

 

[Manifestgtr]

I’m incredibly brand-loyal…shimano, loomis and st croix…that’s basically it. 
 

It’s simply because I know exactly how my stuff feels, how it operates and if I’m going to add a new combo, how it will likely feel once I’m out on the water. It has nothing to do with believing this stuff is the best in the world (although in some cases, such as the conquest, I think you would at least have a solid argument). 
 

Even if it’s not via brand loyalty, there’s something to be said for consistency and predictability. That’s the only real value in brand loyalty, imo. This “daiwa vs shimano!” stuff doesn’t interest me and picking teams gets annoying quickly. That’s the aspect of brand loyalty that I’ll never take part it. 

[jitterbug127]

I like shimano baitcasters, pflueger spinning reels and fenwick rods for my bass gear.

 

I like Abu Garcia baitcasters and ugly stik for my catfish rods. I like specific products companies make more than actual brand loyalty. 
 

I buy pretty much the same lures and soft plastics all the time too. 

[PourMyOwn]

I'm slowly moving all of my reels to Daiwa, but that's mostly because I love the TDX and TDZ reels. I have some Shimanos, Lews and even Ryobis that I like, but unless a Curado 200E comes along I'm done buying anything else. 

 

Rods are all over the place.

 

90% of my soft plastics and jigs are made by me, with tungsten and Zman being the exceptions.  

 

There's a handful of brands I avoid like the plague, but anything else is fair game.

[Eric 26]

I am definitely not brand loyal, I have 7 different brands of reels and probably 10 different brands of rods. Monofilament I prefer McCoy mean green or Suffix Advance but I’ve used way to many different brands to list. If I were forced into being brand loyal on anything it would probably be Okuma rods as I really feel the 2 I have are far nicer than I paid for them.

[Bird]

56 minutes ago, Eric 26 said:

I am definitely not brand loyal, I have 7 different brands of reels and probably 10 different brands of rods. Monofilament I prefer McCoy mean green or Suffix Advance but I’ve used way to many different brands to list. If I were forced into being brand loyal on anything it would probably be Okuma rods as I really feel the 2 I have are far nicer than I paid for them.

Their reels feel better than the price point as well.

[Spankey]

I don’t fish for a living. I don’t have manufacturers giving me freebies. Over all the years it’s been a lot of live and learn, trial and error (still trial and error to this day). During this time I sort of become loyal to some brands because they work or sort of have given good results. I’m a Shimano fanboy as well as one of St. Croix. Will continue to be but, more recently (last few years) I’ve been fishing some Abu Garcia stuff geared toward crankbait fishing. Has worked out well. 

[txchaser]

For me there's two scenarios

 

1) It's unlikely to get better so I'm going to keep buying it (tatsu, grip pin hooks, zillion, zman chatterbaits) - mostly in options with a lot of choice. I'll occassionaly try something new here for kicks but usually pretty low reward. Mostly markets with a lot of competition with small detail differences, and where most of the product expectations are consistent with the price point. 

 

2) it's less about loyalty and more about who has earned the right to get dibs on consideration. A good example here - Kistler and Daiwa get first shot at rods - if they have the action/length/blank/etc I'm looking for I'll just buy theirs, but if they don't have just what I'm looking for they'll get a shot. Kistler mostly for fast action higher end and Daiwa for mid price moving bait rods. Both have been on the extra-nice end of warranty work and replacement policy, and IMO fish well above the price point, espcially the heliums on sale. At this point my non K/D rods are outliers, like iRod for a frog rod because I wanted the tip it has on it.

6th sense gets this for crankbaits from me - I'll try theirs first as I know it's going to be well-made, and built for the kind of cover and size of fish in my neck of the woods. I'll often buy other brands here, but I probably bought the 6th sense version first, and will buy another brand to solve something specific like a silent mid-depth crank.

 

Soft plastics, all this goes out the window, I'll try anything ... and it's a problem. The barrier to entry to try a new bag of X is so low, I'm a sucker for a new idea. Sometimes it pays off, mostly it just adds weight.

 

[DogBone_384]

I'm brand loyal for rods.  Kistler, specifically.

 

Reels, baits, lines, and terminal tackle, no.

[KP Duty]

I was 'Loomis only' from '01-'19.  Every rod I tried that was 'as sensitive as a glx' wasn't.  Still love Loomis, but I have some other rods now that can hang close.

[Gera]

I'm only loyal to Diet Coke, Marlboro and Modelo Especial. Everything else is up to the best option, there are so many good brands and gear to use that it it makes no sense to me being stuck with one brand. I usually buy combos because I want them not really because I need them so why always buy the same?? Also, I feel that in order to love something you need to use others to compare. 

 

I have no loyalty to them.. they are not loyal to me either anyway... of course If they paid me for fishing I've happy using Zebcos

 

 

 

[Boomstick]

I'm admittedly a Daiwa fan boy. I do own a couple of St Croix rods and a Pflueger reel and I keep thinking about adding a Shimano reel for bomb casting crankbaits, but most of my rods and reels are Daiwa.

[ska4fun]

I'm usually more fond of daiwa and doyo, sometimes even banax reels, over Shimano.

 

The way Shimano decreased the overall quality of its reels is just astonishing, even in the high-end line, like Stella series.

 

Yet, I have more Shimano reels just because I love the calcutta/conquest series, having all of the 51-size series. I don't like the Cq BFS, since it is quality don't gets even closer to the old Conquest series.

[roadwarrior]

2 hours ago, ska4fun said:

The way Shimano decreased the overall quality of its reels is just astonishing, even in the high-end line, like Stella series.

I don't agree at all. I have been fishing Shimano for 25 years, including every Stella series reel, 

both 1000 and 2500. For me they feel like "kitty cat" in my hand.

[Randy Price]

I guess I'm pretty brand loyal.  Rods - almost exclusively St. Croix.  Reels (both spinning and BC) almost entirely Shimano but I have a few Daiwa spinning reels.

[MN Fisher]

I get

1: What I can afford

2: What works well.

 

Spinning reels - Pflueger and Mitchell have been my mainstays, but now I'm branching out into Lews (for crappie rigs) and Shimano (bass rigs)

Spinning rods - Dobyns and Okuma for the most part though Daiwa has been in there too.

Casting Reels - Pflueger and Daiwa

Casting Rods - Dobyns and Daiwa until this year - getting three St Croix for next year.

[ska4fun]

1 hour ago, roadwarrior said:

I don't agree at all. I have been fishing Shimano for 25 years, including every Stella series reel, 

both 1000 and 2500. For me they feel like "kitty cat" in my hand.

 

How do you explain the infamous Metanium  buzz, the chronic fatigue on pre-2020 duralumin gearing?

 

Could you tell me about the cheap AR clutch Shimano is using since the Stella 2019?

 

The problematic Curado K and its low quality disengaging system springs?

 

Have you ever saw a Shimano Socorro internals? A cheap reel sold as mid-range reel.