What was your least favorite combo?

[Ryanralston07]

We’ve all done it; we’ve put together a combo we didn’t like whether it be the reel, rod, or line, or a combination of it all. 
 

I’ll start: Old school Basspro XPS round baitcaster with BP colorful fluorocarbon on a BP 6’6” MH/F. I couldn’t cast anything with that setup. The reel constantly backlashed and the line had so much memory it wasn’t funny, plus the rod was as stiff as could be. ?

[bulldog1935]

I gave away an Okuma round reel and a Lew's Custom inshore dual brake.  

The Okuma cast mono well enough, but the brake changed between cold start and use-warm - then changed again -always kept you guessing.  

Along the way picked up a Tica Caiman and carried it as a back-up for inshore.  

The day I needed it, discovered it wouldn't cast 1/4 oz for boo.  

Found good use for it on inexpensive offshore slow jigging rod where it could cast 1 to 4 oz.  

 

Also had two Lew's centrifugal brake reels that I discovered inshore just doesn't have a niche for that brake - excellent condition, and easy to sell in the '20-'21 tackle crunch.  

edit - Lower posts on the thread reminded me of another reel I gave away back in the early 90s - the Lew's spinning reel was a plastic version of Zebco Cardinal, and absolutely flopped in the breeze.  

[MediumMouthBass]

I have some higher end stuff (not jdm higher end) but i bought a cheap budget Abu Garcia Max X, because my first baitcaster was the Black Max that many of us have, it was supposed to be the newer and better version of the budget combo, but no. This combo is terrible, i know these are budget combos but, the max x is just cheap, really cheap. Aside from that i bought a Lews Carbon Fire baitcasting combo used awhile ago, really cool rod and reel, just dont want to use it because of how many bad reviews the rods and reels have of failing, so money wasted there.

[optimator]

I’ve got a Dobyns Fury 735C & 795SB that I’m not very fond of. They’re ok but not great. 

[waymont]

Not a combo, but a rod.

the old St Croix Legend Bass casting rod I had. Any reel I put on it, it was so tip heavy my wrist would hurt after two hours of fishing. I sold it after three time out, couldn’t deal with it.

[Bird]

Quantum spinning! Just terrible.

[Lmbasshunter]

St croix premier casting rod. Couldn’t stand that bulky foregrip

[MN Fisher]

17 minutes ago, Bird said:

Quantum spinning! Just terrible.

Quantum Nitrous baitcaster - the rod I put it on was alright...the reel sucked.

[J Francho]

Hmm, never really didn't like any that I bought. What I really disliked was every single Kistler eventually snapping on fish. It took a couple years but I managed to snap all five of them. They were very light and crisp rods and a joy to fish before they broke. 

[optimator]

5 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Hmm, never really didn't like any that I bought. What I really disliked was every single Kistler eventually snapping on fish. It took a couple years but I managed to snap all five of them. They were very light and crisp rods and a joy to fish before they broke. 

What model Kistlers? NFC blanks?

[J Francho]

Way before that, around 2010. I think they were Heliums. 

[FishTank]

I had a few but one that comes to mind that always hurt my hands and raised my blood pressure was a St.Croix rod with the power hump and a Quantum Tour PT with shinny blue finish. The rod killed my hand and reel would backlash at will plus the coating came off after some light use. 

[WRB]

I bought a Abu Black Max for me son in 1990, horrible reel!

Put an older Ryobi V spool reel on a Lewis Dave Frits crankbait rod and he loved it.

Line goes to Techtan Copolymer, cost a night tournament with it’s low impact strength?

Tom

[casts_by_fly]

A rod and one I still own. I loved my falcon bucoo 7’ heavy (3/8-1, heavy fast).  I was upgrading all my rods to the expert equivalent and bought the 7’ 6-power 3/8-1. Turns out the expert version is a moderate action and much closer to a 1/2 oz crank bait rod than what I was looking for. It’s a great rod if you like a more moderate action for chatterbaits and similar. But it just wasn’t what I wanted and it was all my fault for not reading the description well enough. 

[Catt]

Zebco 202 ?

 

Wore me out throwing a H&H spinnerbait. 

[Cbump]

Fury 795sb with custom super tuned Abu 5600. Was supposed to be my big swimbait/a-rig setup. Not enjoyable to throw. Sold It. 
 

GLX 844 MBR. Not sure why, just didn’t like this Rod. 
 

Stradic and Tatula Elite AGS Rod. Nice but I hate spinning rods in general so this was too high end of a spinning setup for me. I sold It and got another sweet bc setup. 

[GetFishorDieTryin]

The only reels I had bad luck with or jus didnt like were Penn Battles (1 and 2).  The line lay was so bad, I couldnt use it in the dark unless I wanted to turn my lamp on and check the spool every half dozen casts.  If you didnt do that often you would make a far cast, get an epic wind knot and break the plug off.

As for rods it a tie between 7 MH F SLX and 6'10 ML Victory.  The SLX is just a super stiff pool cue thats incredibly tip heavy.  Its fairly sensitive for the price though.

The 6'10 Victory feels great, super light and has a good action.  The tip is softer, but there is more power on the lower end then previous SCs.  The issue with the 6'10 is that it has very little sensitivity.  I can hardly feel a tungsten DS weight on gravel and being a finesse rod that's just unacceptable, especially with the price.  Its not much better then an ugly stick feedback wise.  The 7'3 M doesnt have that issue.  I think SC put too much glass in the tip and it just dampens all that vibration.  Its not relegated to JB and crankbaits.

[islandbass]

Only one rod stands out. I bought back when I was still a newbie who was watching just about every fishing show to learn as much as possible and find that “magic” lure, rod, etc. 

 

and boy was I gullible. It was Canadian sport fishing with Italo. I was too green to realize these shows while giving good advice and tips were also a way to convince us to buy gear. 
 

He pushed a lot of Rapala stuff and the spinning reel 6 Sxi or something like that was a stellar reel. He then convinced me to buy a Rapala sportsmen’s classic rod. It was a 2-piece 6’6”, medium powered rod. I was so exited to buy it for only $29.99, lol. I knew it wasn’t going to have GLX sensitivity, but I was still stoked. It turns out it was the WORST rod in the sensitivity department. You know a rod’s sensitivity is bad when an ugly stik feels more sensitive. On the positive side, it had a lot of power and i learned it could handle salmon quite well. 
 

I still have it and it serves me in two ways:

 

1) A guest rod for the visiting family member or friend for just about any local species. My dad used it to catch pink and coho salmon. 
2) Squid jogging rod

 

Otherwise, it collects dust. 

[Columbia Craw]

I had two Fenwick Techna series rods with first generation Revos. Heavy, dead unbalanced and just awful. Gave them to some kids.  I also had a Lamiglas 806 Skeet Reese flipping stick.  The tip was so heavy it felt like holding a garden rake. Gave that to young guy who jetty fished with it.  I also had three Lamiglas XMG50 704C rods and broke all three in the exact same spot. Disappointing as I had many awesome Lamiglas rods after.

[BrianMDTX]

11 hours ago, Bird said:

Quantum spinning! Just terrible.

Don’t recall the rod, but the Quantum spinning reel I had on it was horrible. Geary, crappy drag, constantly snarled line. I didn’t throw it away. I smashed it into pieces and then threw it away to make sure it couldn’t return without my knowledge. 

[the reel ess]

7 minutes ago, BrianMDTX said:

Don’t recall the rod, but the Quantum spinning reel I had on it was horrible. Geary, crappy drag, constantly snarled line. I didn’t throw it away. I smashed it into pieces and then threw it away to make sure it couldn’t return without my knowledge. 

One of those Quantum spinning reels with the trigger bail flip. It came off and the bail was out of balance forever. I was broke at the time so I just made it my crappie combo. I also had a heavy Quantum BC 6'0" pistol grip rod. It was too stiff to cast one handed, but you couldn't get another hand on it. If you looked down the blank you could see it was not very straight. It got little use and eventually I gave it away.

[bowhunter63]

The Quantum hyper cast. I had several other names for it. One evening after several backlashes it went flying into the River. Grabbed my old Mitchel and started fishing 

[Tatulatard]

50 minutes ago, bowhunter63 said:

The Quantum hyper cast. I had several other names for it. One evening after several backlashes it went flying into the River. Grabbed my old Mitchel and started fishing 

The culprit was the the near 90° bend in the bail wire that would catch braid and hang up.  I had one of these that would do the exact same thing.

[Junk Fisherman]

Dobyns Champion 763 SF

 

Just too much rod.  Too heavy.  Give me my light baitcaster setup before going to a 3 power Dobyns spinning rod.  

[BrianMDTX]

1 hour ago, bowhunter63 said:

The Quantum hyper cast. I had several other names for it. One evening after several backlashes it went flying into the River. Grabbed my old Mitchel and started fishing 

That’s it! I took extreme pleasure crushing it beyond all recognition!