Walmart rods and Amazon/Aliexpress reels

[Bigbox99]

I wanted to put together the cheapest around $100 rod and reel combos for jigs, worm, punch and frog and another for heavier moving baits like chatterbaits, ploppers, buzzbaits and 6 inch magdrafts ect.  I wanted to get as much quality as I could while still only paying cheap pre-built combo reel/rod prices.  

 

Those God awful plastic reels on wimpy but heavy cheap rods are a plague in the big box stores.  Everyone makes a combo and they are pretty awful compared to what someone with some know how can put together so I wanted to try my hand at it to get some familiarity with the gear to recommend it to newer angers looking at these cheap $80 to $129 combos that I personally find to be rip offs.

 

2 years later and now I can give my impressions on these two.  I don't use them every outing but I rotated them into my normally higher end stuff as a direct replacement for one of the higher end combos and fish it.

 

The jig, worm, frog and punching combo: 

 

Rod: This is silver Lews Hank Parker rod with a Piscifun Alloy M.  Both can be found for around $53 at times.  My rod is the older silver color but the current rods are the same blank.  The rod has very stiff and slow loading tip for a MH that gives it a tremendous amount of hook setting power for a MH and fishes like a 7' H flipping stick.   I've punched 1 oz tungsten with it with no issues and it is absolutely capable of 1/2 jigs.  It's a very light and well balanced rod too.  It feels and balances out better in hand than my last gen Tatula Elite 73MH.  Its not as versatile or sensitive as the Tatula Elite but it balances out great and feels really good pitching jigs to cover and sticking fish.  The low end rating of 1/4 oz is nonsense since it can't even cast a 3/8 oz 5" senko well.  It's a stiff rod.  If you want to get into jig fishing and want a cheap rod to try it out I recommend this one.  

 

Reel: This is the Piscifun Alloy M.  It's an aluminum frame compact 32mm spool reel with a lighter weight spool and a long 100+ handle on it.  I run no spool tension on my reels and this one is a little fast but still an adequate caster with braid.  I didn't like the way it handled unconditioned fluorocarbon line with no spool tension but it's good with braid.  I have no problem pitching to cover and then turning around and making a longer cast.  It's best attributes are it's compact, good paming shape, long handle and light weight.  

 

Heavier bait moving bait combo:

 

Rod: This is the 7 foot MH Lightning Rod.  It's an interesting rod.  It's pretty powerful and rated only down to 1/2 oz which I believe is accurate.  I use it for 3/8 oz and 1/2 oz chatterbaits, buzzbaits, plopper 110, buzzplugs and cullshads with 1/4 oz of nail weights added.  This makes it a 1/2 oz to 1 and 1/4 oz bait rod and it's been pretty good.  Like the Lews MH it's also a stiffer MH that really isn't an "all around" but compared to the Lews it's softer and able to do treble hook and single hook moving bait work.  It think it's a lower modulus or cheaper graphite rod than the Lews but it's pretty forgiving for a powerful graphite rod probably thanks to that cheaper graphite so I'm not complaining.  It's not as well balanced or light weight as the Lews but it's a tip down and wind rod so I don't care.  I've been using 15# Big Game for line.

 

Reel: this is the last gen 34mm spool Histar Black Mamba.  There is a newer one out with a 32mm spool and longer handle that also has an aluminum frame and handle side plate with a double supported pinion.  The old reel is still sold along side the new reel with both sometimes being as low as $50.  It's a solid reeling aluminum frame reel with an aluminum handle side plate.  You can wind in high resistance baits and it doesn't have loss of winding power under load like you get with the cheap plastic frame reels.  It's a very solid feeling and nice casting reel.  The conical level wind is quite far out in front of the reel giving it a Tatula or Fuego CT like palming shape.  The smoothness is average to below average.  It was nice out of the box but after 2 years mine has a gritty feeling that I am sure is one of the pinion bearings.  Not a big deal if you know how to size bearings, service reels ect.  These run as low as $50 on Aliexpress but the Tatula 150 is as low as $100 there as is the 24 Tatula.  Both of those are also aluminum frame reels with aluminum handle side plates to put things into perspective.

In conclusion both rods are great.  If you want a cheap jig and flipping stick then get the Lews HP if you don't mind a 7 foot rod.  Forget that it says MH on it.  The Alloy M is a decent reel to pair to it for under $60 too.  The 7 foot MH Lightning Rod is a good cheap rod for chatterbaits, buzzbaits ect and can even fish 6 inch magdrafts.  Maybe it is because I am a reel snob when it comes to moving baits and winding under load but would encourage up moving to a Fuego CT or Tatula.  The Histar Black Mamba is functional but not nice enough for me.  That's just me because I know people that fish spinnerbaits on plastic Royal Legends with spool tension that would make me vomit after one crank so your mileage may vary. 

[Bird]

For cheap reel - Okuma Ceymar 

Cheap rod - Ugly stick Carbon...... about the best you can do for a little over $100

[r83srock]

Nice review! 
 

I have 3 of the 7’mh HP Lews rods as well as the 6’10” m casting and spinning. I like em’. 
 

I’ve used the MH models for jigs, frogs, t rigs, buzzbaits, big spinnerbaits/a-rigs. I have Abu max stx reels on mine with 15lb big game. They share the same space in my rod locker as my Shimano/st. Croix combos. 
 

I have the lightning rod in 7’ M with Abu max x and 12lb big game. This is my trap/crankbait rod and works perfect.

[Obi_Wan]

Academy Sports sells some good cheap reels.  I really like the cheap Lew's combos from Wal-Mart.  I use them in the river so I don't have to worry about losing one. (let my nephew borrow a combo and he ended up throwing it in the river because he doesn't pay attention and doesn't care about other people's stuff until its too late).  Lew's wal mart combo has never let me down.