Orvis has their 8-wt , 9-ft for $225.00 Should be a good rod for what your hunting for .

Clearwater 8-wt , 9-ft

The clearwaters are good rods for the money, but for that money I'd defnintely try out a TFO BVK too. (I have two Clearwaters 5wt & 7wt and two BVKs 6wt & 8wt)

If you have a 5 wt I'd definitely would go with an 8 weight for Texas. Like most I started with a 9' 5 weight and then picked up a 3 wt and then a 4 wt, then a 6wt and then a 7 wt before finally getting an 8 wt.

Today 90%+ of my fishing in Texas is done with the 5 or 8 wt. LOL

Of course a good 8 wt is perfect for most red fish, but that also opens you up to big carp, striper and tossing awesome big bass bugs with ease.

I have Orvis Clearwaters in 7 and 9 weight. They are very good rods and they have the 25 year warranty. The TFO BVK was rated almost the same as the Orvis Helios 2 on the Yellowstone Angler Shootout but the BVK has a reputation of breaking easily. On the TFO website it shows the BVK as very low on lifting power. The reason the BVK did so well was that it got points for being cheap and it casts a long way out there. They rated it very high for casting 100 feet. It seems to me that the guys who did the Yellowstone Shootout were rating the rods based on bone fishing and little else.

Trust me, they all break, that's fishing and the outdoors for you. If you have not broken one yet, you are not fishing enough! LOL
I've snapped an $800+ Winston and even a bamboo rod my great grandfather built (yes tears were shed on both occassions) I've also snapped the tip on one clearwater and managed to break the other one at the rod seat (Slipped and dropped it about 9' where the reel smacked a rock perfectly on the reel)

Somehow have not broken my BVK's yet. However, I think there is absolute truth to this. To get the rod that light with mid grade materials, the walls had to be made extrmelely thin. Impacts to these walls ( Like a lead eyed clouser hitting it at 50mph) very likely can leed to weaknesses that later give way under lighter than expected stress.

I have broken other TFO Rods and I must say that the warranty service with both companies was awesome. TFO was faster about a week (they are here in Texas) , Orvis was cheaper and I think they threw in a new rod tube in both cases, but took something like 3 weeks to get it done.

I have had a wide range of rods in my soon to be 47 years and of life. I have yet to have a rod break for any other reason than my own stupidity. The ones I have broken are from ceiling fans, vacuum cleaner, 2 by way of a 18 pound tom cat and 3 by way of car/truck doors and windows. For lack of a better term $!!t happens. TFO has the best warranty that I know of, and for that reason all of my rods are now TFO minus my one Tenkara rod. In my possession at the moment are 3wt BVK, 5wt Axiom, 5wt Casting for Recovery, (pro II), and a 7wt BVK.

Broke a tip on a H2, cost 30 and 8weeks to get it
Broke a TFO BVK, cost 15, they replaced it that day!
Just my experience!

I broke the tip on my clearwater 7 weight. I had it back in a week. I hope I didn't jinx myself with my BVK.