When I do my saltwater fishing, I always use two rods. A 10' St.Croix Triumph Surf rod with a Penn battle 4000 spinning reel. And an older 6'6" shakespeare rod with a 5 bearing shimano reel. first rod and reel I bought on my own when I was 8(that was back in 98). felt special buying a reel from the academy glass case haha.

Anyways broke the tip off the good ol' shakespeare and the reel is finally wearing out. I have a brand new 7' st. croix bait casting rod with a abu garcia ambassador reel, but i am only using that for freshwater.
So im gonna fix the shakespeare rod, and give it a really good cleaning and retire it to my closet. now i need something else!

Onto the question. What would you guys say would be a great rod and reel set up? im planing on spending around 200 bucks.
I will mostly use this for artificials, and live shrimp.
Main target are sport fish(trout, reds, flounder,etc.)
I also prefer spinning reels for saltwater because I feel they are easier to control and fix.

Any help would be appreciated!

Woodee ProSeries Rod $100
US Reels Salt 1 Reel or and old green curado off ebay... still one of the best options and most durable within you price budget. I can cast my salt 1 further than any real i've ever owned.

DAIWA WHISKER SS TOURNAMENT 1300,one of the best spinning reel(price/quality)for salt water(long cast aluminum spool, fine drag, SIC-SILICON CARBIDE-line roller,bronz stainless steel gear).
You can have this reel for ever with minimum maintenance...



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i dont know much about saltwater fishing.. but the H2O express mettle reels are amazing for the money

Not long ago, when Academy had their ROD RIOT going on, I bought a few All-stars and a few Uglysticks<lite>, the cork handle models. While there, I also bought a few of the shimano 2500 IX spinning reels.....thinking that I would have them for family members and such.

the other week, I was out around where the paddle wheeler docks at Moody, and made a few casts with the set up. man, when a 26" red hit, I thought Id lose the whole rig, but nope, it held on and did just fine. ALL STAR rod, SHIMANO IX reel, and Berkley big game at 15 pounds......all for under 100$ It worked like a champ!