I have a few Castaway rods but the rest are just what I liked and felt good and was under 40.00 they all catch fish about the same, I really can't believe the price of some of the rods nowadays. or the reels for that matter, I remember when I was a Kid you could catch anything with a Zebco 808

+1. I got one that is close to ten years old.

+2

Great value and great rods

great value but no backbone....great for catfish/carp/gar....but graphite/carbon is best for Bass and Crappie...IMO.

I hear ya on prices. Hey, I spend money, but $100-$200 on a rod when I've caught plenty on $20-$50? I don't see why.

My wife and I got hooked on Bass fishing late in life, I'm 65 and she's a few years younger. We bought a 30' trailer on Lake Fork, a new Stratos, 18' from Cabelas, and spent every free minute there, we both worked and it was a race to get to the lake every Friday after work for about 6 years..we loved it.
We both started out with "combos" from the box stores. We soon found out that they would not stand up to 10=12 hours a day of fishing,..on to plan two. Spend a little more money and get some better stuff. We're not rich by any means, and we soon found out through trail and error what we liked and what worked for us.
We found that all parts of your equipment have to be good,...not necessarily expensive to enjoy fishing.
My wife uses Zebco 03 reels, I re-string them with Trilene 12 pound, and she loves them. I like spinning reels,
you can get a good one for under $50 by Pflueger, I have several. I use 20 and 30 pound braid with a Mono or Fluorcarbon leader depending on the rig I want. WE both use Ugly Sticks. I have managed to trade into a couple of high dollar rods, but for my dollars, and my fishing time and style they are not worth the money difference to me.
Good reels, good line selections, and a good rod, cost me under a hundred dollars.
My wife and I have landed hundreds of bass at fork using our equipment. She has actually landed FOUR bass over ten pounds at fork on her Zebcos and Ugly Sticks, I've only had two. We have fished with guides dozens of times and we always take our stuff and use it..it's what we like...so for favorites it's was trial and error process for us,..coupled with cost and common sense.
jim

I was all about Shakespeare and Zebco. They're inexpensive and readily available. There's still a Zebco Adventure reel in my closet with a broken anti-reverse. We've a pair Quantum SS4 (Zebco) reels now. I don't use the Snap Shot feature. They were a gift from my father-in-law.

I was looking at the Pflueger reels and found a post on Bass Resource saying they make Browning reels. I had a Browning rod and reel combo that was one of my favorites. That thing got used and abused for years after I bought it second hand.

Don't get hung up on which company makes what. Chevy makes the Corvette and the Spark. Big difference between the tow. Almost all these reels come from offshore. The quality is going to depend on what's inside. Just because two different reels come out the same door doesn't make them comparable.

I like the ugly stick the medium action is a little to flexible though for jigging unless your crappie fishing. I'm not sure about the new version that came out. I have a Abu Garcia spinning reel sitting i may stick on a medium heavy ugly stick unless I find something i like better close to the same price range. I used to have a daiwa light action rod and it was my favorite.

Oh, man. Start making car company comparisons and it's all over the place. South Korean compact cars from India and sports cars from Kentucky all have the same badge. Eye ware is a huge multiple brands from the same company deal. Bicycles, too. Checkout Pacific Cycles and Shimano; and with that, we have a tie in back to fishing.

Stanley Tools. Crosman. We can do this all day. It does matter what's inside, I agree. Thing is, what's inside is determined by the company in charge of how it's made. How they want to market that brand is what determines what they put inside.

I have a Winchester knife. It looks nice, but it's farmed out Chinese factory junk. So, yeah, I do agree; the same doors put out wildly varying quality. Literally the same doors, even. Products made side by side, but to different standards.

I couldn't agree more, nowadays it pays to be a informed consumer.

Powell

Falcon Lowriders

Powell rods