What brand of rods are you using and what brought ya to use them???

Heinz 57, some from many of the budget (75-100$) academy, basspro, etc stores.. Used to have about 50% falcon, 30% castaway, 10% all star, and 10% homemade custom. Loved the good old days when you could swap out a rod if you broke it. Have a particular feel that i like in a rod, so i don't look at the brand. I have to shake a rod, and feel it. And i dont particular like the little bity eye models.. I still like to keep it under the 150$ range, as we have so many. Keep 15'ish in the boat in rod socks, so i can easily pull out what i need. Depending on the time of year, we will swap out some from the rod wall. Rods are the biggest mix, baitcaster reels are all 95'-2005' chronarch's which are smooth, and easily rebuilt. Spinning reels are all Shimano, with some oddball on sale specials. I go bang for the buck, with the right feel from the rod blank. I like a light rod, semi fast tip (with a 20% tip). Meaning, if you were pulling on your line with your rod in the air the top 20% would be the majority of the bend. Like this for most items except cranking, which i still prefer a fiberglass rod.

Outside of 2 Dobyns everything else I own is G Loomis.

I had rods from several different companies ended up selling all of them except three Falcon Amistad rods, and replaced the ones I sold with Impulse. They are good quality and made here in Texas, Lance Stringer is a good guy and takes care of his customers while battling leukemia.

G Loomis especially for bottom fishing applications. There are many brands in the $150 range that are sensitive and fish well, however I have never found one that didn’t break. By the time to pay for warranty replacement a time or two you could have bought a Loomis and had no issues. I transitioned all my rods to loomis 15 years ago and have no regrets. There is a reason everyone compares other rod manufacturers to Loomis.

Falcon Rods... Found them years ago... They were economical at the time and I liked the feel... Gotta be 20 years ago, maybe more... Their great customer service kept me coming back... Dan

I have alot of Falcon's. But I mainly use Power Tackle about 95% of the time.

Cajun Rods. Savannah Series 7' med heavy. Love them! Was at a fishing show looking for rods and came across these. Asked the guy (who happened to be the owner) to see a 7' med heavy bait casting rod. He handed me one & it felt great. He then asked me to lower the tip, he grabbed the tip, went down on his knees & asked me to try to pick him up! I told him the rod would break, he said if it breaks he would give me one, so I obliged him, tried picking his arse off the floor with no joy. That rod has some great backbone, it never flinched, winced or broke & believe me I am not a little guy. I was so impressed with the strength, backbone, sensitivity of these rods, I bought 4 on the spot & the next year I bought 4 more. I love my Cajun Rods, Savannah series!

All Falcon Cara and Lowriders, except one Dobyns Champion XP spinning rod. Falcons were the best premium rods in the little tackle shop near my house growing up. The ones I got proved to be incredibly durable so I kept with them. I use Caras when sensitivity is needed, Lowriders for moving lures where sensitivity is less important (not that Lowriders aren't sensitive, they're just not in the same class as the Cara).

If I can get a deal on a rod I will give it a try. I have a hodge podge of different rods, mostly due to the fact that I either found them on sale or a buddy sold me one cheap. I have Falcon, 13fishing, MCain, Quantum, Lucky Craft, Shimano, St. Croix, Daiwa.

Falcon, Fenwick, St. Croix, Jacob Wheeler (Duckett) Eagle Claw (Skeet Reese DS rod). mostly Falcon though.

Phenix rods. Was highly recommended for having good sensitivity. Bought one and was extremely impressed...especially at the price point. Im of the belief that the law of diminishing returns applies in things like rods and reels, and the mid end Phenix stuff is pretty hard to beat. I also have a Cashion Icon I love...but my last 3 purchases were a Phenix....and im not one who beileves in brand loyalty, but I am slowly transitioning to Phenix it seems. really tough to beat and I suggest trying them out if you havent

In my rod box today are 6 G.Loomis, 1 Phoenix,1 Castaway,1 Falcon,2 AllStar and 2 Daiwa. While I am a G.Loomis fan, there are others that perform specific duties as well or maybe better and usually far more budget friendly.

Kistler for several reasons. First, they are great rods, it’s locally, veteran owned,, and Trey is a great guy.

Kistler!!!!!! I bought a used one a few years back and fell in love. I have fished with many rods but I haven’t found anything that has such great feel that has the backbone I like for the hook set. Plus they are a Texas company and run by great people.