Fishing rod question

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.

Kistler, Denali and Tatula. They all do a great job.

I have owned Shimano, G loomis, St Croix, dobyns, 13 fishing, Lews , BPS and just bought my first Diawa. I keep coming back to shimano, g loomis and dobyns.

Back in 2012/2013 when Megabass released the Orochi XX riod series I read one of the Tackle Tour reviews on them. Bought one and loved it, added a couple of more. It was not long before they were all I had in my boat. These days I have a few Megabass Destroyers mixed in with a bunch of Orochi XX and Levantes.

Most of mine are Dobyn's Rods with a couple G Loomis, Shimano, Castaway, and All Star for some of my oldies.

I have dobyns and shimano right now. I really like dobyns but I think I might try a falcon rod since I have heard great things about them.

Dobyns
Powell
Shimano
Power Tackle
Loomis
Kisler
Falcon
FXtreme
Megabass
Daiwa
Majorcraft
Duckett
TFO
Lews


Eagle claw crappie rod just because my first rod I began fishing with was an Eagle Claw rod. At that time there wasn't much to choose from at Gibsons.

And a couple of custom builds



Tackle nut.

Sounds like i’m the oddball out here. It doesn’t sound like i fish nearly as intensely as many of you but i like the bang for the buck i get from bass pro rods. I just replaced three 25 year old bps spiral graphite rods with current year Bionic Blades. My trout spinning rods are the BPS airstream ptc. Sensitive rods with excellent backbone. VERY similar to the St Croix panfish rod but less than half the cost. Reels are and have been Shimanos, a couple of 1990’s Citicas and one 1990’s curado all just upgraded with ceramic bearings and carbontex drag washers. If i fished more i might very well upgrade but the bps rods w shimano reels have served me well from pond fishing to lake fork to guerrero in Mexico. Fly rods are a different ballgame but do include a Cabelas Bighorn combo.

Here’s a $4000 starter kit

I do my damage with Snoopy and Barbie rods, those short little stiff mofo’s yank the bass out of the thick stuff!

I have an assortment of Loomis, Dobyns, St. Croix and Falcon.

my latest is a real nice St Croix Avid. Before that I bought two used med-heavys, before that 2 new Dobyns, I also own at least 4 G. Loomis and another Doybns., but the first real rods I bought were Shimano Crucials. Mostly mediums. Like about a dozen of them. Even had them re-furbed after 10 years,

As of late I am moving away from those light rods into more heavier rods since I had my casting shoulder replaced to make up for the poor hook sets with those mediums.

But I do fish with two XLF rods for conventional drop shotting because I hate using a spinning rod. My biggest fish on those light rigs was a 9 LB.

What rods are those?? Love the reels!

Been thinking about getting a few kistler or St. croix. One name that hasn’t been mentioned is McCain, I have 3 or 4 and really like them.

Falcon Low Riders and Cara, St Sroix Avids, and Dobyns but also have 2 old Castaways that I've tried to stop using but seems like I pick them up ever 2nd or 3rd time I fish.

NRX 852c, 853c, 854, and 873crr. Three of them have the new model Metanuims and the fourth has a Bantem mgl

I have a boat load of nothing but Falcons, currently.

I have a closet full of Academy, Cashion, and Daiwa.

I like the Falcons for the money. They ain’t the best, but they’re good enough.

Any recommend a good top water rod in the 100 dollar range

G Loomis, 13 Fishing and St Croix are the only rod I use. No individual manufacturer had exactly what I was looking for,
which is why the 3 different brands.

@tmd11111 ,

What rods are those?

Was a Falcon only guy for 20+yrs,once they went to China I've been buying St Croix.

I think those are the Academy house brand rods 😈😈😈

Good info on the Kistler stuff...that will be my next purchase after reading about them on here...hope they are good! LOL



Aside from Kistler, if you want to go American the Cashion Icon is all USA made. not sure about the handles material or guides...but its my understanding even the blank is made in the US and then of course the cashion people make the rod. The worm rod is very impressive for the price

Spoiler:
those are Loomis NRX i believe. top of the tops from my understanding

The G Loomis Conquest is more expensive than the NRX but it seems the NRX is more popular from what I have seen.

Power Tackle rods are American made also and they are fantastic rods.

Majorcraft from Fun N Sun
Dobyns Fury

Those are the ones I have in that range but im sure there are a lot more on the market that are just fine for top water fishing.

I have owed at least one from many different brands. My favorite all time was a Kistler Helium. It gave me a felt significantly better and allowed me to feel more bites than any other rod I owned at the time. I owned a St. Croix Premier that I loved for crankbaits and spinnerbaits. A friend of mine made me a punching stick that is a beast and will yank them out of the thick stuff. There are a lot of really good rods being made at many different price points. If I want exactly what I want for a particular need then I am going to roll my own with the components best suited for that job. If I want to be brand loyal then g.Loomis or Kistler could pretty much meet my every need.

NRX g.Loomis

Started with 3 rods last year: Bass Pro, St. Croix and Scheel's Outfitters but since I have picked up 2 Lew's combos, 2 Six Gill rods and an Ike Power rod. Still building out the collection and hope to start buying technique-specific rods from G Loomis or Kistler in the coming years.