I have a cheap old rod and reel that I’ve been learning on and am enjoying myself, but it’s the wrong size and I’m ready to pull the trigger on a medium to high-quality rod but I can’t justify the ridiculous prices. Was thinking a budget of $250 since a really good spin casting or even surf rod can be had for that. But everything in that range is considered a budget rod.
I just feel like it’s money being spent for the sake of spending money and that there is no additional value. I’m willing to spend for good gear but are you really getting what you pay for?
Or am I just being a grumpy old AH?
Posted by Necessary_Cat_3228
50 Comments
Get a basic rod and reel, get good then try a friends.
IMHO my cheap rod and pricey rod catch the same amount of fish. Some people like fancy stuff, which is no wrong but a cheap quality rod will give everything you need
Fish don’t know if you have an Orvis or a Piscifun
Check out Temple Fork Outfitters.
About 3 years ago, I had some cash and drunkenly woke up one morning and spent 900 on a last gen Orvis Helios 4wt. Without ever casting it. I put nice ass fucking line it, it looks sick, I even have pink backing on it…. But it’s my least favorite rod.
My 2wt classic trout and my Orvis Clearwater 6wt I love love love. And they both combined cost less than that rod alone.
Get yourself a 5-7/10 rod, and spend as much as you can on the line.
You definitely don’t need a high dollar rod! A *really* nice rod will only really offer things that you won’t really be able to feel that much as a beginner. If you are looking for a good all around trout rod, look at Redington Classic Trout. TFO NXT black labels are also great rods and can be had for $80 from Sierra (if you want a 9′ 5wt). If you’re not going for bigger fish in bigger water, basically any properly sized reel will work fine, so get something cheap and save the money for a nicer line.
Bro just get a redington beginner 9’ 5wt outfit. Upgrade the line if you want. I’ve caught way more fish on my crosswater rod and reel than on any of my expensive gear… so far lol
If you’re willing to spend this kind of “money” then a full Clearwater outfit is the far superior choice, comes with a 25 year warranty, and gets you rod, reel, and line ready to fish out of the package.
Those rods are for those with experience, dedication, and know what they want in a rod.
I find the mid range to be the sweet spot especially as someone who doesn’t get to fish every week and sometimes not even every month.
I started with a $100 combo that got me hooked. If I were to start again, I’d get a cortland guide series combo in a 4 or 5wt and call it good until I had a need for another rod. At that point I think it’s worth buying into the midrange rods.
The biggest difference you get with a more expensive rod is that they are easier to cast for a longer period of time. I can cast any rod effectively to catch fish. With more expensive rods, I can deliver more effective casts for a longer period of time.
As a beginner, you’re just trying to cast effectively at all so a mid range/high end rod doesn’t make as much of a difference.
Stick with a brand name (Orvis, Echo, TFO, Cortland, Redington) and get on the water!
If you want to go value I think the Orvis Clearwater is an excellent starting rod.
Dude I use a Walmart cortland FairPlay rod with a Temu reel and SA sink tip fly line and catch tons of fish with it
Find used, too.
I have an entry level Orvis 5WT rod, and it’s decent I guess. When I kitted out for Steelhead I went with Echo Carbon XL, which felt just as good as Orvis, and was cheaper. Has held up well over the years too.
Edit: Sorry, I have the Echo Ion XL, not the Carbon.
Edit2: Under the $250 price point, comparable quality.
The great Lefty Kreh said there are no bad rods anymore.
It truly is the wizard not the staff… although Gandalf did upgrade to a super sick staff in the second film. The point is, start basic and work your way up if you want. Redington is my favorite for the quality and price point.
I would recommend staying away from the combo packages that come with rod/reel/fly line but literally anything above that with a good quality fly line will perform just fine. A cheap rod with a good fly line will perform very well for you. Fly line so so important. Talk to the fly shop and let them set you up with one that suits you. Cheap out on the reel as much as you can
My reddington wrangler has caught hundreds of fish. I changed the reel eventually but still haven’t changed the rod. You don’t need to go nuts.
I got my $30 5wt rod off temu. I’ve caught everything from pink salmon in BC to bass and brook trout in Ontario on it. You’ll be fine. Line is more important
For one you’re looking at one of the more expensive brands .. second welcome to flyfishing… It’s expensive.
You can get a decent maxcatch rod for less than $100. But I would buy a fly line that’s in that $100+ range to go with it. The orvis clearwaters are great rods if you want a step up. I have the superfine glass and it’s probably my favorite rod but it’s a very specific kind of rod, it’s good for small stream and roll casting. I use it a lot for topwater smallmouth fishing but it’s not the most effective, just fun to fight fish with. I’ve broken my glass rod 2 times and my maxcatches are cheaper to buy than repairing that rod.
You can get a 9’ 5wt Redington Field Kit for $300 right now, which is marked down from approximately $500. Rod, reel, a Rio fly line and leader all included. The euro nymphing version of the field kit can be found for even cheaper.
Get an eagle claw featherweight or a cheap blank like maxcatch. I use both way way way way more than my expensive rods. The reels are just fly line holders unless you are catching bigger species. Can get a whole outfit for <$100 easy. I’d spend the most on the fly line if anything.
I’ve always felt there’s a bell curve to usefulness of an expensive rod. As a beginner, there’s no point (but skip the cheapest). You don’t have the skills to use the rod to its full effectiveness. Once you hit intermediate levels, the expensive rods make a huge difference – whether you want to say the dollar value difference is worth is a different argument. Making fast, high precision casts (important in the salt) becomes far easier and more repeatable and you simply will catch more fish. Once you hit advanced/expert, it kind of doesn’t matter again because you can cast anything well, but better rods certainly make it easier.
All the warranties on the high end stuff are generally the same, the replacement fee and ease of replacement are what I look at. Starting out, I would get a wal-mart cortland combo and just go fishing. Then when you figure out if you actually like it and get proficient at casting you can go to a fly shop that carries a few brands and cast them and see what you like.
This is what stopped me getting into flyfishing and centerpin fishing. Way to boujee for me lol
Ive been using the same Cabelas CGR Glass fly rod for several years now that I bought for $50 and I have caught a lot of fish on it and its been abused too. Its my favorite rod! Paired with a standard Cheeky reel too.
Go to Walmart, get an Ozark trail one, they’re graphite rods. They already have line tippet and a leader and buy you a $10 set of flies. That’s literally all you need other than maybe a little gear kit with the clasps and the fingernail clipper looking thing. I haven’t been fly fishing long but my grandfather who has been fly fishing his entire life bought me this and said if you’re going to like fly fishing you can learn on this and you will like this. He said once you find out you like it then you can lean in to start getting more of the expensive gear, but he said he literally made his fly fishing while out of a cane pole one time.
I caught more fish on my $29 used outfit and my Cabella’s $21 Cortland rod and $30 reel than most other higher end rods I own.
Granted I fished a lot back then and only had two rods to fish with.
Those are near top end rods. There are many less expensive rods that work just fine
I have had my Orvis encounter rod for more than 6 years and have never found it deficient or that it has prevented me from catching any fish.
Most of what Orvis sell is good quality. However, EVERYTHING that Orvis sells is overpriced. In my opinion.
What size do you need? There’s a Orvis and a Reddington on eBay or marketplace for like $250/300 but I think it’s either a size 6 or 8 and I needed a 5
Look at other brands. Lamson for example
Buy a Temple Fork rod from Sierra.com. Don’t overthink it.
Just make sure the weight is right for what you want to do with it [4wt; 5wt; 6wt; etc]
I have also run the cheapest Moonshine rods and loved them too.
I would suggest going for the Redington Classic Trout rod, assuming you’re looking for something between a 2-6 weight. It has gotten rave reviews from everything I’ve seen and heard, as well as being ranked #2 in the Yellowdog 5 wt invitational. It typically is around $199.
I would pair that up with an Echo Ion reel for the fly rod weight you choose. You can go cheaper for a plastic fly reel, but at this point I think it is well worth the money to go for a metal reel. This will run about $100.
Finally, a solid weight forward floating fly line, I would aim for $60+ on the line. The brand isn’t so so important, but go with a reputable one. I personally like the Scientific Angler lines. The line makes all the difference and it certainly can payoff to invest in the fly line, just make sure to take care of it with periodic washes. This will run from $60-100.
All in all, you’re getting a complete setup for about $150 less than one of the rods you’re looking for.
Kits with everything included can be convenient but they often don’t have the best equipment and you may be looking to upgrade them sooner than later. For a decent quality kit, which I would consider the Echo Traverse kit to be, you’re looking at a fairly similar price point. You may save $50 with the kit, but you’ll spend $50 more when you replace the kit fly line with a $100 fly line in a year or two. The choice, however, is ultimately yours and you decide how and when you’ll spend.
“Worth it” depends on the person. To me they are, but until you have a decent amount of experience you won’t really know what to look for in a mid to high end rod and won’t really be able to tell the difference. There’s lots of great, sub $250 rods like Redington’s classic trout or Orvis’s Clearwater. That’s a better place to start. Learn to cast, try some other rods if you can, figure out what you like, then decide if you want to buy a nicer rod.
I have taught casting and I can count on one finger the people who legitimately could over power a mid level rod.
If you can, cast them bc the rod is more attuned to cadence than power, but mfrs tell you how powerful it is and sell it on that.
I will also add, get a decent/good line.
A high end rod can be an advantage. It’s not an advantage if your cast is bad. It’s not an advantage if your technique is bad. It won’t help you catch fish if you are fishing crap water. It won’t make you mend at the right times if you aren’t already. If you don’t catch many fish now, a high end rod isn’t a fix.
If you are a good or decent caster (accurate, can cast a full fly line, minimal tailing loops, leader rolling out properly etc..) a high end rod is going to perform better than a cheap one. You’ll notice a lighter swing weight, less tip jiggle, straighter tracking, and you’ll use less energy to throw line. The rod will be more enjoyable to fish.
Don’t be afraid to buy used higher end rods. It’s a good way to save some cash. Also, there are some reasonably priced high performance rods like the Recon that are much less than the highest end rods and fish really well.
Also, buy a high end line to go with it.
You can’t go wrong with Shakespeare oracle 2s I couldn’t recommend them enough for the price. Failing that plenty of people use the maxcatch ones.
If you’re just starting out I would recommend looking g at used or go with a cheap TFO. As your skills improve and you start to employ different techniques, you’ll start to understand the cost of these premium rods.
You can also look into building your own rods as well. Premium guides and blanks are expensive but it’ll save you a couple of hundred bucks. Long story short, premium rods are expensive.
It really depends on the wt of the rod and the type of fishing you will do.
Is it worth it for a nice expensive bone fish or tarpon rod? A nice stealhead or salmon rod? Yes
Do you need a $1200 5wt trout rod? No
I have rods that range from 125-1200$. The only one I don’t like is my orvis Clearwater that I bought for the Caribbean. It cast like garbage and generally I got what I paid for. But my TFO switch rod was about 1200$ complete. I think it’s worth it as it is my best casting, most versatile rod I own. But on the other side of the coin. My 5wt TFO was like sub $200 complete. It casts well and I won’t even bay an eye if I break it. I’ll just buy another. You don’t need expensive reels for a sub 6wt rod, it’s a glorified line holder. I literally use a maxcatch on my 5wt TFO and it works just fine.
There are multiple entry points into glass rods. I’ve read good things about echo glass, as well as moonlit fly rods. The LL Bean Pockewater is also a great rod and I believe made in the same factory as the echo. The Redington Butterstick would be another step up from there in price, and I love mine. The Superfine gets great reviews, but is pricier than the rest (made in America though if that matters to you)
Look on Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, EBay….. a used, really nice rod is good to find.
Decent new rods at a value price point…. Echo, TFO
New to the sport? You don’t need Orvis. Although they do have an “entry level” rod. I say this as someone who loves Orvis (numerous rods, waders, boots, bag, flies, etc.) There are significantly cheaper options out there for a newbie. My first rod was a Cabela’s combo, 9 foot 5 weight.
Where are you going to fish? If you’re fishing in western NC or Eastern TN you’re probably going to want a different rod than if you’re in Montana, for example. Can’t go wrong with a basic Orvis fly rod set up, but no need to get top tier if you’re freshwater fishing just occasionally
Okuma is the top rated rod on fishusa. It’s $100 and works great. Eagle claw featherlight is 65-70 and works great. I’ve built multiple and given them away. The TFO pro 3 is great if you want something that you can grow into, and costs $220, and is often less on sale.
Get an old rod &reel combo for less than $200 on Ebay.
I would say that 80% of the success is in the hands skills of the fisherman and 20% is in the equipment.
Redington Classic Trout is a rod in your price range that you can use for the rest of your life and be very happy
I was in a similar situation so I picked up this last year and I have been happy with it.
[Echo Traverse Combo](https://houseoffly.com/echo-traverse-fly-rod-reel-and-line-kit)