Best budget rod for tournament angler

[Milehibird]

Here's what I'd do (and am doing).
Find a line of rods with a lifetime warranty. There's a few out there. iRod has a lifetime replacement on most of their rods for example. Get some cheaper rods for moving baits and then find them on sale or on ebay for even cheaper.

Then, for the bottom contact baits, go as high end as you can stomach. 16-20lb fluoro is the same in dirty water as in clear so you don't need to change much other than going from a brown jig to a black jig.

Finally, if you are worried about redoing setups, buy a roll of electrical tape and get a few extra reels. Have a set of reels for dirty water, and a set for clear. Then you don't have to worry about wasting line or anything, just swap reels. Doesn't take any longer to do that and retie than it would take to pull all your dirty water rods out and load the clear water setups.

I went further and got 13 Fishing reels and just bought a bunch of their trick shop spools and color coded them by line. Then I can keep 1 set of rods, another set of spools and just change the line without throwing it away.

[basscat21]

The ones with cork. The silver ones that cost 20-30 dollars more have the same exact blank
and components. Except for the elite series rods. The cork ones are beautiful and feel awesome. The tips on the rods are very true and the weight and sensitivity of the rod are unmatched in my opinion. I was always a Powell guy but over the last handful of years made some investments in other companies, dobyns, alx, Irod, and okuma which are all real nice rods but I prefer the daiwa tatulas the best in both spinning and casting.

Agree with the above, I have a range of rods from
G. Loomis, Steez, to the Tatula. I will say the Cork Tatula is a fantastic rod for the money, Performs way above its price point. in the Spinning I do like the elite with the AGS guides, but not necessary, the Cork handle Tatula is also a great performer.

[ToyotaKev]

If you have the time, shop, shop, shop online...especially with upcoming time of year...used it to my advantage last winter and ended up finding a pair of brand new, $150-200 rods both for under $90!! Fenwick EliteTech for $80, Abu Veracity for $90

[coreynov902]

American Legacy Fishing Company sells the Dobyns Fury rods and I know they sometimes have specials. I bought a Fury rod from them last winter and they had a 20% off sale. I believe they have a 10% off discount code if you sign up for their monthly emails if you need to purchase soon and can't wait for a sale.

That said, I agree with others who have said to cut down the amount of rods and spend a little more on the bottom contact rods.

[Theolbug]

The Shimano SLX are GREAT rods at $100 each. I've never seen a bad word about them. I own one and feel it should be priced higher than it is as it's in my normal arsenal of higher end rods.

[ttranger]

I would try replacing them in batches like 10 new rods each year. If you take advantage of sale prices you could buy 10 nice rods for $1,000 or less. The other posters have mentioned some good rods to consider. If you want to keep them all the same I would try to find a line of rods that offers a wide variety of lengths and actions. The BPS Carbonlite comes to mind along with Fenwick HMG, Garcia Veritas, Shimano SLX and others.

[Mcjenson]

If you have the time, shop, shop, shop online...especially with upcoming time of year...used it to my advantage last winter and ended up finding a pair of brand new, $150-200 rods both for under $90!! Fenwick EliteTech for $80, Abu Veracity for $90

Thats a great price for the veracity. I have one for my drop shot rod (paid full price lol) and still think it was a good deal. Must’ve been a close out for you, I don’t think they make it any more.

[Brandonh36898]

Here's what I'd do (and am doing).
Find a line of rods with a lifetime warranty. There's a few out there. iRod has a lifetime replacement on most of their rods for example. Get some cheaper rods for moving baits and then find them on sale or on ebay for even cheaper.

Then, for the bottom contact baits, go as high end as you can stomach. 16-20lb fluoro is the same in dirty water as in clear so you don't need to change much other than going from a brown jig to a black jig.

Finally, if you are worried about redoing setups, buy a roll of electrical tape and get a few extra reels. Have a set of reels for dirty water, and a set for clear. Then you don't have to worry about wasting line or anything, just swap reels. Doesn't take any longer to do that and retie than it would take to pull all your dirty water rods out and load the clear water setups.

I went further and got 13 Fishing reels and just bought a bunch of their trick shop spools and color coded them by line. Then I can keep 1 set of rods, another set of spools and just change the line without throwing it away.

16-20lb isnt close. Like 65# braid on some lakes, and 10-12# floro on others lol

Its like ,flipping heavy cover or casting in heavy cover on some lakes super shallow,
To next day in deep water, totally different setups, so honestly for the braid setups i get away with like 6 or 7 rods, mostly few different weight jigs, frog setup, pegged senko, and a couple casting for swim jigs,u vibes, etc.

Its the deep water clear lakes that kill me, like to have a couple cranking setups medium,and deep, then get into the other stuff there is still heavy cover on the deep lakes as well so it can turn into a crap ton. Main issue is a work so much, its hard on me by the time i get home, get to riggin rods and got to get up at 330 in morning for tournament. Also prep boat, pre fish, all that throughout the week seems no matter how much i try to prep im always up till midnight riggin. Lol.

But i appreciate yalls input i am going to look into some if these setups

[kercha83]

Phenix feather series rod, great rod for the money. They are usually one power lighter than other rods from my experience.

[OkieBud]

Falcon Bucoos

[wareagle24]

Well as a tournament angler, you need alot of setups.
Qnd as a working man it gets expensive.

I have tried many rods, from enigma,13 fate,defy,carbontlite 2.0,several lews rods,reaper rods,dobyns fury,etc

Love the fury is a nice rod, but at 130 bucks to switch over 40 rods will add up. I also must say both 13 rods i have are actually really good for the money.
Enigma rods are nice and i get a good discount but my god 40 dollars for shipping hurts. Otherwise id be ordering enigma rods.
I really like the carbonlite 2 also just again in that 120+ range.

Btw im looking for more soft bait stuff, wobble head texas rig,etc.

JUST curious if maybe there is a rod im missing thats a good rod for the money.

I know yall will have some sleepers

What rods are you wanting to replace? It's hard to find a good, quality rod in the sub 100 dollar range. I would look at the current Abu Garcia Veritas line.

[harrys]

look on BBC rods for sale, you can get some higher end / quality slightly used rods for much less than buying them new. i mean really, how much better does a brand new rod perform vs a rod someone has bought used a year and sold? you see on here where guys have 20 or 30 rods in the boat at a time how much use can each rod see, it generally the rods seldom used that get sold

[BemisBasser]

The Shimano SLX are GREAT rods at $100 each. I've never seen a bad word about them. I own one and feel it should be priced higher than it is as it's in my normal arsenal of higher end rods.

This. Throw in the fact that you can get them in a combo at Tackle Direct with the SLX reel for $129.99 and its hard to beat. They are good reels.

[Bronzefly]

I'm a big fan of the cork handle Daiwa Tatula TTU series rods as an excellent value. They have lots of options to cover a range of techniques, aren't extremely expensive, and perform far better than some rods costing $100 more.

[Limitfish]

Look at the Denali Attax series. Great rods for the price and quite a few action and length options.