OldSchoolFishing

Fenwick Eagles are good, just bought one and love it. I also have two Fenwick Silver Hawks. They are also pretty good rods. Cabela's Fish Eagle 50 on sale fits your budget and is good. I had two and stupidly sold them off. FE50 has lots of length/power combinations from which to chose. My favorite is the bass pro BPS Extreme. They seem to be sold out on the website (except for one 6' model) and therefore not available right now. But when they are in stock and on sale, they are really good rods close to your budget.

I typically use 3 combos for bank fishing. I use Sufix 831 on a 2000 size spinning reel due to spoil size/capacity issues. I tie on either a mono or flourocarbon leader depending on what I am doing. I also have a second spool that is 6# trilene XL. I also use Sufix Elite on occasion. For my bank side casting reels 10 or 12# (mostly 10) Trielen XL (Sufix Elite sometimes if on sale). I use these three lines because they don't seem to have line memory issues like I encountered with Big Game.

Detroithiker: lots of good advice in here. I am a 60 yr old life time fisherman just completing a transition from spinning gear to baitcasters. I recommend (like most others here): - put brake and tensioner to the max setting and back off as your proficiency improves. - use a weight or plug as close to the max on the label for the Rod as you can find. - use a good mono, I like Sufix elite or trilene XL. Big Game did not work for me and yes, I backlashed and cut off a bunch of quality mono. - make sure line you spool on to the reel is within the rated range of the Rod. I had problems with each of these very basic items, so I include them even though most are common sense. Above all, be patient. You will have some epic backlashes. It is inevitable.

I have 3 travel spinning rods: 2 Cabela's XML (1 M 7' and 1 ML 6') and 1 Cabela's Salt Striker MH 7'. All are good rods. The XMLs are 4 piece, the salt striker is 3 piece. The best all around is the XML 7'. I use a Penn Battle 3000 on it. Over kill, but very versatile. XMLs are no longer made, but there are plenty of rods of equal quality out there. You might also find XMLs on eBay. The 6'6" is great, so much so it is my full time drop shot Rod I use an old 2000 size Daiwa team pro on it with 10# Sufix 831. My 4th travel setup is a Fenwick Eagle 6'6" casting Rod in 2 pieces. I have a travel tube I bought cheap from Cabela's on sale into which it fits nicely. It's a MH, with a Lews on it. Just used it last week on a road trip. Really performed well. It's a little long for an air trip, but fine for the road.