Whats the best bang for your buck general purpose casting rod?

 

40 dollars - Berkley Lightning Rod

 

60 dollars - H2O Xpress Ethos

 

80 dollars - Abu Garcia Verita

 

100 dollars - *** *** Black

The Berkley lightening rod believe it or not feels better than some of the rods in its class that costs more money. To me anyway. Some of them not all of them. You have an array of different prices and quality there all not in the same category quality wise. I just purchased an assortment of the $100 rods and the lightening rod feels better to me. It also depends on what your looking for. And the action and feeling you want.

St croix premier @ the $100 level

St croix premier @ the $100 level

 

 

 

*** > Premier

I don't like the omens personally. If I had to buy any rod at the $100 level, I'm buying a carbonlite, for cranks, I'll take a premier.

St. Croix Premiers are $120-$130. I feel that St. Croix's don't start to get price-efficient until the Avid at $190.

 

The *** is a crazy good rod for $100, though I think soon other companies will start to introduce quality rods at that price point to compete. I can also see *** prices going up a little.

 

If you can find a Lightning Rod Shock with reasonably straight guides, it is a great buy at $40.

 

Apparently the real bang for your buck is the 13 *** which goes $225 to $250, but I don't (yet) have firsthand experience with the rod. It's supposed to be the cat's meow, comparable with high end Dobyns, Loomis, Croix, etc. Like I said, just contributing to the rumor mill. I haven't used one.

Haha, I read the thread wrong, for some reason reason I thought the op was asking about a crankbait rod. I would not buy a premier for general purpose rod. My B.

You can find a Fenwick Smallmouth Elite Tech regularly at 99.99, this is the best bang for your buck in my opinion for an all around rod.  From your list since I only have experience with the Veritas, I think it would suffice too, especially at the 80 dollar price range.

Veritas- I can afford much more expensive rods but I choose to fish with the Abu lineup of rods.  Light, durable and not to expensive to replace when you break them which I do several times a year.

***, Carbonlite, ***, Duckett.

You will probably get allot of different opinions on this topic.

FWIW I think the Ethos is the best bang for your buck option. It has quality components a good lightweight sensitive blank ,is less expensive and a lifetime warranty if taken back to the store . It really out shines the lighting rod for $20 more but trying to make up the $20 on the veritas (which is my next pick) or the $40 extra for the *** (which I admittedly have not used but wasn't impressed enough to buy when I handled it) would be difficult to do.

Most of my rods are veritas (bought for less than the $80 mark). I have several ethos and the only rod I have ever bought for full retail price simply because I thought it was the best bang for my buck.

You can find a Fenwick Smallmouth Elite Tech regularly at 99.99, this is the best bang for your buck in my opinion for an all around rod. From your list since I only have experience with the Veritas, I think it would suffice too, especially at the 80 dollar price range.

Where is that Fenwick for 100 bones ?

Where is that Fenwick for 100 bones ?

I live up here in Canada and can find them for 99.99 in a lot of local shops.  However, there are a couple of guys who buy Fenwick on this board who also has bought them for that price from an online store.  Give smalljaw67 a try he might be able to steer you.