I’ve been loyal to a brand for a long time and want to try new stuff. What’s your favorite brand ? 

When Academy first contracted with Falcon in the 80s, the pair was unbeatable.  They had a short falling out over warranty support in the '90s, when Silstar replaced the Academy inventory.  

 

More recently, with my salt bent to BFS, the most consistently useful rods I can find are JDM Pure Fishing - Abu Garcia.  

 

 

 

I have more Fenwick rods than any other brands. When I get ready to buy a rod I usually look at Fenwicks first. Guess you could say they are my favorite. 

I am really liking my St Croix right now.  I've been fishing mostly their rods for about 10 years.

If I had to pick just one...St Croix.

39 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

When Academy first contracted with Falcon in the 80s, the pair was unbeatable.  

 

Academy had been around since the 80s? Wow, I’d never heard of em til around 2005. 

It used to be 13 fishing pre Rapala. Not sure about the quality of them now so I really like the Abu Garcia Pro Series rods.

25 minutes ago, wdp said:

Academy had been around since the 80s? Wow, I’d never heard of em til around 2005. 

When I was in college, used to visit the first Academy store, which was Army Surplus with a small pegboard of junk imported tackle.  That was when Oshman's was king for actual fishing tackle.  

Browning-Lew's BB-1NG on Browning Hi-Power 7-1/2' inshore rod (my 1st graphite rod) - but before I bought the Lew's, had this rod matched with Millionaire 6H (from Oshman's). Also had the reel matched with Fenglas Lunkerstick 2000 for reservoir bass.  

G. Loomis. I've tried several different brands over the past 5+ years and settled on G. Loomis, specifically the MBR series.

I use to be a St Croix fan then switched to G Loomis then changed to Kistler because he was using Edge blanks. When that changed I went straight to the source. Edge rods are my new favorite sticks. 

Based on numbers I guess it's Shimano or Dobyns but I'm not married to any brands

I really don’t have a specific rod manufacturer that I gravitate too more than others as I do for reels and baits. 

I currently have rods made by 7 different companies with each having its own purpose with a few crossovers. 
 

Within each manufacturers line there are different models at different price points with differing components, so the decision of which to buy comes down to warranty, power and action of what I want/need at the time. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

 

 

I'm pretty falcon dedicated for all of my casting rods and I don't see changing that anytime soon.  I need to add a couple rods into this thread now.

 

 

I had to check, current lineup has rods from;

Cashion
Daiwa
Dobyns
Gloomis
Lews
Okuma
Phenix
Shimano
Spro
St Croix
Ugly Stik

Man, It's hard to pick one. I used to fish only Falcon. Then gradually more Loomis , That started about 10 years ago. Now a Mix of of Daiwa and Loomis with some old standbys like a Yamamoto spinning rod that goes back to my Falcon days.

If I had to start all over it would be Daiwa.

I probably have more Dobyns but not brand loyal with rods or reels.

My rods consist of: 

Dobyns 

St. Croix 

13 fishing 

Lews

Shimano 

Ugly stick 

Fenwick 

and an old Lightning rod on the boat.

ALX custom rods and St Croix over the counter rods.

Tom

Have to say Megabass.

St. Croix 

I like iRod for baitcasting and St Croix for spinning

G. Loomis rods for me. Worth every penny. Light, balanced, strong, sensitive and durable. 

Custom builds are going to be the best rods you can get, because you can get everything the way you want it, and the balance is spot on.

The most impressive production rods I've ever handled is between Zenaq and Century.

 

Another vote for St Croix here

St. Croix for bass fishing

G Loomis for steelhead

I try to use a variety of brands now. For years I was all St. Croix until I found forbidden fruit of other brands.
 

After using other rods, it was tough going back to anything Medium Heavy or Heavy in St. Croix.  They are just heavy, tip-weighted rods to me. St. Croix did a disservice to themselves when they added rod weights to the chart on their home page. Heavy buggers! High quality rods, but fatiguing and cumbersome IMO. Dobyns rods are heavy too, but they do a heckuva better job balancing them. Still like some of St. Croix ML and Medium rods though, they are just light enough. 

That lesson taught me not to get too caught up with any one brand, it’s good to compare.