I also have two rods that will be with me until I die or it dies. The first belonged to my father which is a 5’ Berkley Grayfite pistol grip with a Zebco 33 on it. The epoxy has peeled off of one of the guides, but when I fix it, it will probably make it out for the annual Father’s Day bass I catch each year in remembrance.

The other one is a 6’6”, 2 piece, BPS Graphite Series that I bought with one of those “Spend $30, get $10 off” coupons that you could combine with sale offers they use to send out. I think I paid about $20 said and done for it 2016 when I started fishing again. It is my all time catch leader and will continue to extend its lead on my other rods since it is my dedicated Senko rod. I gave up on skipping a baitcaster for now. By all accounts, it is not a very good rod, but it seems to have an uncanny luck for finding fish on tough days. Yeah, it’s probably the stick worm but whatever. It’s not going anywhere until it falls apart, or I do.

Daiwa Tatula XT TATULAXT701MFS. $99 and a great general purpose spinning rod.

I use it primarily for the wacky rig which is a big technique for me. Tubes, keitechs and even small Crankbaits are also in its wheelhouse.

I have a Daiwa Laguna 6'6" M/F and a Berkley Lightning Rod Shock 7' MH, both spinning rods, that I'll never get rid of. They're both $40 rods. Neither are worth selling and are great rods for beating the bank or just tossing in the back of the truck. Currently, the Shock is Lake's go to wacky rig rod and has caught more fish this year for him than I'd caught on it in the last several years.

I have quite a few of the pre trigon mojo bass rods I will never part with. Don't really own anything cheaper than that. I upgraded quite a few of my rods two winters ago to Talon rods and pretty much use those exclusively now, along with a couple Leviathan swimbait rods. The Talons to me are on par with NRX+, but much cheaper.

Well not cheap but free, Fenwick Eagle 6'6" med fast with a Pflueger Supreme 30 . Got it 10 years ago when working for being a good employee, they weren't the only ones I fooled 😇.

Still is with me on every trip, fishing a ned rig, fluke, #3 Mepps and others.

One that I did pay for is a Skeet Reese drop shot rod, I think I paid around 60$ for that and got a lot of use out of it with a drop shot, wacky and small minnow baits.

Broke about 2" off the tip, it's now used in the salt .

Baitcasting rods----Ark Catalizer 7' MH F. List $59 purchased for $39 with free shipping. Great rod for the money...and is comparable to rods costing closer to $100 that I have tried. Also.....Daiwa Arid X 6' 10" MF. List (when I purchased it) $59. Bought at the grand opening of a Dicks Super Store for $32 (with door buster coupon). Excellent rod for that money and not bad at the list price. I also have a Cherrywood 6'10" that I bought at Walmart for $34 on sale. Listed as a MHF but is more like a fairly soft medium action with a soft tip. Nice for light baits and most crankbaiits. I keep that in my car for spur of the moment fishing stops. If it got broken or lost I would not be very upset as it was cheap and is easy to replace for the money.

32 minutes ago, Kirtley Howe said:

If it got broken or lost I would not be very upset as it was cheap and is easy to replace for the money.

I know you’re referring to the Cherrywood, but this statement is exactly why I love my Aird X rods. And, they’re just great all around rods - the inexpensive cost is just icing on the cake. I throw frogs, weightless flukes/senkos/worms, bladed jigs, waking rats & mouse baits, traditional Texas rigs, jigs, etc all with pretty much same set up using 30 lb braid…… and these rods handle it all. I even used the same setup with a medium diving crankbait (the braid wasn’t ideal but it worked) a few weekends ago when I severely backlashed my typical cranking combo that has fluoro. Cast fine aside from the occasional fouling of the treble hooks in the braid. But I caught a few fish with it. I’m sure I could toss spinnerbaits & topwater walking baiting with ease as well although I haven’t tried.