Hey guys hows it going. I am just getting into the sport seriously and have a few questions. I live in central CA and most of the stuff near where i fish is bass/channel cat. I have been looking around at rod/reels and its starting to hurt my brain with all of the different options. I was curious as to if any of you have any suggestions for a nice rod/reel setup that wont break the bank and will help me get going. Thanks for any advice!

depends...what do you want, spinning gear or baitcasting gear? for spinning gear, i'd reccomend something like an okuma stratus or abu garcia cardinal 500 for the reel. for the rod get a shakespeare ugly stick lite series. for baitcasting gear, the daiwa procaster is a nice beginners reel. you could get an ugly stick rod for this too. that spinning combo should only cost about 80-100 dollars and the baitcasting combo should cost about 100-120 dollars. not too bad of a price for the combo.

Right now I have a Rhino rsc3 spincast reel a buddy gave me. So I might as well get a spinning rod and save some money. Like I said. The usual stuff ill be catching will be bass/channel cat so a rod for that would be great. Thanks for the help.

cant go wrong with a cardianl reel, great reel at a great price!

cant go wrong with a cardianl reel, great reel at a great price!

I'll agree.  I love my cardinal.

Welcome aboard!

Tell us how much ($) you want to spend for the rod & reel combination and some of our members will give you some very specific advice. If you can afford around $150, that's a pricing point that the fishing industry focuses on as a starting point for higher end equipment. There are VERY good deals at that level.

Spin-cast reels aren't made to be used on spinning reels. Bait cast reels are but resign your self to a longer learning curve with a baitcaster.

Above post should have said spin-cast reels aren't made to be used on spinning rods.

Sorry about that. It must have been a senior moment!