About a week ago, I bought my brother a Daiwa strikeforce reel from Academy. When I picked it up, I thought it was kinda nice, and for being on sale for only 29 BUCKS, I had nothing to lose.

Well, when he got it, he put it on a 6'6 BPS MH bionic blade and I'm telling you for 29, this thing is awesome. Its got like a 6:1 or 6:something ratio and it has been awesome for both flipping and casting.  So, if you're on a budget, Academy has got these things marked down, you won't regret getting one.

cabela's has the daiwas strikeforce paired with a 7' daiwa megaforce rod on clearance for $35:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0059717123627a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCHFEAT_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=strikeforce&sort=all&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1

Holy crap! Thats even better! Don't know how good that rod is, but for someone who is a baitcast beginner, this would be a good first timer