Folks who fish in my timeline: do you have any unique loyalty to any particular brand of gear? Is it the product of marketing (YETI as an example) or do you really find greater quality at the same price point for similar style products?
I own a wide swath of gear: rods made by Daiwa, Century, Vega, St. Croix, Carrot Stick (the worst investment I have made in fishing gear), and Penn. I have tended to be a Shimano reel guy, but I do have some Penn reels. It seems like the combination of costs and immediate need outweighed brand loyalty. (For example, my favorite cobia bucktail/eel rod is a Shimano Teramar, yet I didn't use one until I had a custom rod built for a pier and bought a Vega for boat fishing.)
I am interested in your thoughts. I am weighing selling off some gear and streamlining with more fewer, more flexible options. I haven't found much need for my Penn Spinfisher 6500 live liner (I use circle hooks, so I can just grab the spool to take care of the hook set) and may move it. I have a Okuma Cedros that I have barely used. I think I can find something else to handle the job.
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I sold everything I owned and went to Daiwa and I'll never look back they make the best bang for your buck fishing tackle IMO.
Inshore, bass, musky. Other than 1 rod is now all a small variety of middle of the road to upper middle end daiwa.
I only own two Daiwa products: my Daiwa 40-405 Ballistic Rod and a Daiwa Saltiga surf reel. Both were very expensive, however, both have performed admirably. My Saltiga could probably use a servicing.
I have loved Shimano Teramar rods when I have used them, and their Terez Waxwing rods were amazing and Shimano stopped selling them. I like my Stradic and the TLD's are a reliable classic for live baiting. However, their less expensive reels (IE anything under $160) have all been big disappointments going back to a 2005 or so era Sedonas. I bought a couple of Saharas and they were garbage.
Penn has been hit or miss. The Penn Squall is my surf casting reel of choice. The dial breaks are easy to use and I rarely blow the reel up. It isn't the best caster and has a very weak drag (12 pounds max.) I also only give them a couple of seasons before they get worn out. I have debated on trying the silver Daiwa Saltist or a Penn Fathom, but neither has the dial break system. I don't want to be taking apart the reel and messing with it.
For light tackle, I like my older St. Croix Triumph's. I would like to cycle them out for Tidemasters, but I haven't pulled that trigger yet. Years back I also bought a Carrot Stick with the idea of using it as a false albacore rod. The rod ended up being a very poor casting rod with very easily bent guides. I ended up putting one of my junker reels on it and I use it as a rod for fishing vertically off bridges and piers for spots and other bottom fish. If I could get my money back for it, I would have done it yesterday.
If I only could buy one type of rod for all my applications, I would buy a bunch of Teramars. I don't own one, yet they are strong, affordable, and not overly heavy like most strong less expensive saltwater rods.
If I am in the market now, I think I would want a 7 1/2 foot medium heavy for rockfish and larger bottom fish like sea mullet, and maybe a 7 foot medium fast action for plugging. From a reel, I need a 3000 or 2500 sized reel with a fast retrieve ratio and a smooth drag for a plugging rod, and a sturdy 4000 sized reel with a little extra drag for bridge and bottom fishing.
I have too many 5000-6000 sized spinning reels. They are starting to take up too much room.
Yeah that's almost exactly 3 of my Daiwa set ups. Daiwa Procyon rod with a Daiwa Fuego 3000
I have this set up in M with 2500, MH with 3000 (x2), and H (Actually the saltist rod) with a 4000.
Those Fuego's are second to non for the price. 25lbs sealed drag super smooth $90-$100
Is TKP your timeline? ;^)
You are my peoples.
Since my world is fly fishing, my answer may not matter so much, but I own a wide variety of brands. Each of them seems to have their own positives and negatives on whatever they do. After 24 years of fly fishing, I've determined what combos are good so I seem to stick with those. I've actually turned down three companies that offered me to be on their pro staff, simply for the fact that I want to be able to fish whatever brand I want when I need to and not feel like I've got to post photos of X rod with Y reel as part of those agreements.
With regards to fishing (and fly rods in particular) it seems to me most of them cast similarly at this point, at least the high end gear. Everyone claims that theirs is the best, but its the fisherman that matters. Give me a shitty Cabela's 7 weight and I'm still going to catch a lot of redfish on it.
Lately, in life in general, I have been donating or selling off odds and ends that I don't use and it feels great to simplify and put some beer money in my pocket.
It is amazing that so many good fishermen who are media savvy that are out there, and yet the people making cash are bikini models fishing with KastKing on YouTube.
Ass sells, simply because guys want to look at it. I've become friends with a very good looking lady angler (this is the female preferred term) who is damn good at fly fishing. She keeps all of her clothes on and has 45k Instagram followers. Doesn't make any money on it, nor does she really want to, but she has only ever been asked once to utilize her likeness to sell products. It's astounding. Yet, Darcizzle, Vicky Stark and Fishing with Luiza could sell a fly rod if they wanted to just based on the size of their bikinis, even though none of them can fly cast worth shit.
I've looked into it a lot, and it really is difficult to make money in the outdoors industry actually selling/marketing products. Those girls make money from youtube channels and calendar sales, and by all means, good for them! I would too if I could. Even the best anglers have a hard time making ends meet when it comes to promotion. It's just the way it is.
Also, I just realized, I own seven spin rods and five of those reels are Penn. They are the only ones I use, so you could say I'm brand loyal to Penn Reels.
My heavier spinning reels besides my Saltiga surf and my Cedros (which I don't use and would be happy to sell) are all Penn.
Just curious, what size are they?
6500LL and a 65 Cedros- both spinning reels
Phleuger reels! Great value here. I started using their casting reels for bass fishing and am very pleased.
St. Croix and TFO rods only. Quantum and Pflueger reels. Always had a loyalty to Stren line as well, nothing else has ever been on my reels.
Lamiglas and Daiwa make up most of my arsenal. The stuff I had on the New seems to have transitioned quite well to the salt, though the reels are starting to protest. I used Daiwa rods before guiding, got on the Lamiglas guide program and absolutely love their rods, especially the bass rods.
Daiwa reels were very good to me in my business, as well. I am still using 16 year old Capricorns and my TDX baitcaster is still cranking. We're talking about reels that served my clients as well as myself, so not casual use.
Talked with a reel repair guy one time who said the most repairs he performed were on Penn reels. He wasn't a fan, but admitted that one reason for the volume was the ubiquity of Penn in the salt water market. Times and techniques change, though. I have so much gear from the past that I'm hesitant to buy anything new until I have nothing that will suffice, though. And money doesn't flow like it did in my working days.
Does Daiwa make a saltwater inshore spinner that has a high rate of retrieve? The Saltist is only 5.6 feet per crank, while the Stradic gets 6.0. That means less work for a lazy guy like me (although my catch rate was higher with the slower cranking and more erratic action, I err on the side of lazy.)
French, you know me. I'm still living on freshwater stuff from 15 years ago and more. The only saltwater stuff I've bought was for bigger fish, and even that doesn't get much use from me. The cobia for sure, but otherwise, the bay doesn't really give up big fish with any regularity except for eeling at Cape Charles for the big stripers. As for inshore stuff, I have a couple of Quantums that were highly touted, but are pretty pedestrian to me and I won't recommend them though their salt water protections seem solid. Most of my inshore fishing is done jigging anyway, and rate of retrieve is not an issue, so I haven't paid much attention to that.
Edit: My Quantums are Cabos, a 3000 and a 4000.
I buy whatever feels good. I'm the guy who stood in the rod aisle waving around every rod I could to see which ones I liked. Same for reels. I turn them all, see which ones I like.
Right now, my makeup is Daiwa, Shimano, Browning, and Pflueger.
My friend Chuck who is a well known fisherman, recommended Pfluegers to me for an old client of mine looking for a small reel. I got it for him, and while I haven't used it, it sure looks good, feels good, and has some salt resistance. I apologize for not having the name off hand, but if Chuck likes something, it's usually worth liking.
I have a bunch of penn spinning reels. 2 are the cheapest they make which have done fine. I dunked one in saltwater once and has been fine with washing off with fresh water. Got the conflict ii 2500 and that has done well. Battle II 5000 hasn't had a ton of action other than a couple catfish and some wreck fish jigging. Squall for surf fishing.
I really like my star rod stellar lite medium power fast action rod. I'm going to get another one in medium heavy for working topwaters. Got a termar medium heavy combo with abu garcia baitcaster for jigging nearshore wrecks for flounder.
I personally haven't fished with anything long enough to wear it down so I can't comment on durability. Except for my 30 dollar ugly stik combo. Caught my first puppy drum, bass, rainbow trout, catfish on that combo. Too much saltwater to the reel to keep going. Inshore wise, get a 100 dollar price range rod with a stiff tip with a decent 2500 or 3000 series reel. Nothing is going to test you that much and really tear up your tackle. You can target so many different species with just that setup. Any of the more specialized fishing (chumming for cobia, jigging offshore, offshore trolling) gear costs seems to rack up and you don't want to skimp on tackle because you are dealing with larger fish. Also hurts the wallet because I don't use it as much as my inshore stuff.
My biggest equipment failure- in the middle of a hyper hot drum bite, my old Bass Pro Oceanmaster12H conventional rod cracked right below where the little section inserted into the big section. Two cracks parallel about 4 inches long. I never found out who built those Oceanmaster blanks for Bass Pro. While they were good starter rods, NEVER AGAIN.
(However, I got 4 that day on my spinner.)
How about hooks? I have never settled on a brand. I always used cheap little eagle claws for bait fishing. Gamas and Owner SSWs for drum and cobia. And I don't really think much in between (although I always wonder if being more selective about hooks after I lose a fish, which happened a bunch when I got my one shot to fish for cobia this summer.)
A few months ago I was told that most hooks are made by the same two companies in China, who then ship the hooks to different companies in Japan, who brand them and then market them as their own in the US. I have no reason to doubt the source of that info, but I do think there are several smaller companies that have popped up and are starting to grow.
Always Trokar or Gamatsu for me. That said I've found places that sell hooks in bulk so if youre like me and have a set of sizes you mainly use each year I buy a couple big packs and thatll be enough for the year typically. Do-It is the company I buy from at the moment if you get their catalog they list all the hooks they carry from circle hooks to wide gap worm hooks and the prices are great.
https://store.do-itmolds.com/Hooks_c_20.html
Keeping in mind that I'm exclusively a light tackle, spinning, in-shore guy...
I was a fan of All-Star rods until Academy apparently bought their soul.
The last 5 rods I've purchased are Fenwick HMGs. The HMG is very much a tournament quality inshore rod (I say this because I know someone who wins tournaments with them) for around a hundred bucks. The current version is a step up in quality from the previous and they kept the same price point. I suspect they figured out they weren't the hot girl anymore and needed to make a change.
Those HMGs and a couple Falcon rods I bought for fishing under docks (and stepping on in Kayaks) are paired with Shimano 2500 series reels. You don't have to spend on a Stradic to get a very decent Shimano reel. The Symetre was a workhorse. The Ultegra seems to be at the same level...light, effortless retrieve, smooth drag, and easy to maintain. I can break down, clean and grease a Shimano spinning reel in about 20 minutes...without removing the side plate.
That Shimano endorsement aside, I think there are some very good reels out there for less $ and if one is willing to regularly maintain a reel, it should last.
Finally...be honest...does anyone really care if Ms. Arahill can fish or not?
Primarily surf fish...most of my reels are Penn Battle, various sizes. I've been fishing with them since 2011 right after Hurricane Irene...long story, but this is when I had to replace a lot of my equipment. Haven't had an issue with these reels since. If one of my crappy reels fails, it'll be replaced with another Penn Battle. Nice price point and quality.
Most of my rods are Tica. Can't go wrong with these...a little on the pricey side I think, but high quality.
Can't say I've ever seen an ad for either of these brands. Don't read fishing magazines. I walk into the tackle shop, and look for them.
Reels: Shimano for salt, Abu-Garcia/Lew's for fresh. In fly fishing I prefer Redington reels because they aren't too expensive, and I have never had an issue with them.
Rods: I love St. Croix's Mojo Bass series for freshwater, I have a few of those along with Duckett's. Saltwater I've used just about everything, but I like Daiwa's. For fly fishing Sage's are phenomenal and I only have ever had one, but it was worth the dough.
Hooks/Bait: Gomakatsu hooks only for me, just a confidence thing I guess. Damn Yamamoto has me by the balls on worms (especially for smalljaws); I just have no confidence throwing anything else (PLEASE HELP ME). Gulps on inshore saltwater, can pretty much target everything on them.
You could save a fortune if you switched to yum dingers theyre 4,5,6 inch worms just like a senko and a hell of alot cheaper and hold up just fine. I use them all year long in large quantities. That said im trying to make my own to give myself a slight edge on heavily fished waters.
Agree with much of what you said. Gamakatsu hooks are very good, and about all I used for my sinking worm presentations. Sharp as all get out and reliably made. As for the Yamamoto products, I loved them, but one of the good things about them, their softness, is also one of the bad things about them from a guiding perspective. Luckily, Yum Dingers worked just as well as Senkos in my go to daily summer rigging, cost less and held up enough better to make a difference. Dingers also come in a bunch of very useful colors and it was easier to hone in on just the right one for the conditions of the hour. They are also much softer than the Bass Pro Stik-o, but there were a couple of useful colors in that offering as well.
I was introduced to Yamamoto when Gary made the twin tailed skirted grub and sent some east for my friend Chuck Kraft to test out. You couldn't buy them yet, and they were so popular amongst the smallmouth and the redeyes that it was hard to keep them whole. Chuck even figured out a way to operate on them with heated implements and was able to re-attach tails and repair hook holes, somewhat, until he could talk Gary into sending him more. I used to spend a fair amount of time in Utah and always wanted to look him up, but never got back to Flaming Gorge and missed the moment.
As for Gulp, it has consistently eaten up most of the annual money I spend for salt water bait. Nothing, and I do mean nothing even comes close. Some smart Hokie needs to seriously study this issue, come up with something just as good for half the price and that Hokie would be able to retire almost immediately.
Sibiki rigs- I like the cheap Marathons, Size 17LB mono main line and 10lb dropper lines to the flies. The other ones are too bulky for when a spot bite starts. With the marathons, I can just tip the rig with some bloodworm fishbites and go to town.