Does el-cheapo do the job..?

[ifishcq1]

As Spears said you can always buy a good quality reel second hand and stay within a certain budget

There is a huge market in used gear and if you know what you want it is easy to get a bargain

Over the last few years I have slowly got a fair kit together and every thing I have catches fish
as for using $1500 outfits I reckon we should have a competition with 3 different ranges of gear... cheap, medium and rich
the results should be fair and I know from experience that the winner will more likely to come from the medium priced outfits
That should sort the fishers from the posers

Cheers
SL

[banshee]

............... I know from experience that the winner will more likely to come from the medium priced outfits
That should sort the fishers from the posers.......

Cheers
SL

A statement that is derived from a considerable lack of the forementioned 'experience'.......in my opinion.

[ifishcq1]

A statement that is derived from a considerable lack of the forementioned 'experience'.......in my opinion.

what would you even begin to know about my experience

if you think I am wrong you prove me wrong

well banshee you will never know if you don't put up or shut up

I have runs on the board to backup anything I say from 40+ years in the fishing industry including pro reef and mackerel, won and placed in all divisions in a major barra comp and held several state and national barra records and still hold the current broad barred or grey mackeral record that still is the biggest ever weighed in on any size tackle and a heap more all on medium priced gear and reasonable priced tackle

now smart .... your turn

[banshee]

How many $1500 outfits do you own?

[ifishcq1]

How many $1500 outfits do you own?

banshee

This rings to the sounds of nothing

I do have a couple of expensive outfits but the main every day gear I use is medium priced gear

I don't know you but I would bet you work in a tackle shop and have very little history of actually catching a fish but probably your gear looks the best

you probably even wear the latest name stuff so that you look the prettiest while dangling on your newest shimano product the rep told you would be the best

the biggest baddest fish you ever landed was most likely a bass you probably live in nsw and travel big distances to try and prove you are the man


You have nothing mate

[banshee]

Yeah you got me,I do work in a tackle shop and there are a lot of blokes that can fish me under the table (every day I meet the worlds greatest fisherman and sometimes the scales and guts are so thick on the other side of the counter that it's to slipery to stand up) but unfortunately I have to buy my gear and I'll post a couple of pics for you to show you my trendy gear....please note that I realy go all out in the finest Columbia when I mix it with the bass scene

[spears]

Since the poll brings in 3 levels of:

Cheap…$
Best you can afford ..???...$
Top shelf (& top dollar)… $

With so many combinations of rods and reels at various prices.
Every one has their own opinion of what prices each level above would be at $ value.

So how do I read these 3 options.
Cheap combo… $150
Best I can afford ..is something that is wide open for that answer
Top shelf… I see as $2200.00
But for what type of fish are we going for.? To warrant a price.

Now I’m starting to get confused trying to make sense

[banshee]

Since the poll brings in 3 levels of:

Cheap…$
Best you can afford ..???...$
Top shelf (& top dollar)… $

With so many combinations of rods and reels at various prices.
Every one has their own opinion of what prices each level above would be at $ value.

So how do I read these 3 options.
Cheap combo… $150
Best I can afford ..is something that is wide open for that answer
Top shelf… I see as $2200.00
But for what type of fish are we going for.? To warrant a price.

Now I’m starting to get confused trying to make sense

There is only one answer to the question put foreward in the poll,and that is 'B' ,there is absolutely no point in being pissed off or scoffing at someone else for their choice of gear.It's a fact of life that one mans trash will be another mans treasure I think it's best that people understand this and concentrate on enjoying their own game (with the best gear they can afford).

[PNG1M]

Hmmm yeah...this thread is kind of becoming a bit pear shaped.
I almost wasn't game to submit another post because...(baah, not really so here goes):

Yesterday I bought 2 beach fishing set-ups (for myself & for 'She who must be obeyed')

For Me: Wilson 10ft (Kilwell blank) beach rod 6-10kg for $120.00 + Penn Slammer 560 $179 = Total $299.00

For She who must be obeyed: Silstar 10ft Powertip $88.00 + Penn Spinfisher 6500 for $99.00 = Total $187.00

Combined Total: $486.00

WHY did I buy those particular mix n match outfits? For the simple reason that my maximum allocated budget was $500 bucks for both set-ups (excluding line & terminals etc)

I shopped around and bought the best gear I could afford based on:
a) the type of fishing we'd be doing & likely frequency of use
b) my expectations of the gear - ie for recreational fishing but confident it'd do the job
c) choosing the best gear I could identify based on our respective angling needs

Since my fishing is a tad more serious than my wife's and I'll be spending more time fishing, my equipment cost more than hers as I considered it to be a bit more specific to what I was after (when considering the budget)

I could have got myself a Spinfisher 7500 for $99.00 but decided to upgrade to the Slammer as I had heard some good Ausfishers reports about the Slammers.
As the combined total still fell under the $500 allocation I didn't mind spending the extra (plus a voice in my head told me I had to get one)

I don't consider the gear I bought to be el-cheapo as if I wanted to go "bottom dollar" just for the sake of it I could've got two rod n reel combos for less than $100 each (and would've tried not to end up standing next to an accomplished fisho with decent equipment when using it) I can just imagine the cheesy grins!

For a truly top shelf beach set up you could pay up to or more than $1000 for a reel and well over $500 for a rod. I suspect that only an extremely dedicated & committed enthusiast would pay that much.

But what 'top dollar & top shelf' means to me might be different to what others think top shelf is.

I thought I had some pretty top shelf baitcasting gear eg Black Sheep 300 and Calcutta TE Conquest 300 reels (among others) at $400+ each and $250 - $300 rods to match them. But to some anglers, that isn't top dollar nor top shelf - it's more upper mid-range - but it's still darn close to top shelf for me.

I reckon we best keep it to "each to his own" although I do believe that in general if you buy cheap you'll end up buying again...and again...(it's happened to me before with sunnies and even bloody vacuum cleaners) so why not buy better quality in the first place!

In the poll I voted 'buy the best gear you can afford' or more accurately 'the best quality gear you can find, that suits your purpose and that fits within your budget' - as long as you can get to wet a line and enjoy using it - that's the main thing isn't it?

Now...where's that frothy chop gone!?

[spears]

This is my experience owning a so called top end reel (saltiga).

A saltiga 4500 is classed as a good reel by most people who know the brand and this reel can take quite a hammering with good quality drag.
It’s heavy but solid,not the smoothest of reels when turning the handle due to tight tolerance build.
This size holds a reasonable amount of line especially spooling it with braid.

So after owning it for a while I decided to sell it..this was about 14 months ago.
I list it in a fishing forum for $400 which I thought it should go within a few hours which included a few pictures..
The anti reverse bearing was getting a little noisy but still held it’s ground.

MO_tack currently sell these today for $975 plus $12 for posting.
2-3 days pass and nothing so I join another forum and list it their for the same price,after a few days nothing.
Ended up in 3 forums and after 3-4 weeks it’s sold and posted interstate.

Now who would have ever thought of a reel which gets mentioned in so many forums for it’s overall features and quality that I couldn’t move it quickly.
I expected to get 2-3 replies within a day fighting over it at that price and after the first week I even considered it as a lemon for resale value.

Which brings me back to the current situation re-quality reels to buy and use.

Would you have jumped at that reel at less than half price..?
Hundreds looked at it on line but know one came running at me with cash in their hand.
Which only leaves me thinking how many $1000 reels go flying out the tackle stores cause you need to own the best for what ever reason.

Now just think about what you’ve just read.
A bargain One of the worlds best and most recognized brand names couldn’t get sold for weeks with a $600 saving.

A conclusion which is my own opinion only is that the regular (once a week) fisherman would mostly buy reels up to the medium price range and not very many at all go to the top end stuff.

[Bruce_Bogtrotter]

This is my experience owning a so called top end reel (saltiga).

A saltiga 4500 is classed as a good reel by most people who know the brand and this reel can take quite a hammering with good quality drag.
It’s heavy but solid,not the smoothest of reels when turning the handle due to tight tolerance build.
This size holds a reasonable amount of line especially spooling it with braid.

So after owning it for a while I decided to sell it..this was about 14 months ago.
I list it in a fishing forum for $400 which I thought it should go within a few hours which included a few pictures..
The anti reverse bearing was getting a little noisy but still held it’s ground.

MO_tack currently sell these today for $975 plus $12 for posting.
2-3 days pass and nothing so I join another forum and list it their for the same price,after a few days nothing.
Ended up in 3 forums and after 3-4 weeks it’s sold and posted interstate.

Now who would have ever thought of a reel which gets mentioned in so many forums for it’s overall features and quality that I couldn’t move it quickly.
I expected to get 2-3 replies within a day fighting over it at that price and after the first week I even considered it as a lemon for resale value.

Which brings me back to the current situation re-quality reels to buy and use.

Would you have jumped at that reel at less than half price..?
Hundreds looked at it on line but know one came running at me with cash in their hand.
Which only leaves me thinking how many $1000 reels go flying out the tackle stores cause you need to own the best for what ever reason.

Now just think about what you’ve just read.
A bargain One of the worlds best and most recognized brand names couldn’t get sold for weeks with a $600 saving.

A conclusion which is my own opinion only is that the regular (once a week) fisherman would mostly buy reels up to the medium price range and not very many at all go to the top end stuff.

personally, as it wasn't that old, i'd be suspicious that it had something wrong with it & you were just trying to unload it asap..thats just me..maybe others think that way as well..

[spears]

Not too sure if they were as I didn’t even get asked one question in regards of a faulty reel.
I had pick up was available as an option.

[reidy]

I have never paid more than $200 for a fly rod or $120 for a fly reel and have caught thousands of trout over the years and never been let down by my tackle.

And I can cast far better than most despite my cheap (but good quality) gear.

The fly fishing market is probably the most over hyped of all.

Isn't that to true
Reidy

[squizzytaylor]

This is a very interesting thread and an excellent insight into the psychy of the Australian fisho.
A few here have been quick to dismiss the Loomis/Stella level products as overkill and perhaps "image" products. I ask how many of you though have ever fished with this level product ?
My rod and reel collection is around 90% Shimano (reels are all Symetre and Stradic, rods are a mixture but none are worth more than $200) which are far from the top of the range, however I have been lucky enough in the past to have used friends Loomis, Egrell etc rods and top shelf reels and in all honesty I can say that the control you have over a fish and the overall confidence increase with the better rods and reels is far superior to the gear I generally use, can I justify $600 for a rod and $800 for a reel?....no way, but good luck to the guys that can and I do honestly believe that most of them reap the benefits of the upmarket gear.
For me its all about value for money and finding that sweet spot between price and quality however I would love to have an arsenal of top shelf gear.

Cheers
Geoff

[JimInCairns]

I'm a great believer in 'You gets what you pays for'!

With very few exceptions, the better-quality rods and reels end up saving you money in the long run.
Shimano Stellas, Daiwa Saltigas and the newer S-Extreme will last for a lifetime with a little TLC and regular maintenance.