Choosing the Best Fishing Rod and Reel Combo: Maximize Your Catch and Save Money

How to choose the right rod and reel combo for your budget and improve your fishing success

Get big results without breaking the bank! This beautiful bass shows the power of a well-chosen rod and reel combo, proving you don’t need to spend over your budget to to find fishing success. / Kurt Mazurek

Choosing the best fishing rod and reel combo doesn’t have to break the bank. For bass anglers who want to level up their bass fishing gear without paying premium prices, one clever trick is to “mismatch” your setup by focusing your investment on the rod over the reel. This approach offers significant performance gains and lasting durability.

I would add a general disclaimer that I’m talking about rods and reels at $100 and up. That seems like the magical price point where manufacturers are able to provide gear that performs well and should be reasonably reliable. And I know that for lots of people a $200 dollar combo is a tall order, but it’s a good starting point for gear that should give you several seasons of trouble free fishing.

TO SEE THIS ROD AND REEL STRATEGY IN ACTION, CHECK OUT THIS QUICK VIDEO BELOW:

Why Prioritize Your Fishing Rod?

Whereas a fishing rod is basically just a super nice stick—no moving parts, so how refined and complicated could it be? But that is an incorrect assumption.

Again, any rod over $100 will work just fine. But unlike reels, the return on your rod investment is more in your favor. Better rod blank materials, engineering and craftsmanship result in better sensitivity, more accurate casting, lighter overall weight, and more “assistance” when fighting a fish. Once you’ve tested a couple levels of rods side-by-side, these factors become obvious fairly quickly.

Choosing the Reel: Quality Without Overspending

Part of what throws the less experienced off the trail for making the best possible purchase, is that fishing reels seem like cool looking, complex pieces of machinery with multitudes of finely machined parts meshing together with unimaginable precision. And actually, they are. But that doesn’t tell the whole story as it applies to the fishing experience.

Like I mentioned, above the $100 price point, you’ll find reels that are absolutely capable of reeling in your fish and feature good material quality, durability and smooth, dependable drag. If you invest more money in the reel, yes, you will get a better reel—smoother, longer lasting, farther casting—but the return on investment is on a decreasing curve. How much smoother will it need to be to make it a significant factor in your catch ratio?

Putting Together the Best Fishing Rod and Reel Combo

In most cases, I would put more emphasis on and invest more budget into a higher-end rod, and spend less on the reel. / Shimano

For a specific example, say the budget for your new spinning combo is $400, with maybe a little wiggle room, of course. Since most manufacturers seem to combo their own gear using an approximate 50/50 split of the rod vs reel value, so do most people when building their own combo. Looking at the Shimano lineup, you might consider one of the Shimano Curado rods at just under $200, matching it with a Shimano Stradic FL reel, also at $200. And I’m not saying that’s not a sweet combo that wouldn’t work well. I’m sure you’d love it and I’d love it too.

But I’m suggesting that you’d get the most out of your fishing experience by looking at a next-level rod—something from the Expride lineup. Yes, you’re in for $280, but that’s going to be a rod that even the most experienced, professional, tournament anglers use. You’ll experience first hand the improved sensitivity, etc., I mentioned earlier.

But Kurt, now you only have $120 left for a reel. I know when you look at how sexy that Expride rod is, a lot of guys will think it’s a must to match it up with a Vanford, or even an Exsense, and they wouldn’t be wrong. If you have the means, go for it. But in order to keep us in the range of our budget, I would suggest that a Shimano Miravel spinning reel is going to give you everything you need and keep you aligned with your budget. In fact, a lot of the features now considered standard in this one-hundred-twenty-something dollar reel, were just a few years ago available only in their top-of-the-line offerings.

With this "mismatched" approach, you’ll end up with bass fishing gear that "punches way above its weight class," offering an enhanced fishing experience without overspending.