Cheap Rods & Gear You Are Proud to Own

[osprey]

I have to say my Dads' vintage 7 1/2' Shakespear Wonderod complete with Perrine automatic reel and level Cortland 6 wt line.

 

[bikerfish]

I think my steelhead outfit certainly qualifies!!

 

[PennKev]

bikerfish wrote:
I think my steelhead outfit certainly qualifies!!

Only to be outdone by your small stream bamboo rig....

 

[osprey]

AAAHA!! bikerfish........you didn't tell me about your "small stream bamboo set up" at the jam , the rule is i show you mine you show me yours , YOU know that.

 

[bikerfish]

dammit kev!!! that was supposed to be secret!!LOL! osprey, just a little 3 wt I built up with a mid and tip sections from an old rod. tried out a bunch of sections by taping on guides and a reel till I got one that was "magic"! might do another this winter, after my glass builds are done. and yeah, it was cheap, I had recycled everything from old rods and made a reel seat spacer out of an oak dowel rod. the thing is just awesome casting dries from 3 to 30 ft. I use a nylon furled leader and it will just cast some of the leader if that is all i want it to do. makes a brook trout feel like a real champ as well!

 

[osprey]

I built a 6' Orvis Golden Eagle glass rod for my first build , from a kit , was $29.00 at the time , which was big bucks then , i still use it on brookie streams i'm not familiar with , ambush fishin' LOL In fact i used it just last week......no luck that day.

 

[gfen]

greenghost wrote:
A newer $35 Pflueger 1495 -- I cut part of the back out in a crescent shape for additional finger drag when I fish for hybrid stripers. Works like a charm.

I was going to go ahead and update this thread with my absolute favourite toy, going so far as to plop it on the seat next to me to take a picture of it and my beater rod, which I've come to (mostly) love.

And, I figured I'd see what I said before, so I saw this stick out.

I kinda figured I was the only one ridiculous enough to undertake this in an age of $30, large arbour disc drag reels, but I guess not.

Used 1495AK, couple hours with a dremel and some sand paper, and a trip to the craft store gave me what I figured was one of the few new make "old school" Medalists around.

Its fun. I also took the liberty of expoxying a counterbalance to the spool, and this thing rides on my 5 and 6wts all the time now.

My other favourite "junk" is the Eagle Claw Featherlight, 5/6 7' glass rod. $22 at Sprawlmart, rides naked around the back of my truck with no fear of damage or abuse, coz it cost me $20 and is made of nigh-indestrucable fiberglass.

Could be longer, though. I'd prefer it that much more if it were 8'6".

 

[bikerfish]

nice job on the reel gfen! I saw the closeups on the glass forum. love the counterweight!
I should pick up on of those eagle claws, last thing I need, but they ARE 20 bucks!! hell, that's cheaper than some stripping guides I buy!

 

[gfen]

bikerfish wrote:
I should pick up on of those eagle claws, last thing I need, but they ARE 20 bucks!! hell, that's cheaper than some stripping guides I buy!

I see there's an 8' 5wt version, $20.

I think I see an order in my future, I thought the 7'6" was a 4wt, and there was nothing longer.

 

[PennKev]

bikerfish wrote:
I should pick up on of those eagle claws, last thing I need, but they ARE 20 bucks!! hell, that's cheaper than some stripping guides I buy!

Yeah, even a crappy grade cork grip is gonna set you back $10-15.

Kev

 

[bikerfish]

heck, I might just break the piggy bank and buy the entire eagle claw "series"!

 

[PACOFRANSICO]

I got a eagle claw featherlight 7ft 5/6 at wally world. I think it was 19$. I wanted to experience a glass rod. This fit the bill cheap. I slammed the reel seat in the car door the first night I used it.I boiled the grifite real seat off and and installed a little better one.

I use it every now and then the soft action takes some gettin used to. But its nice to fish drys with.

 

[GlockMan]

Winston b2x

 

[WildTigerTrout]

I never thought of the Winston BIIX as cheap!

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

Speaking of good cheap gear, I picked up a Coleman MAX LED flashlight at Wal-Mart the other month and they are great! Less than Twenty bucks. They are a third of the cost of similar performance LED's.

These flashlights are small, tough, and powerful. Most of them take 3 AAA batteries and put out up to a powerful beam any where from 75-165 lumens. The LED lights don't need replaced and last a long time on a set of batteries compared to halogen bulbs.

I plan on buying up a few more before they start getting expensive, like all good things do. There are several models out and even the cheapest 75 lumen model is as powerful as my 3 cell maglite. Not bad for a flashlight 1" x 5" long.

 

[jayL]

JakesLeakyWaders wrote:
Speaking of good cheap gear, I picked up a Coleman MAX LED flashlight at Wal-Mart the other month and they are great! Twenty bucks. They are a third of the cost of similar performance LED's.

These flashlights are small, tough, and powerful. Most of them take 3 AAA batteries and put out up to a powerful beam any where from 75-165 lumens. The LED lights don't need replaced and last a long time on a set of batteries compared to halogen bulbs.

I plan on buying up a few more before they start getting expensive, like all good things do. There are several models out and even the cheapest 75 lumen model is as powerful as my 3 cell maglite. Not bad for a flashlight 1" x 5" long.

I cannot bring myself to like LED flashlights. The light doesn't strike me as nearly as "bright". I have found that incandescent light gives me MUCH better visibility.

Maybe I'm just stubborn, but that platinum blue light does nothing for me.

 

[pcray1231]

Regarding cheap gear and flashlights, I got a Task Force flashlight at Lowes that just blows away anything else I've had in brightness. It has one of the 3W CREE LED bulbs. Takes 2 C-batteries and isn't big and heavy like a mag-light, but its not a tiny light either. I forget the exact price but I'm thinkin mid $20's. In deer season, it was side by side with many "traditional" bulbs, including much larger more expensive mag lights, all lights with new batteries. It put them all to shame. You can't adjust the beam, though, and it is a beam.

I mean, truly, it's ridiculously bright. If you want a bright light I highly recommend. Jay, I can let you try it sometime if you want.

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

Jay,

some of the newer ones have a more yellowish light to them, although the blue/white beam takes some getting used to, the newer lights are getting very powerful.

Most LED's were 3 - 10 lumens per bulb, now they are anywhere from 60 to 200 per bulb and the light distribution is perfectly even.

I still prefer my maglite solitaire penlight for times when I don't want to light the whole forest up. It's bright enough to see the next few steps in the dark.

Edit: pcray, that's what the colemans use, the big CREE LED's. And Jay, buyer beware, most of the LED lights are cheap and only put out 10-15 lumens. The newer LED's however they blow full sized maglites away, if you get a decent one. Most of them now tell you the output in lumens on the package.

 

[pcray1231]

Edit: pcray, that's what the colemans use, the big CREE LED's.

Box claims 150 lumens from the Task Force. If its the same bulb as your Coleman, I'd assume the difference is in powering it with 2 C's instead of AA's? I don't pretend the Task Force is a nice flashlight. It feels kinda cheap, it started flickering for a while till I adjusted the contacts (probably ruined its waterproofing doing so), and I'd really like to be able to adjust the beam. But dang, that LED is frickin powerful!

I bought it kind of by accident. My old truck's headlights died while at Lowes, it was dark, and I correctly suspected a fuse, but had no light or needlenose pliers in the car to change it out. LIke I said, I was at Lowe's, so I went in and picked up what I needed, and then proceeded to almost blind myself, lol. Turns out, 2 good grad-student friends from PSU now work at CREE designing new, brighter LED's. Cool!

 

[Acristickid]

Archaic? Rarely use a light but when I do it is a head lamp. I see these people that bring giant lanterns camping and laugh to myself. Headlamp is all I ever seemed to need- then again I am not playing cards on the picnic table. Usually too busy bs'ing or drinking but likely both.