Mine is a Berkley Lightning rod with an old Shimano reel on it. I guess it is my favorite first rod because my first experience with it was landing a 10lbs 3oz Walleye when I was 5 years old. I have keep the rod to hand down to my son. To be completely honest....If I win this months giveaway, could you fix the reel seating on that very same rod rather than give me another? Just asking.

My was a Zebco 202 combo my father bought for each of my three brothers. It was the first combo that we each had of our own. Lots of great summer fishing trips with that combo. I still have it to this day.

I know that I had a few spincast combo's as soon as I was old enough to cast a rod but my favorite rod when I was a kid was my first spinning setup. As soon as I was old enough to cast a spinning reel my dad gave me an old Fenwick Blackhawk that had a shakespeare reel on it. I fished everything from walleyes on Mille Lacs to rainbows out in Colorado with that rod and have landed countless fish. I still have the rod and it will probably be sitting in my house for a long time to come because of the sentimental value it has.

my favorite rod, would have to be my caddis creek fly rod i got a couple years ago.

that rod has taken a HUGE beaten, guides have litterally fallen off, and the tip is missing 6".

and it is still catching fish!
just some of the fish







i am retiring it as soon as the lakes freeze over, and i will hang it up, with a whole bunch pictures of fish i caught with it.

my favorite rod and reel combo is either my tica on my st.croix ice fishing rig or my calcutta 400 te on my compre muskie rig

ohhh..... FIRST favorite combo.. definitely wasn't what i mentioned before. my FIRST favorite combo was either my red Zebco combo (i think the reel said devil or something), or my berkley lightning rod and reel ice fishing combo i got as my first ice fishing rig(which i still use as my #2 rod today)

My first favorite combo has to be my Berkley UL Lightning rod with a Quantum reel. I still use it as my backup rod but I usually let my non fishing friends or wife use it.

My first muskie combo...
A Thorne Bros 6'3"Jerk Bait with a Abu 5500. My daughter uses it now and her little brothers will use it when they start muskie fishing.

My current favorite (meaning it was 12 years the last time I fished prior to this year) is my Cabelas Fish Eagle 2 rod medium light and a Cabelas tournament zx reel. It is nice and light, casts easy and sensitive. I mainly target walleye, but it catches panfish, and small mouth just as well.

Wow, that question poses a trip back thru time--to the early high school years. My first favorite, which is purely based on sentimental value and not actual performance is a 7' Berkeley Buccaneer painted yellow fiberglass spinning rod/reel combo. This is the first rig that I bought with my allowance back around 1972. I bought it for a fly-in fishing trip with my parents to Oak Lake up in Ontario and used it for fishing walleyes and northerns. Had pretty good luck with it but I do recall getting anxious with the slow jigging for 'eyes and urging my Dad to get the boat back over to the weed beds where the northerns were slamming the daredevil spoons. I just went out to my garage and looked at the combo - the reel is shot, but the rod is still very functional although I haven't used it since about 1980. It has been from Canada to Florida and back to the midwest. Handling it now, it feels like an ultralight fast action and I may have to pull her out of mothballs, throw another reel on her and see if she has any luck left in her.